texts:
Colloquially, people tend to speak in "shorter sentences" and leave out words like pronouns and verbs such as do, be and have, especially when it's clear who or what they're talking about. They might also omit whole phrases:

  Do you want me to try getting the shelf off for you?
  -------> Want me to try?

Another example:

  Are you sure you've got time?
  -------> Sure you got time?

Now, what are the shortened versions of the following sentences?

  Would you like a drink?

  Do you have any green tea?

Are they shortened in the same way as the examples below?

  Do you want a drink?
  -------> Want a drink?

  Have you got any green tea?
  -------> Got any green tea?


texts:
I encountered an expression:

  key benefits to using [something]

To my mind the version below would sound more natural:

  key benefits of using [something]

Are both versions correct? Is there any difference in meaning?


texts: Identifying parts of sentences with infinitive phrases

texts:
To help others is important.

In this sentence, 'To help' is the infinitive (being used as noun subject) and 'is' is the verb. What is the object ? 'Others' ? And is 'To help others' an infinitive phrase ? Since 'others' is explaining 'To help who ?'.

  I really need to eat something.

In this sentence, 'I' is the noun subject, 'really'is an adverb describing the verb 'need' and 'to eat'is the adverb describing the verb ? Or is it the noun object ? I am confused here.

  Joel wants a book to read.

'Joel' is the subject. 'Wants'is the verb. 'A book'is the object and 'to read' is the adjective describing 'book' ?

https://englishsentences.com/infinitive/ states 'book'as the subject. Am I missing something here ?

  Joel wants a book to read.

  In this sentence, the verb is “wants” and the subject is the noun    “book.”
  We also see the infinitive “to read.” What is the purpose of “to    read” in this sentence?
  It describes the book; Joel isn’t looking for just any book, he’s    looking for a book to read.
  In this sentence, the infinitive functions as an adjective

I would like to know if got all the parts of the sentences correct.

Thanks in advance.


texts: ‘We just need your umbrella’, what does it mean?

texts:
I am watching the video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuk1EhkEctE. It is about the israeli lobby in britain.

What does the israeli political officer mean by 'we just need your umbrella'?


texts: The use of "who has" or "who have" in a sentence

texts:
Consider the following example:

It is you who has taken the garbage out.

It is you who have taken the garbage out.

Does one use "has" or "have" in this sentence construction? Which of the two best fits? Which is grammatically correct?


texts: Is there a proper term to describe 1/3 of a year (4 months)

texts: I am looking for a proper single work term to describe one third of a calendar year.  Trimester does not seem correct as it seems to refer to a period of three months (one third of a pregnancy or one third of an academic year).


texts:
There are many speculative fiction pieces that are labeled "dystopian" and some "utopian".  Is there a specific word for the reasoned middle ground?

Please let me know if this is better suited to the SciFi and Fantasy Site instead.


texts: Morphological analysis of the formation of unhappier

texts:
I am an English student from Austria and have a question concerning morphology.

In the reading I did for one of my introductory courses on linguistics there was a chapter on the analysis of word-formation and which affixes get attached to the word first (in Plag et al. 2009). He explained it quite well that one should have a look at the meaning of the word to discern of how many components it consists. His example was 'unfearful' and it was easy to understand why fearful was formed first, after which the prefix un- can be added.

So, now I ask, what happens if you have a word like 'unhappier' which in my analysis consists of the adjective happy, a suffix for the comparative and a prefix for the negation. Is there any way to analyse whether unhappy or happier was formed first? Or is this a stupid question, because the comparative does not create a now word per se, rather changes it's grammatical function?


texts: What is a gentler word than "suspended" or "closed"?

texts: What word can show that an action is redeemable? Is there a synonym for closed/suspended that connotes a chance at redemption?


texts: Hemingway sentence coordinating clauses with commas

texts:
She had a great talent and appreciation for the bed, she was not
  pretty, but he liked her face, she read enormously, liked to ride and
  shoot and, certainly, she drank too much.

Is this sentence grammatical? If I were to recast this (not for literary improvement, but for testing my grammar knowledge) I'd write this:

  She had a great talent and appreciation for the bed; she was not
  pretty, but he liked her face; she read enormously, liked to ride and
  shoot and, certainly, she drank too much.

Is this correct? Can I construct a list and have it constitute a sentence? E.g., She had two dogs, wanted to run, and liked sleeping. What does Hemingway accomplish by constructing the sentence the way he did?


texts:
Lets say I'm describing a musical genre, like post-punk. I want to create a song that's so advanced past post-punk, that I want to call it post-post-punk. However, the double-post looks abhorrent and silly.

Is there anything that can represent this idea of having a double "post" prefix, or even double any prefix?


texts: Is there a rule to what ending you use when you construct the nationality adjective? Or where did the various endings come from?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Are there any rules governing what we call people from different countries?

In the English language, you have several endings used when you construct an adjective out of the name of a nationality. For example, the nationality of Japan is Japanese while the nationality of Korea is Korean.

Is there a grammar rule that decides what ending should be used? Or what did decide on what ending to use?

And is the -nese ending connected to Polynesia somehow? As the -nese endings seem concentrated in that area?


texts:
While discussing my thesis title with my thesis advisor the following came up

  Cement technology: Characterization**,** and applications in bridges and dams

I am concerned about a comma and I am not able to find the relevant rules to decide if the comma is correct or not. The reasoning seems to be that it could stand by itself 'Cement technology: Characterization' and the second part is a separate thing that also contains an 'and' and therefore has to be separated by a comma.

I am not a native speaker and for some reason the comma looks strange to me, can you dispel my doubts?


texts:
Do we use have to to express a strong probability? Are these sentences correct:

This suit can’t really cost $200.  This has to be a misprint. (to refer to the present possibility)
Food prices have to go down sooner or later. (to refer to the future possibility)
No one else could have taken my wallet – it had to be Sam.(to refer to the past possibility)

Have got to is more informal; is it possible to use it to refer to the past? (had got to)?


texts: Agreement With Compound Subjects Joined by And

texts:
I was surfing the internet the other day when I found this phrase:
Instead your precious time and attention is wasted.
To my ears, it sounds wrong. But I'm not a native English speaker, so I consulted with a number of them, and some of them said that it was "is" because the adjective modifies only the noun "time" and not "attention". Others said it "is" because that's just how it is.
But I still believe it should be "are". Any help is appreciated.


texts: What is a good way to put CyberBullying into an Etymology Paper?

texts:
I am doing an etymology paper and research paper on cyberbullying.
Etymology is a new word I neve hear of before. I am in for a surprise. (Been out of school for a while now) and have not taken English class in a while.
Any resources, help to type this paper would be greatly appreciated!


texts: I know that "past due" stamped on a bill is accepted, however I believe it should be "passed due".  Does this mean that "past due" is vernacularly correct and "passed due" is grammatically correct?


texts:
I'm composing a 'Contents' slide for presentation, and I cannot come up with a concise word to describe "What we have done" in one word. What do people commonly use to describe that in the contents section?

PS. It would also be great to know one-word expressions of these sentences: "What we are going to do", "What we should do", "What we found".

The presentation is to explain the progress and future plan of our project. In this context, the "What we have done" section is meant to explain what we have done and what the outcomes are. I considered the term "Progress", but I thought it lacks implying the 'past' events. (It's like something we are still doing rather than we have done.)

The "We are going to do" section would present the objectives or action items to do in future, and I'm currently using the term "Future plan". I just wondered it's good enough to seem like natural.


texts:
I have a question:
it's been months that I watch movies for improving my listening skill(it was quite awful:-D). now my question. I know that we should use "warlord" instead of "Lord of war" or "landlord" instead of "Lord of land" but I don't know why "The lord of the rings" is correct? isn't it better to use Ringslord ??? I meant how to know when I should use "of" ?


texts: "I will do it by Monday". Does it mean before the beginning or before the end of Monday?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Does “notified by [date]” include the end date?

When someone says "I will do it by Monday", does it mean that they will get it done

before the beginning of Monday or
before the end of Monday?


texts: Creative liberty or error in dropping "was"

texts:
This sentence is about the battle of Agincourt, and how the combat involved lifting up the visors on enemy soldiers' helmets to expose their faces. It reads

  That's how hundreds of men died; their last sight on earth a dagger's
  point.

It sounds a little awkward to me, but maybe I'm just not familiar enough with all the nuances of this writing style. Maybe it's grammatically correct, but to me I think I would add a "was" before "dagger's point"

Question: Is this an example of the author taking creative liberty with the sentence structure, or does this sentence structure belong to an existing convention, and if so what is that convention? Is it conventional to have an implied was?


texts: Why does the noun "assumption" lose the "p" when it goes to verb form: "assume?"

texts:
Nouns such as "consumption," "assumption," and "presumption" all have the letter "p" but their verb forms, "consume," "assume," and "presume" do not.

Why is that? Is there a simple linguistics reason?


texts: Synonym for busy/occupied that's something like "predisposed" or "undeposed"

texts:
There's a word that means "busy" that is similar to "predisposed" or "undeposed" - and now I can't remember it at all. An example usage would be "I'm going to be  till next Monday, so I can't make it."
I tried looking up synonyms but couldn't find it. It's possible that it doesn't exactly mean "busy" and that I attributed that meaning to it from context, but I'm still unable to figure out what the word could be.


texts: Is it possibly to say "take this" or "take that"?

texts: Sometimes could be see sentences like "take this one". And I don't know which one is correct.


texts: My dictionary defines the word spike as "if the number or rate of something spikes, it increases quickly and by a large amount." So I understand that if you said "inflation spiked upward," you would be saying "inflation rose upward sharply," which would be redandunt. However, if I google for "spiked upward," I find numerous examples (some of them written by authoritative sources) using this. Does this mean that "spike upward" does not have to be avoided? I would appreciate your comments.


texts:
I'm not talking about the basic items in a list (e.g. X, Y and Z), but a list of clauses (I think).

Example:

I am interested in things like going to this place, going to that place, eating food, and other things.
In that example, do the verbs have to match for proper grammar? What I learned in university writing class was that the entire series has to have verbs that match: going to this place, going to that place and going to eat.


texts: Meaning of "longago" (as an adjective) in a context

texts:
I think there's a slight ambiguity in the word longago in this context.

  the longago Deputy Speaker who was killed in the National Assembly when the furniture was flung at him by elected representatives. Source: Salman Rushdie - Shame (1983)

I can't figure out whether it means "the former Deputy speaker" or it means "Deputy speaker who died long time ago"

I found a word long-ago and its explanation in Merriam-Webster, but I'm not sure it's the same word.

Some background on events Salman Rushdie is referring to:

  Shahed Ali Patwary was a lawyer and prominent politician. He was elected as member of East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. In 1955 he was elected as Deputy Speaker. On 23 September 1958 he was injured in a fight in the assembly and died two days later.


texts: Why is "builded" an archaic variant of built, given that usually the language evolves the other way?

texts:
In one of the Nature articles related to Google n-grams site [1], as well as in the book [2], the authors describe (and quantify the rate of) the process of regularization of English irregular verbs.

The word "built" seems to have moved the other way, from regular to irregular, since I found the variant "builded" listed in a dictionary as archaic. Is there an explanation for this exceptional occurrence?

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06137
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Uncharted-Data-Lens-Human-Culture/dp/1594487456


texts: Phrase "raising _____" meaning to take an issue up one level to supervisors

texts:
I seem to remember a phrase, perhaps starting with raise or raising, meaning to take an issue (such as one mentioned in an email message) and involve the next level of responsible parties in a hierarchy of supervisors.

(raising up the chain?)

Does anyone know of such a phrase?


texts: What does "exit" mean when used in investment?

texts:
I read some blogs, there are something like "I invested 20 startups, among which 10 exit".

What does exit mean? Means the startup failed? broken?


texts: Is there one word for a technique that improves your concentration?

texts:
This is the sentence:

  It [Tratak] has a cleansing effect on the eyes, is concentrating and energizing.

I want to correct "concentrating" and replace it with one word which means "increasing your capacity to concentrate."

I'm making a distinction between a technique that uses concentration and a technique that improves concentration.

Is there such a word, and if so, what is it?


texts: Syncretism of plain primary and plain secondary in Huddleston’s verb paradigm

texts:
Rodney Huddleston argued that grammars should only allow for “inflectional distinction” between two forms of a verb when “there is at least one lexeme with a stable contrast in realisation between those two forms” (76). However, in the verb paradigm “with six forms” that he lays out, what he calls the primary plain form and the secondary plain form are syncretic in take, hit, and want, the examples he gives (74).

If “form” means the same thing on page 74 and 76, it seems like there must be a verb whose primary and secondary plain form varies, or else Huddleston wouldn’t have made them separate forms, by his own criterion.

Is there such a verb? (Or am I confused? (Or is Huddleston confused?))

Cited: Rodney Huddleston, “The verb” in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002, Cambridge UP).


texts: Are “Get” or “Grasp” stative or dynamic verbs?

texts:
In Merriam–Webster, the definition of understand is as follows:

  to get the meaning of something / to grasp the meaning of something.

Now my questions are regarding a sentence like:

  I don’t understand your instructions.

Is it grammatically correct if I rewrite this sentence with present simple, using get and grasp instead of understand?

  I don't get the meaning of your instructions.

  I don't grasp the meaning of your instructions.

Do these sentences express the same meaning?
I know understand is a stative verb but are get and grasp stative or dynamic verbs here? Would the sentence mean the same, if I used present continuous:

  I don’t understand your instructions?


texts:
I was reading an article by GrammarBook.com when the moderators used a term I had never heard of.

Out of is a phrasal preposition.

What is exactly a phrasal preposition? Is it when a preposition is forced to immediately follow another preposition?
While I'm at it, are in front of and on top of phrasal prepositions, too? Maybe you haven't noticed, but on top and in front both always take of when there is a noun.

I am on top [of you].
I am in front [of these people].
I am out [of here].
I walked out [of the building].

So what's up with this phrasal preposition business? Anybody familiar with the term?


texts: Understanding the "like" in "like father, like son"

texts: How do we understand the "like" in "like father, like son"? Is it an adjective? Or is it short for "is like"?


texts: The before proper name -> scientific product

texts:
I have scientific document which is about the hydrogel usage. There are two proper names of these hydrogels: 5B45 and 76AB. They are not bought on the market, they are produced from compounds in lab and given name for the recipe/product. Should I put the before the names as below:

The differences for investigated hydrogels the 5B45 and the 76AB are 2.5 and 4,6 °C and shown in the table below.

or should I omit it everywhere it the text?


texts:
While I'm not native English speaker, I often need to express myself in English.

For a week, I have been searching for a term which represents a kind of SQL query:

SELECT something FROM somewhere WHERE somethingElse IN (SELECT foo FROM bar)

It's a query within another (those in brackets). What term should I use to describe it?

A nested query
An embedded query
An included query
A sub-query
Another term?

Thanks,


texts:
Which is correct?

Example 1: We want to emphasize the importance of running, swimming, and dancing.

Example 2: We want to emphasize the importance of running, of swimming, and of dancing.


texts: Compact writing of "1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 36-month survival was analysed"

texts:
I have an academic paper abstract to write and it has very limited word count (150 words). I have to say that we analysed 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 36-month survival of the included patients in this paper.
Which of the following examples has the desired meaning?

(a) Patient 1- to 36-month survival was analysed.

(b) Patient survival  up to 36 months was analysed.

(c) Patient survival was analysed within 1 to 36 months.

(d) Patient survival between 1 to 36 months was analysed.

(e) Patient survival  until 36 months was analysed.

Or are there better ways for saying this?


texts:
If I say this:

  You don't have only what it takes to master English but all the languages.

For you, is it a compliment or an insult? The usage of "only" and "have" is a little bit confusing.


texts: What is the English word for just appearing to be dead

texts: There is the unfortunate medical condition of just appearing to be dead, and some times the condition had fatal consequences. What is the English expression for the condition.


texts: If a floor is raised or elevated, what's its opposite?

texts: In Japan, they raise the floor to indicate shoes must be taken off before stepping on the elevated floor. I need a word for the part of the floor that is not raised. Any suggestions?


texts: What is the past form of the modal verb "must"?

texts:
There are 9 modal verbs, and you can pair every two of them together to represent present and past forms, except must:

can ----› could

shall --› should

will ---› would

may ----› might

must ---› ????

So what's the past form of the modal verb must? Some people say it's had to, but I searched and found that had to isn't a modal verb, so what is it?


texts:
What's the difference between:
1) Get an/the impression
2) Give an/the impression
3) Make an/the important
4) Under an/the impression.

Example sentences would be really appreciated.
Thank you.


texts:
Good evening, I am in the midst of completing a poem and wrote the following line:
"The Owl halts its pecking of sweet-fruit"
My question is: would it be correct to say "its pecking of sweet-fruit" or "its pecking on sweet-fruit" etc.
I am just subtly confused on what word you would correctly and most harmoniously use.


texts:
What does the word "than" mean in the idiom "more often than not"?
It's not sensible for me.
Thanks a lot


texts:
Which one is correct?

Based on assumption C, there  exists an object A and two other objects D and E.
Based on assumption C, there  exist an object A and two other objects D and E.


texts:
Which of the two terms − "student employee" and "working student" − is more accurate and more common (in American English) when referring to a student who works for a salary at a private company (not university) alongside their studies? And is there any difference in the meaning?

Update:

A Google search I did before posting the question showed similar, high result counts (400-500k) for both terms. I also found both terms in dictionaries. This is part of why I am not sure which one is more commonly used.


texts: Need words to resolve the ambiguity of "interface" in OOP. It can mean either a type defined with the keyword "interface" or an object's accessibility

texts:
In some object-oriented programming languages, the keyword interface is used for declaring a type that defines how objects that implement (another keyword) it may accept messages (calls) from other objects.  These types declared with the keyword interface end up being called interfaces themselves.
However, some objects do not implement an interface but also accept messages (again, calls) from other objects.  This is defined simply by what the object makes publicly visible.  This is also commonly called the object’s interface, even though there is no separately defined type for it.
Using the same term for two distinct but related concepts makes writing about them difficult.  I have seen explicit interface used to mean the first kind.  However, in C♯ this term has a different meaning than what I’m discussing here: there it means package disambiguation.
I need two different terms for these so that I can separately refer to these two distinct concepts in a way that always makes clear which of the two senses I mean, and I need this pair of terms to work for every object-oriented programming language that exists.
A little background for clarity
When Java, and later C♯, decided to create a type that did not allow implementation code to exist in it but only defined a set of accessible methods (a protocol) they decided on interface as the keyword for this.  This meant people would come to refer to these types as interfaces.
However,  the word interface already had another meaning. It meant whatever was accessible by virtue of not being hidden by access modifiers like private.  It still also means this, but when people use the word interface now, it has become hard to know which of the two senses they mean.
Other languages like C++ have no keyword for this and just call such creations header files.  Thus a C++ programmer can freely talk about header files and interfaces with no ambiguity resulting.


texts: Can we say "the must info" in the sense of valuable information?

texts: I heard the phrase once but don't know the context of conversation. Additionally, is "the must info" grammatically correct?


texts: Are people being literal when they say "I like to think that …"?

texts:
Sometimes people start a sentence with I like to think that.

  I like to think that my business plan will attract investors.

Are they being literal?  In other words, are they stating that they like something so they believe it?  If so, do you think these speakers know that they are giving the listener a reason to distrust them?
Or, are they employing an idiom that means I believe.
Or, (after seeing Nick's answer, I am adding this third possibility) that people are employing an idiom that means I hope.


texts: What does the expression 'justified for him his own idea' mean?

texts:
I am reading a novel, and I did not understand one of the sentences in it. Following are two lines from the novel. The narrator is talking about a guy called Paul and her father.

  They were once caught in a three-week rainstorm, my father said if you could spend three weeks in a wet tent with a man without killing him or having him kill you then he was a good man. Paul justified for him his own idea of the simple life; but for Paul, the anachronism was imposed, he'd never chosen it.

I did not understand the last sentence - Paul justified for him his own idea of the simple life; but for Paul, the anachronism was imposed, he'd never chosen it.

Could someone explain it to me? From the context, I think that it means - 'My father liked Paul's simple life, but for Paul it wasn't an option'.


texts: A word for something you didn't know you'd like

texts:
I need a noun that succinctly describes the enigmatic concept of something that, based on your tastes, you would probably like, but didn't know you'd like. Anyone game?

Edit: If it can be understood in context, a made-up word is just as good, if not better.

Edit2: I've seen a lot of mentions of the word "serendipity". "Serendipity" carries too many connotations of "fate" and "luck." This concept would have to deal with the idea of something being introduced to you by someone who knows, evidently, that you would like this thing.


texts:
while reading a book, I faced a sentence whose meaning I struggle to understand:

  This group its neatly tucked in the middle pews; three-quarters of the way back on Sunday mornings.

The context is about describing a group in the church. I specifically find "three-quarters of the way back" difficult to interpret. Does it mean the position they sit on, or that they constitute three quarters of those who participate in the worship service? Are there other ways to understand this expression?


texts: App or app? When I refer to it in a formal paper

texts: In Android contexts, should the 'a' in 'app' be uppercase always or lowercase?


texts:
Would someone please help me in finding out a elegant way to describe someone who has fallen for the wrong person and is now desperately looking for slightest (and even non-existent) hint or evidence that the wrong person is changing or improving.

Can be a word or a sentence, as long as it captures the foolishness of hope in such a situation i.e. the wrong person will not change and it is foolish to hope so. Basically something stronger and more specific than false hope.

PS: I am not sure what the best tag for this question is, please let me know and I can update.


texts: Is it correct to say "I was sure after a year I would get over it"?

texts:
My pet dog died last summer, she was the only one I had, but I was sure after a year I would get over it.

Or should I say I had get over it there instead?


texts: is it possible to leave out the relative pronoun "where"?

texts:
Look at this question:

The Think Tank is the only place in the world _____ visitors have free access to this type of research.

a. who b. that c. which d. Ǿ  e. where f. when

The answer says that both d. and e. are correct. Do you agree with it?
If d is correct, why are b and c incorrect?


texts:
I recently stayed at a charming boarding house and had the pleasure of meeting one of the most curious people I have ever come across in my life. He was polite, and yet standoffish. He reminded me of Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers in his servility but without the bursts of uncontrolled rage (thankfully!). During my entire stay I willed myself to find a noun, an adjective or any appropriate expression to describe the landlord in question but I was stunned by his bizarre behaviour. His wife, au contraire, was kind, intelligent, witty and a true saint.

So, a brief description of the landlord's character and I hope someone will supply the word or expression that does the chap justice!

Someone who is concerned with social class; who fancies himself belonging to the upper-middle class when it is clear from his speech and mannerisms he did not enjoy those privileges as a child. A person who is fixated with appearances; always lays the table with expensive looking cutlery, cut lead crystal glasses, linen napkins and even lit candelabras but then serves pre-cooked food bought from Tescos (U.S Walmart). A person who addresses you as a "young lady", is obsequious to a fault but then drinks too much at dinner and slurs his words. Whose talk borders on vulgarity but somehow manages to never cross that line. A person who will boast of owning two cars when he cannot drive. A person who will continually ask if you slept well, if you are enjoying the food, if you are fond of this or that, and whether you are comfortable in the first ten minutes but will then proceed to ignore you for the rest of the evening by watching the television.

What do you call someone like that? During my stay I could only think of snob but it seemed so inadequate, so measly compared to the sheer magnificence of his.... what?!

EDIT [original comments 17/7/2013]

The landlord was always polite, even obsequious, never aggressive nor disdainful towards me because I was "the perfect guest". (I was very conscious about my table manners while staying there!). He was anxious to impress me because I was a visitor from Italy and proclaimed to love Italian music, art, food and wine, while knowing next to nothing about them.

My landlord spoke of his travels abroad, his cruises to islands and he waxed endlessly about how fine the women dressed on board, how they dressed differently during the day and evening and how their handbags and shoes matched their dresses. The man was, frankly speaking, quite bizarre! I've never met anyone quite like him.

He was very right-wing, a real conservative and even expressed admiration for Berlusconi because he is a man of immense wealth and power, while personally I abhor the politician. He did express disapproval about the number of young men and women who would fill the bars, pubs and nightclubs at the week-ends and would often advise me from going out late at night, in case I should witness their vulgar, cheap, drunken behaviour. This piece of advice I always ignored and often enjoyed a pint with friends myself, I had a wonderful time! :)


texts: "Within the month" vs "Within a month" is there a difference?

texts:
Just applied for a job and they said "Must be available to start within the month".

Does that mean by the end of month? In this case August 30th? Or does it mean 30 days from now, meaning September 17th? And would this be different from "within a month"?


texts: Should an article follow “some sort of” when a singular noun is used?

texts:
I was wondering what the rules are when it comes to using articles with the phrase some sort of, and specifically in this sentence:

They’re treating me like I’m some sort of a star.
They’re treating me like I’m some sort of star.

To me it sounds better with a, but I’m not a native speaker, so I don’t know. Feel free to suggest alternative ways to say the same thing.


texts: Pluralizing a thing expressed by a quoted or hyphenated phrase, e.g. better-than-nothing or "better than nothing"

texts:
I found myself writing

And so, they went on amassing better-than-nothing's.

because I wanted better-than-nothing to be a kind of catchphrase, referred to in this form consistently throughout my writing. I imagined alternatives such as

And so, they went on amassing better-than-nothings.
And so, they went on amassing better-than-nothings.
And so, they went on amassing "better-than-nothings."
And so, they went on amassing "better-than-nothing"s.

I know the last example is clearly wrong, but, is the one that makes the most sense to me: grouping the phrase and pluralizing that group.
Is there a clearly right way to do this?
(I imagine not.) I'm interested in what's most natural to read ("idiomatic," I think is the word), and also interested in knowing what others have seen in similar instances. I'm afraid what's natural to me may not be what's natural to most others.

I'm also curious how one would treat a similar but more awkward phrase, better-than-expected.

The vacation was full of better-than-expected's.

(A bad example, off the top of my head.)


texts: What does the word "Stone" mean in this context

texts:
A book by Salman Rushdie ("Shame"), Hindu–Islamic tensed relations are described.

So there are several words starting/containing the word Stone

Stonewasher
Stone-gang
Stone-godly

  'The one-godly went to these cinemas and the washers of stone gods to those; movie-fåns had been partitioned already, in advance of the tired old land. The stone-godly ran the movie business, that goes with- out saying, and being vegetarians they made a very famous film: Gai- Wallah.'

IMHO, these words refer to Hindu people. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

And if it's so, do these words belong to some sort of informal, offensive vocabulary, or not?

Thanks for your time.


texts: Is there a better, existing word for “antifragility”?

texts:
Nassim Taleb, on a recent episode of Econtalk, talks about his upcoming book that aims to coin the word antifragility. The essential meaning is close to the phrase “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” — a system or process that benefits from volatility, stress, or uncertainty. Examples:

Human bones are antifragile; they benefit from the stress of gravity and weaken without it.
In terms of forest fires, forests are antifragile — too much firefighting can cause more damage in the long run.

Taleb writes about why he needed the word:

So let us coin the appellation "antifragile" for anything that, on average, (i.e., in expectation) benefits from variability. Alas, I found no simple, noncompound word in any of the main language families that expresses the point of such fragility in reverse. To see how alien the concept to our minds, ask around what's the antonym of fragile. The likely answer will be: robust, unbreakable, solid, well-built, resilient, strong, something-proof (say waterproof, windproof, rustproof), etc. Wrong — and it is not just individuals, but branches of knowledge that are confused by it; this is a mistake made in every dictionary.

In short, words like robust and resilient don’t suggest favorability toward adverse conditions.
My question: is there a better word that exists?


texts:
I am writing a motivation letter for an American graduate school and want it to be as formal as possible. I came across with stick in one's mind.

  My professor has been stuck in my mind due to his great style of
  teaching.

Is there any formal synonym/alternative which connotes the same?


texts: Similar idiom to 'I don't have the staff of Moses'

texts:
It means that one can't just make things happen magically, or that one is incapable of doing the thing requested immediately. The wording comes from the magical powers that Moses's staff had.

Any such idioms in English?


texts:
What is the word for reading something continuously without a pause?

  He read the whole paragraph ...


texts: Is there a verb for 'to make heroic'? Something like 'heroicised'?

texts:
As per the title, is there a verb for 'to make heroic'? Something like 'heroicised'?

EDIT: For example, talking about how an author elevated a character to heroic status.


texts:
What does borough mean?
Does the word have a different meaning when used in the five boroughs of New York City?


texts:
If you make pizza from scratch and put it in your oven, what's the most natural/predominant verb for what you're doing to the pizza? Cooking? Baking? Firing? Something else? None of these sounds entirely right to me (native English speaker), and my friends and Google results don't give a clear answer. I often see variation on a single web page between "cooking" and "baking."

I'm not concerned with the preparing, chopping, or kneading that comes before putting it in the oven. I just want to know what you're doing to the pizza while it's in the oven.


texts:
In an article I cannot understand what this sentence means. What does "that do $4k per square foot" mean?

"Away, founded four years ago, raised $50 mm last year to grow, including building out a network of physical stores that do $4k per square foot."

Article Link:
https://www.quora.com/What-will-the-next-generation-of-retail-look-like/answer/Ron-Johnson-491


texts: Is this proper usage of the world 'proverbial'

texts:
"Daniel spots the contradiction almost immediately, recalling the moment when Sam had befriended Bobby with his story of the proverbial girlfriend he once called Janice—not Maggie."

I'm almost certain that the word 'proverbial' does not fit in this context as the word 'girlfriend'does not refer to a proverb of any sort, but I just want to confirm with you guys. My English is still not great. Thanks in advance!


texts: Can "downstairs" in the phrase "From the street downstairs" be an adverb?

texts:
Vicki woke. Elizabeth was still sleeping, with her face to the wall. Her hair,
flattened in the night, had formed matted curls which reminded Vicki
against her will of what can be seen inside vacuum cleaners or the ripped
seat of railway carriages. From the street downstairs, out the raised-eyebrow
windows, rose a screeching of metal. Vicki slid out from under the
pink quilt and went to the window, but the tram had launched itself again
and was away, its little flag fluttering.

Does "street downstairs" mean: the rooms on the ground floor in a house. and "street downstairs" is another word for "ground floor"?
Or
Is "downstairs" here as an noun and "From the street downstairs" mean: from the downstairs that is towards street?
Can "downstairs" here be adverb?


texts:
Is there a word that means "left alone and to die"?

Edit: I believe there is such a word. I think I'm looking for abandoned and alone. Others expectations are that you'll die.


texts: Alternative to "immediately" given its positive and negative connotations

texts: What's a better way of saying "I'm willing to sign a confidentiality agreement immediately" that conveys that my willingness to sign an agreement immediately is for their benefit but doesn't sound desperate, urgent, or like I'm demanding that they send me the agreement immediately?


texts:
In the following sentence, I don't see that it is a complete sentence:

  Conformity is a virtue, creativity suspect, humor forbidden and voice mute.

Can some one help me figure out how it can be grammatically correct? It seems to me that the verb is missing.


texts: What's a "consumer-tech weblog/website", and why is it called that way?

texts:
When people say consumer-tech, what exactly do they mean?

What's a "consumer-tech weblog" / "consumer-tech website" (and why is it called that way)?


texts: What does the word trucking mean in the sentence "This chapter introduces you to your digestive system and explains exactly how your body digests the many different kinds of foods you eat, all the while extracting the nutrients you need to keep on trucking’. This is from a book called nutrition for dummies.


texts: What is the difference between advantage, merit, and benefit?

texts:
Can you please explain the differences between these three words?
Because I always misuse them when I am writing English.
I have read a few sentences:

The merits of the new health program are gradually being recognized.

Don't you think merit and advantage are similar?

The main advantage of using word processors is the amount of time you save.

So time-saving is something that puts word processors in a better position than other machines? Can't I use benefit instead?


texts: Is there a word/idiom/proverb for this Hindi phrase?

texts:
I'd like to know if there is anything for this in English which is roughly:

  Shoot many arrows, one will fit.

I am from India and we have an idiom dedicated to it in Hindi but I, literally, searched the whole internet but failed to get anything similar in English. It can meaningfully be said as:

  Try every option available, one will surely succeed.

Do you have any magical idiom/proverb or magic word for it that Google is trying to hide from me?


texts: The pronunciation of 'Ms' is /mɪz/. How about the plural of 'Ms' (i.e. Mss)? Will it be /mɪzɪz/ or simply /mɪz/ (pronunciation unchanged)?


texts: "look forward to" vs. "do not look forward to"

texts:
Why the sentences "We look forward to < noun> ..." and "We do not look forward to < verb>..." are both correct ?
A < noun> has to be used in the first and a < verb> has to be used in the second, with no clear cause.
It is not illustrated properly in stack-exchange.
Thanks,


texts: Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes

texts:
Here's from Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2.

within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:

I'm wondering about "Had left".
Is that the past perfect tense?
It seems strange if that is the case,
because she had married before the salt of her tears left the flushing.


texts: What is a word for the sensation when during a conversation you realize you were both talking about different things?

texts:
Inspired by this chat message (text is below), I have sometimes wondered if there is a word for the feeling that a person you were talking to about a particular subject was using the same words as you, but was actually talking about something else, or was leading into a very different and seemingly unrelated subject. Typically, you feel like the person is crazy by this point.

Is there a single word for this? Is there a two- or three-word phrase, maybe?

The chat message:

  There should be a word for that double-take sensation you get when you realize the conversation is further down the rabbit hole than you thought. Like when you are having what you think is a normal chat about interest rates, or something, and the other person mentions that we're all controlled by lizards from space.


texts:
How should I start to improve my English?

I know this may closed as off-topic, but I just need some clear steps.

Thanks in advance


texts: How to identify the words with same pronunciation?

texts:
How to identify or differentiate the words with same pronunciation.

As saying with example,

speak with mic.
speak with mike.

So my question is when you hear these two words, How you can identify that they mean the mic(sound system) or mike(person).


texts:
I know that nouns behaving as modifiers should take the singular form. However, I sometimes have problems telling if certain exceptions are possible. In the example below:

"I feel trapped in a cycle of negative and unpleasant thoughts."

Would it be grammatical to write: "I feel trapped in a negative and unpleasant thoughtS cycle"? I want to emphasize the fact that more than one thought keeps (should I say "keep?") revolving in my head. I will appreciate your help, sorry if you find this question too silly.


texts: What is the name for noun phrases similar to "pound of flesh?"

texts:
In English, we commonly make noun phrases in the form "X of Y" where we're describing that "X" is comprised of "Y" - pound of flesh, sack of meat, lump of coal, and so on. I think I understand the individual parts of speech involved:

"X" and "Y" are nouns or noun phrases
"of" is a preposition describing the relationship between "X" and "Y"

...and the overall result ("X of Y") is itself a noun phrase. I'm curious if there's an exact name for this particular type of noun phrase. My research has consisted of searching those parts of speech, searching similar phrases, and browsing Wikipedia articles related to those parts of speech.


texts:
In The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll there is a repeated line:

  You may threaten its life with a railway-share.

What is a railway-share in this context?  All I can find is shares as in stock, but how would you threaten someone or something's life with this?


texts:
The following line is from a passage that I was reading:

  If the Italian peninsula had been submerged in the Mediterranean after the fall of Rome, we would still have been in possession of much documentary evidence concerning growth and ascent of Roman empire, although the ponderable remains of the civilization and its architecture and the soil upon which the empire flourished would have been lost forever save as regards their colonial manifestations.

What is the precise meaning of save as regards their colonial manifestations?


texts: I have some items which are either mandatory or not mandatory for a recipe. I am listing them in a table. I have a column which will say either an item is required or not. What could be the proper word for the header of such a column?


texts: Correct order of multiple possessive words

texts:
Which is correct:

  Myrtle’s party took place in her and Tom’s apartment

Or

  Myrtle’s party took place in Tom's and her apartment

Or neither?


texts: Use of em dash to separate different speakers in a quotation(s)

texts:
Suppose there are three characters, each saying something different outside of a room and you are listening to them from inside of the room. What is the correct way to punctuate the following using em dashes without breaking up the single line into multiple lines and quotes?

1) "Hey—how're y'all doing?—great—you?—yeah, good."

OR

2) "Hey—How're ya'll doing?—Great—You?—Yeah, good."

OR

3) "Hey"—"how're y'all doing?"—"great"—"you?"—"yeah, good."

OR

4) "Hey"—"How're y'all doing?"—"Great"—"You?"—"Yeah, good."

OR

something else?


texts: Does the washing up fairy exist outside of Australia?

texts:
Just to clarify, I'm not talking about the Lush product of the same name.

In Australia, the washing up fairy is a mythical creature. People leave their dishes unwashed overnight, and lo and behold, the next morning the dishes are clean thanks to the washing up fairy.

Sadly, she (I assume it's a she) is more often noted in her absence than her presence. As in "The washing up fairy didn't come, I'll have to do the dishes now."

An example of her being mentioned:

  Her theory is simple – we must replace the behaviours we don’t want
  with those we do. For example, leaving dirty dishes on the kitchen
  bench for the washing-up fairy to tidy should be replaced with loading
  the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

Her existence has been documented neither by Wiktionary nor Urban Dictionary.

Is her distribution limited to Australia, and presumably New Zealand, plus the households of those who have moved from these countries?


texts: A word or succinct description for a compromised media/news outlet

texts:
One which is influenced and steered by pressures from a government which itself is corrupt. Doesn't sound too unfamiliar today, does it?
Anyway, it is to help me translate a German word "die Systempresse".


texts: Is though in the following sentence used correctly as a conjunction?

texts:
Albert Einstein is often considered the most original scientist of the modern age. Even he, though, acknowledged his reliance on the work of others, such Emmy Noether.

I have trouble understanding why is it correct to have "though" in this sentence.


texts:
I am looking for an uncommon word describing India. So far I came up with "diversity", but I fear this is too common.

Just to give a bit background to my question I am a grammarian at a Toastmasters and I just came back from the trip to India. For those who do not know Toastmasters, a grammarian role is to look for correct and incorrect use of language in the speeches and to introduce a word of the day. An uncommon word that should expand a vocabulary of meeting participants.

This is my first question on the English Language & Use. Apologies if this is inappropriate for this exchange.


texts: How do you describe a person who only bullies small guys but gives in to strong guys?

texts:
I mean the person who only has the gut on bullying small guys, but when he faces big guy, he will surrender and give in like a puppet.

'bully' was suggested by someone before, but it obvious is not precise enough.
Any suggestion? thanks.

edit: If there isn't a single word to say such a person, what are some idiomatic terms or words for describing?

I still feel that 'bully' isn't precise enough in describing a person like that, because a bully could sometimes bully someone bigger than him, it's possible and personally I saw this kind of bully before. Besides, 'bully' doesn't carry the connotation of  "when he faces big guy, he will surrender and give in like a puppet."


texts: Slightly more complex parallel sentence, and what is this called?

texts:
I had an internet argument about grammar (unwise, I know) on a headline that read:

  The Food Gap Is Widening - Wealthy people are eating better than ever, while the poor are eating worse.

I argued that the sentence meant:

  Wealthy people are eating better than ever, while the poor are eating worse [than ever].

He argued that it wasn't a sentence, and that the headline read:

  Wealthy people are eating better than ever, while the poor are eating worse [than before now].

Edit: to clarify, "than before now" to him meant "in the last 10 years or so", which was the time period covered in the article, as opposed to "than ever before". This was in response to a third party pointing out that the poor [in the US] probably do not eat worse than ever before, as a lot more people used to starve to death than they do now. /Edit

I still think I am correct, but I had a hard time finding any resources on the topic. It was even hard to find what I was looking for. This is a form of Zeugma?

Is there anything I can look up that would be more definitive on the topic?


texts:
I've been reading Eveline by J. Joyce (It's about a young girl who wants to run away from home and town with her boyfriend Frank to Buenos Aires; he's a sailor and they would travel by ship -- she finally decides not to leave which is seen in the following part) and in this paragraph:

  A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand. "Come!" All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them; he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing. "Come!" No! No! No!...

the verb + prepositional phrase, tumble about, is explained on the margin with "tumbled about - fell upon".

I'm not quite sure I understand this explanation. Tumble about means to either roll around, like sea would capture her heart and waves would roll around it, metaphorically, somehow... (?) If I took the explanation as true, it would be explained as the sea has accidentaly, unexpectedly, found her heart and therefore the feelings (of the sea towards her that cause her feelings towards the sea)...

Am I even close to explanation?

I need a further clarification. Thanks.


texts:
When it comes to programming copy edits, there are lots of words that would otherwise be thrown out or replaced.

  Hive uses a plugable design.

Should that be plugable or pluggable?

If the paragraph were talking about the Java language, I'd say pluggable, but a search for Hive and plugable has more hits than Hive and pluggable. That doesn't make them right.


texts: water with a definite article or without one

texts:
The sentence below comes from Word Smart II: How to Build a More Educated Vocabulary.

  Fathoming, at sea, is measuring the depth of the water, usually by dropping a weighted line over the side of a boat. On land, to fathom is to do the rough figurative equivalent of measuring the depth of water.

Why the 1st sentence says 'the depth of the water' in contrast to 'the depth of water' in the last. Is there no difference in any way or is there any implication I don't know about?


texts: Word that means a stubborn problem-tackler?

texts: Is there a word that means the kind of person who eagerly and stubbornly tackles challenging problems, even though he/she may not be at all suitable for the task? I am looking for a word that characterizes this kind of person in more of a negative light. (For example, this word can accurately represent a knight, for example, who lacks training, experience, and equipment yet decides to take on a mighty dragon alone) (Or a student, who has no knowledge or experience or talent in a subject, yet decides to take the most advanced course on that subject) Basically someone who does not know when to back down.


texts: A word for a rule that isn't strictly enforced since proper enforcement would result in the expulsion/paralysis of too many members?

texts:
Is there a word for a rule that is not strictly enforced since proper enforcement of that rule would result in the expulsion/paralysis of too many members?

E.g., In "Game of Thrones" there is a part where a character says something to the effect of "If we beheaded all the watchmen who go to Molestown we'd only have ghosts manning the wall.".


texts: Is there a word or expression for limiting users intentionally

texts:
I was discussing the phenomenon of when different platforms has an arbitrary limit (140 signs in a tweet or 7 second video on Vine), that the end users embrace in a way that ends up shaping the platform.

Does any of you know a word or expression describing this?


texts: Root + "-ophone" construction to describe speakers of a language

texts:
I've long used the terms anglophone and francophone to describe English and French speakers respectively, but I recently found myself about halfway through a sentence where I needed a similar term for Spanish speakers before I realized I actually had no idea what it was or how they're created.  A quick search turned up the following list of "established" terms.

anglophone (English-speaking)
arabophone (Arab-speaking)
francophone (French-speaking)
germanophone or teutophone (German-speaking)
hellenophone (Greek-speaking)
hispanophone (Spanish-speaking)
italophone (Italian-speaking)
lusophone (Portuguese-speaking)
russophone (Russian-speaking)
sinophone (Chinese-speaking)

Are there additional commonly used terms?  Is the construction still productive?


texts:
Is there any difference in nuance between the following two sentences?
What do you think of this new design?
What do you think about this new design?


texts: Should this name for an organization contain an apostrophe?

texts:
We're looking to start a small brewery and have decided to call it "Loons Landing". I'm wondering if perhaps it would be more correct to call it "Loon's Landing". I know that, as a business, we're able to call our business anything we want and correctness is subjective, but, because I'm curious about grammar, I'm wondering which spelling would present it as meaning "This is a spot where loons (as in the bird) land at (or perhaps did land at, some time in the past".

I sometimes have difficulty with apostrophes and whether they are necessary, especially in proper nouns, so I'm looking for some guidance here.


texts:
First of all, English is not my first language, so please excuse me if my question sounds dumb.

Secondly, I've seen this question but I don't believe it applies, tho I've been wrong before :P.

For example:

bravely is spelled with one "L"
dynamically is spelled with two "L"

What is the rule behind this ?


texts: Is "manifold" as meaning "rightfully so-called for many reasons" used only with pejoratives?

texts:
In the online versions of Merriam-Webster Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary, and Collins Dictionary, one of the multiple meanings of "manifold" is "rightfully so-called for many reasons." Here are the definitions from the three dictionaries, respectively:

rightfully so-called for many reasons: a manifold liar

Being such for a variety of reasons: a manifold traitor.

being such in many and various ways or for many reasons: a manifold villain.

I have observed that in all the three examples provided, "manifold" is used with pejoratives only, namely, "liar," "traitor," "villain," respectively. Therefore, I wonder whether "manifold," as meaning "rightfully so-called for many reasons," can be used with words other than pejoratives. For example, would "He is a manifold benefactor." or "He is a manifold honest man." be valid or not?


texts: If "thy" is an informal pronoun, then why does The Lord's Prayer use it to refer to God?

texts:
The commonly used version of this Christian prayer comes from the King James Bible

  9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
  10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
  11 Give us this day our daily bread.
  12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
  13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

—Matthew 6:9–13

This answer says that the second person informal is used when speaking to God, but does not give a reason as to why. To me it would make more sense to address the creator of the universe as formally as possible.


texts:
Is it a common thing in American English to refer to Great Britain as "England"?

EDIT:
By "common" I mean "happening  to more than 85% of USA population".


texts: What's the proper way to refer to the form of a word that's improperly punctuated?

texts:
Example sentence:

  The Adventure's of Huckleberry Finn

My dilemma:

I would like to convey to the writer of the example sentence that the word Adventure's, in its current _____ form, is grammatically incorrect (as opposed to its should-be plural form).

At first I started to use the word possessive to describe the form, but then I started thinking¹ that maybe, in the writer's mind, the word was in fact not written to represent possession but rather as a contraction of the words Adventure and is. In the latter case, I believe using the word contractional would be more appropriate than using the word possessive but since I don't know what the writer was (hypothetically) thinking when they wrote the word, I don't know which adjective to choose, if either.

I realize that chances are the writer just accidentally added an apostrophe where they shouldn't have, but that's neither here nor there.

My question:

What's the best word to use to describe the current, incorrect form of the word Adventures as described above? Is there an all-encompassing word that would be a better fit than the words possessive, contractional, or a combination thereof?

Thanks!

¹ Yes, it hurt. ;)


texts: Concisest one-word synonym for 'to be without'?

texts:
Are there any single intransitive verbs  that mean 'to be withOUT'?

Example: 'lack' is transitive and can't be used transitively: ✗ A parsnip lacks. ✗.
Rather, the present continuous must be used: ✓ A parsnip is lacking. ✓


texts:
I cannot figure out which version of this sentence sounds better.

  After Cortés’s army had been surrounded by Montezuma’s soldiers, this alliance turned out to be critical to Cortés’ victory.

Or

  After Cortés’s army was surrounded by Montezuma’s soldiers, this alliance turned out to be critical to Cortés’ victory

I understand that 'had been surrounded' is pluperfect so it happens further in the past. This seems to create a nice contrast between 'surrounded' and 'turned out to be.' However, I'm not really sure which version of the sentence sounds better.


texts:
I am writing a term paper and I ran into this complex sentence in an article which I cannot make sense of. I think there is something wrong with the punctuation, making it twisted. There are several _and_s and commas in a row. I do appreciate it if I could receive some help as I suspect it is not grammatically correct.

  "We derive an analytical equation for calculating the change of fundamental thickness-shear frequencies in terms of initial thermal and mechanical strains, and second and third order elastic constants, for rotated Y-Cut quartz crystals."


texts: "overweening swagger" vs. "overweening pretension"

texts:
I came across the following two-blank text-completion question while
preparing for the GRE:

  ①  ______ by circumstance, the entrepreneur once known for his overweening
  ②  _______ was now seen by others as the possessor of a broken spirit and
  timid demeanor.

The options for blank ①  are:

unaffected
humbled
exalted

The options for blank ②  are:

pretension
swagger
wealth

I was able to pick humbled for blank ①  easily because it was the only one
that made sense in the context of the sentence (which was the right
answer).

I went with swagger for blank ②  because I thought it was a good
substitute for arrogance, but the correct answer mentioned is
pretension. According to the definition given for pretension which is
a claim or assertion of a claim to something, I feel it doesn’t quite fit
in.

Can someone please explain the difference?


texts: "Too much pills and liquor" or "Too many pills and liquor"?

texts: When you mix a mass noun with a plural, do you use "much" or "many"? I haven't been able to find any information about this.


texts: What's the subject? "You telling me that is galling."

texts:
Reading other questions, a sentence from this question, A single word for "hurting of one's pride", caught my eyes.

  You telling me that my question asking abilities are poor is very galling.

I guess this sentence has no problem, as there's no mention about this on the page, but I cannot be sure of what the subject of this sentence is. Since, you has a form of subject pronoun and the following clause, telling me..., works as a participle clause, it seems you would be the subject. However, if you is the subject, the verb should be are.

Furthermore, the sentence's meaning is that the fact that you're telling me such thing is galling, not that you are galling. So, I think you should be possessive your.

Which one should I use here: you or your?


texts: Can you specify the meaning of "candy over" as a phrasal verb?

texts: As far as I know "candy" function as a noun only. However I came across this saying by Virginia Woolf "Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art". This phrasal verb makes me confused. Please help me!


texts:
In general, you should place a comma before a conjunction only if it links two independent clauses.

Sally bit her brother, and she smacked him on the head.
Sally ran to the ice cream truck and hit the driver.

Sometimes, a comma should also be used for clarity.

He thought she had lit a candle and started to cry.
He thought she had lit a candle, and started to cry.

My question is, should a comma be used for clarity after a conjunction when it's preceded by a list?

Our afternoons were spent baking cookies or cupcakes or visiting the bakery.
Our afternoons were spent baking cookies or cupcakes, or visiting the bakery.


texts: What do you call someone who's fascinated by machines?

texts:
See people who are fascinated by machines like computers, cars, bikes, robots. They adore engines, hardware the visual looks for them the smell of it, everything about it.

Such people are hardware maniac.


texts: In portuguese we have the word "duplex". This makes you think of a  luxurious/semi-luxurious place. Is there a word for that in AE or in BE? Does it have the same connotation?


texts: Can I use the word "encircled" to replace "ringed" in the sentence "the police ringed the bank with armed men". Can you suggest other words to replace it (but still has the same meaning.)


texts: Origin and use of  "in and among itself"

texts:
Where does the expression in and among itself come from? Is it only used for emphasis compared to in itself?

For example,

  This would be interesting in and among itself.


texts: Could you explain the conditional sentence Type 2 of this sentence "If I told you that I lived in Russia, you wouldn't believe it"

texts:
Ok,

  Conditional sentence type 2 refers to an unlikely or
  hypothetical condition and its probable result. These sentences are
  not based on the actual situation. In type 2 conditional sentences,
  the time is now or any time and the situation is hypothetical.

  EXAMPLES

  If the weather wasn't so bad, we would go to the park. (But the
  weather is bad so we can't go.)

  If I was the Queen of England, I would give everyone a chicken. (But I
  am not the Queen.)

  If you really loved me, you would buy me a diamond ring.

  If I knew where she lived, I would go and see her.

But what about this sentence "If I told you that I lived in Russia, you wouldn't believe it."

How to explain it under the rule of conditional sentence type 2?

I suspect conditional sentence type 2 can be used to express other things not just "hypothetical situations".


texts: Are there any real-world examples of malamanteau?

texts:
I know that Randall (from xkcd) invented this word as a joke, but now I'm wondering. Are there any examples of real words that are "A portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism"?

I can think of some words that are close, but not quite right. For example,"misunderestimate" is simultaneously a neologism, a portmanteau, and a malapropism. However, it is not a malamanteau. Are there any better examples of this?


texts: What is the origin of “cold weapon” in the sense of non-firearm?

texts:
I came across the term while looking around for an answer to this question about a term form non-firearms. Cold weapon does not appear with this sense in any established dictionary I could find, but you can find it in Wikitionary and a number of books. See some examples in my answer to the question and also the images Google returns for cold weapon.

Now my question here is: when and where from did the term originate?

Etymoline doesn’t have it, and Goole Books Ngram doesn’t help much because most instances of cold weapon refer to a firearm that is cold after a period of inactivity or to any weapon that feels cold. Pretty much every instance of cold weapon as a non-firearm I’ve come across has to do with China or Russia. So I wonder whether the term is a direct translation from Russian or Chinese.


texts:
I am new to this site.
I have seen a sentence like, "Do not do xxxxxxx AND maintain xxxxxx", where xxxxx can be any instruction.
Does the "Do not" phrase apply to both parts of the sentence separated by the "AND" or does it only apply to the first part of the sentence?


texts:
It was extremely pleasant, on the top of the hill, surrounded by chirping sparrows, flowing rivers and huge tress, my hair were flowing in the air and I whirled. I was wearing a skirt,

Can I say this? :

  I gave my skirt a nice whirl.

If I want to express this only by using the word "WHIRL", is this a correct way?


texts: Is "boggles down" an idiom of "simplifies"?

texts:
I feel comfortable with the phrase boggles down as a synonym for simplifies, but I was surprised to not find a dictionary entry of this use.

Here's an example:

  If your "use case" boggles down to avoiding assigning a variable, that seems like a really minor discomfort.

I'm looking for a little validation that this is in fact a common idiom and I'm interested in where it comes from. At idioms.freedictionary.com I see an entry for boggles, but it means something totally different ("to confuse") without the down modifier.


texts: Using "Putting up" in day to day conversation

texts:
How to use "Where do you put up?".
Is it the right replacement for "Where are you staying?".


texts: "It is they who lied" or "it is them who lied?"

texts:
Which is the correct usage of the third person, plural pronoun?

  It is they who lied.
  It is them who lied.


texts: Buckle is used mostly for the thing that's on belts. Where did the word come from?


texts: Reset = "setting again" or to "setting back to the original state"?

texts:
In the OED dictionary, "Reset" has the following meanings:

reset
See definition in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Line breaks: re¦set
Pronunciation: /riːˈsɛt/
Definition of reset in English:
verb (resets, resetting; past and past participle reset)

[WITH OBJECT]
1Set again or differently:
I must reset the alarm

1.1 Electronics Cause (a binary device) to enter the state representing the numeral 0.

This is what's written in

But, would the word "reset" we commonly use in our daily life have a closer meaning to "setting again" or to "setting back to the original state"?

Wouldn't the word have the use as a "setting back to the previous state" probably due to the use of the computer, but originally has its meaning as re+set, or "setting again"?

Do you know anyone who uses the word "reset" with its use as "setting again"?

I would regret to find no one in use of the word, but if there is anyone who frequently uses the word with such meaning, could I please have some examples using it?


texts: Usage and explanation of "no more ... than"

texts:
The spirited defense of 2 Live Crew was no more about defending the entire black community than the prosecution was about defending black women

The first part of the sentence is clear that "X is no more Y". However, after that part I am a little confused.


texts: Why and since when does William = Bill and Richard = Dick?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Changes in English names of people

For example Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are actually Williams.

I guess if you first make it short for Will then you can go from there to Bill and from Richard you can first go to Rick and then to Dick... English speakers seem to form their nicknames like that.

But it just seems very strange to a native Finnish speaker. I think nicknames here in Finland pretty much never change the first letter, and rarely alter any of the whole first syllable of the name when converting to a nickname. I think it would make typing initials a little confusing too! Are the first letters of first names not that important to English speakers?

The other part of the question is, how long has this been going on. What are some of the earliest examples of Williams being called Bills and Richards being called Dicks?


texts:
I'm trying to build an abstract skill level chart to be applied to diverse subjects.

Right now - using only common sense - the list of levels I was able to think is:

{MISSING} : Don't know anything about it nor have any skill on it.
Aware : Just know about it, but does not have any skill on it.
{MISSING} : Has some knowledge but no skill on it.
Practitioner : Has some knowledge and have a basic skill on it.
{MISSING} : Has good knowledge and good skill, but haven't master any technique.
Proficient : Has good knowledge and has skill enough to know one technique.
Expert : Has a very good knowledge and knows about more than one technique.
Master : Is a reference on the subject, very deep knowledge and dominates the subject.

As you can see, there is gaps on such skill levels.

Question : Is there any other words that can be placed - or replaced - to have more layers between these levels and encompass more of them on my list?


texts:
What's the difference between "tomorrow's meeting" and "meeting tomorrow"?

Regarding these sentences below, are both correct?

  I have to attend the tomorrow's meeting.
  I have to attend the meeting tomorrow.


texts: When and where was the phrase olden days coined?


texts:
Please help me understand the following sentence structure:

  More than half the roster, including such popular characters as Black Panther, Scarlett Witch, Star Lord, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange weren’t merely killed, they were wiped out of existence with the snap of a finger.

In this sentence, I notice there seem to be two predicate verbs, "such popular characters as ...weren't killed" and "they were wiped out of existence...". Is that correct? Or here "such as" is used as an attributive clause?


texts: How is "cyan" pronounced and where is the stress?

texts:
How is the word 'cyan' pronounced? Is it pronounced sigh-yann /saɪæn/ or sigh-yun /saɪən/ and is the stress on the first or second syllable?

The online dictionary entries indexed by OneLook Dictionary Search list both "SIGH-ann" /ˈsaɪæn/ and "SIGH-un" /ˈsaɪən/, with the stress on the first syllable.  Some of them show secondary stress on the second syllable (/ˈsaɪˌæn/), such as Macmillan and the American Heritage Dictionary (which transcribes it as "sī′ăn′" with a larger stress mark after the first syllable), but none of them lists any pronunciation variants with the primary stress on the second syllable.

However, there are allusions to pronunciations with primary stress on the second syllable in various other places on the web:

Syllabification of "Cyan", using spaces (space bar) to separate syllables? (Yahoo Answers):

  Cy AN. Stress is on the second syllable. Cara

CYANIST - MYSTcommunity:

  Although, is it true that Cyan, when properly pronounced, rhymes with
  Diane?  ;) Because I'm terribly attached to it rhyming with "lion,"
  even more than I was attached to "D'ni" having its second syllable
  stressed, which was before I learned it was supposed to have its first
  syllable stressed, which was before RAWA dropped the bomb that, in
  fact, the second syllable IS supposed to get more emphasis than the
  first. (75th Trombone, Posted 11 March 2003 - 07:28 AM)

Behind the Name: User Comments for the Name Cyan

  In Britain at least, the word "cyan" is pronounced "sie-ANNE", with
  the stress on the 2nd syllable not the 1st. -- Anonymous User
  3/7/2006

Does anyone have any more information about the different pronunciations of this word?


texts: Is there a word for the beginning of a street? What word would be used to describe where a street begins? I have a friend who says that in Persian, it's described as the "head" of the street, but I can't think of how it would be described in English. Does anyone know?


texts: Is there a name for this kind of phrase?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a name for inverting word order to accomplish a different meaning?
  "Some champagne for my real friends, some real pain for my sham friends."

Is there any one similar kind of phrase here, what are they called?

For example :

  1) Why do we park on Driveways and Drive on Parkways ?

  2) Why are apartments together?

What are these phrases called?


texts: Sentences starting with "Which": Fragment or complete sentence?

texts:
I read an article in a newspaper and was wondering if what I read was a sentence fragment.

The sentence/fragment in question is:

Which is why we believe the proposed amendments should be passed.

Wouldn't this be a subordinate clause fragment with "which" being the relative pronoun as the subject and is as the main verb?

Isn't any sentence starting with "Which" a fragment?


texts: Do satirical headlines sometimes use quote marks ironically?

texts:
Does the following headline use quote marks correctly? Why is just a single word in quotes?

  Jaques Derrida 'dies'


texts:
Imagine a poet who spends too much time trying to stick to the meter, a writer who overuses purple prose, a musician who plays a piece well but without emotion, or a painter who is preoccupied with exactly replicating the reference.

Their creations would be technically advanced, but lacking in beauty.

What would be the word to describe those people or their work that acknowledges the "technically advanced" part?


texts: Is "I am who(m) God made me" grammatical?

texts:
SAH asked an interesting question about case, I am [who/whom] G-d made me, but one issue that came up in the comments repeatedly is that many people said that they find the example sentence unacceptable with either pronoun.

This suggests that the sentence could be ungrammatical, but I'm having trouble figuring out why it would be. It is possible in general for the verb "make" to take a direct object and an object complement. The object complement can be an adjective, as in "They made me unhappy", or a noun phrase, as in "It made me a believer". We can say "It made me who I am", and things like "Your personality is what makes you you" or "These are the things that made me, me" (people seem to vary in how they punctuate sentences like these, but it's not that hard to find examples).

One thing I considered was that maybe it is grammatical, but hard to parse because it is a kind of "garden path sentence": many of the commenters expressed the idea that having both "who(m)" and "me" is redundant, which to me seems like a misunderstanding of the syntax of the sentence.

For example, Mitch said:

  The relative pronoun should replace the subject or object in the relative clause but both are still there. It would be "I am who/whom G-d made" or "I am who made me".(who or whom both work; whom is hardly used at all in normal speech nowadays, but religious speech holds on to some archaism me like 'whom'.

  [...] "X is who Y made Z" not grammatical. "Adjective is how Y made Z" grammatical (from "Y made Z Adjective") "X is who/whom Y loves" (from "Y loves X")

If the sentence is actually ungrammatical, and not just difficult to parse, it would seem to indicate some restriction on the ability of who or whom in this position to correspond to anything but a subject or direct object. I wonder if this is related to the dubious acceptability of "who(m)" in contexts like "the girl whom I gave the ring" (where many speakers feel a "to" has to be added to complete the sentence).

Surprisingly to me, it seems like there may be a difference between the animate wh-pronoun who(m) and the inanimate wh-pronoun what, since I received comments suggesting that similar sentences with what do sound acceptable to Araucaria and Mitch:

  "What they named Christopher was the boy" doesn't seem to bear a good relation to the original, it seems to me . "What they named the boy was Christopher" seems ok to me ... (but grammaticality is in the ear of the beholder, no doubt!) – Araucaria

  "What they named the boy was Christopher." sounds fine to me. Also "Christopher was what they named the boy" is fine too. – Mitch

In "Christopher was what they named the boy", the word "what" doesn't seem to be either a subject or a direct object, but nevertheless the sentence appears to be grammatical. So what's the relevant difference between this sentence and "I am who(m) G-d made me"?

I'm interested in knowing if there are any grammatical theories that explain why who(m) would be ungrammatical in this context, but any evidence (in addition to the already-established unacceptability judgements of a fair number of commenters here) that you can provide showing that the sentence with who(m) is ungrammatical would suffice as an answer to this question. (Or if you can show that the sentence is grammatical, that would also make a great answer!)


texts: "You both ordered drinks" or" You both ordered a drink"

texts:
You both ordered drinks or  You both ordered a drink or in  stated differently:

Both of you ordered a drink or  Both of you ordered  drinks

should a drink be in its plural form?


texts:
So, AFAIK in reported speech we usually backshift, for example:
Last night I called her, and she said she was not home.
But what if we talk about something that was written at some time in the past which says something about the situation at that period, which is still being written there, and we cite what it says, for example:
"The Report of the EU on the financial situation of the XX country states that the its Government has initiated a process for reforming the legislation in order to improve the financial situation."
So, let's say that the report was prepared in 2020, and it talks about the financial situation of the country in 2019. So basically, the Report said that in 2020, but it's not exactly at the past because if we read it now it's like it says (states) the thing now. So, should we use "had initiated" instead of "has initiated"? I suppose "has" should be used if the process is still ongoing, but how do we know if the process is still ongoing. Is there some neutral way to say it so it would apply no matter whether it is ongoing or has ended?
Sorry if my question is not clear.


texts: What is the meaning of "would", and how to use it?

texts:
What is the meaning of would, and which tense is it used in the following sentences?

For example,

That would be Ram calling. I'll answer it. (the meaning of would and which tense is used)
The guy on the phone had southern accent.
That would be Tom. (the meaning of would and which tense is used)
“We saw a police helicopter overhead yesterday morning.”
“Really? They would have been looking for those bank robbers.” (the meaning of would and which tense is used)
You would have to say/do that. (Why is would used here? What happens to the meaning if would is removed?)
John said he didn't steal any money.
Well, he would, wouldn't he ? (Why is would used here?)

Why is would used in sentences 1, 2, and 3 to mean "presumption" instead of using other modals, such as: must and should? Does the meaning change if used others?
Can we use will, must, should and could in the place of would, without changing the meaning of sentences?
What kind of meanings would it make if they (will, must, should, and could) are used in the place of would?

I'd be grateful if you could answer me.


texts: Is "do(es)" used to mean either single or plural subject?

texts:
I wonder if the following usage of "do(es)" properly or commonly used:

  If money doesn't concern you, what else do(es)?


texts: is there a better word for "solving" a paradoxical situation?

texts:
So I am trying to write my first paper, that is describing a method that is in a way "solving" a paradoxical situation by creating a new sort of trick that helps to  solve a previously difficult problem.

Somehow the word solve doesnt sound right, maybe someone has a better suggestion?

The short and version of the paradox is: "The problems for which efficiency matters the most, because they are extremly computationaly expensive, are also the problems for which it is too expensive to compare and improve algorithms to increase the efficiency."

Now by some kind of trick that i like to describe this situation is "solved".


texts:
I'm trying to remember a word that is used to describe a perfect specimen or sample of something. That is, a unit that best represents other units.

I think this term may come from stamp collecting. My mind associates this word with words like supernumerary, nomenclature, and nominal. It may even sound like one of those words.

The intended usage is something along these lines, "An uncompressed XXXXXXXXX file was then transcoded to numerous candidate codecs and objective measurements were made between the XXXXXXXXX and derivative files." In this example, XXXXXXXXX would be replaced by the word I'm trying to think of.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer!


texts: Use of the verb 'think' with an indirect object and direct object

texts:
Is it correct to use a construction with the verb 'think', having an indirect and direct object, like the following, which I heard, I believe, on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends from my childhood.

'We think him vulgar'

That phrase has stayed with me my entire life!

Dictionaries haven't turned up anything, so I wonder if this is dialectical or just plain queer.


texts: Term for something that is supposed to increase safety, but really just increases fear?

texts:
Some examples:

A news station giving daily "terrorist reports". It doesn't actually say how to protect yourself, just gives information on how horrible they are & why you should be afraid.
A airport that forces full body searches. The odds of an attack are still about zero, but passengers will believe there is a huge problem because of the extreme security measures.
A person never leaving the house without at least 2 firearms. Their fear of an attack is increased by buying & carrying guns, but the chances of them needing to use one is still very low.


texts:
What does ‘beyond in’ mean?
For example, ‘I served my time in the sixties as a block-layer beyond in Liverpool’.
Does it stand for ‘near Liverpool’? Or does the speaker just emphasize on the fact that it happened in the other city (not in the one he's staying now)?


texts:
The question about commas in English has always been really difficult for me. I was told in school, that commas are not that important in English meaning that there are not so strict rules for using commas (compared to German). This confuses me all the time. For example:

I have the following sentence:

The modules , used by the software tool ,  are introduced in this chapter.

Would you use both of the commas?


texts:
From the short story Percival Bland's Proxy,
by Austin Freeman written in 1913;

  And thus was the curtain rung down on the first act. The second act opened only a couple of days later, the office of call-boy—to pursue the metaphor to the bitter end—being discharged by a Belgian police official who emerged from the main entrance to the Bank of England. What should have led Percival Bland into so unsafe a neighbourhood it is difficult to imagine, unless it was that strange fascination that seems so frequently to lure the criminal to places associated with his crime. But there he was within a dozen paces of the entrance when the officer came forth, and mutual recognition was instant. Almost equally instantaneous was the self-possessed Percival's decision to cross the road.

Percival Bland is a criminal, making counterfeit money and being chased by police.

From the above text

What does 'office of call-boy' mean?
What is 'to pursue the metaphor to the bitter end'?

I can't simply figure those phrases out; hoping somebody will explain them.


texts: Should "Have your peer partner send you her plans" be considered a directive?

texts:
If you tell a person to have someone do something, is that considered a command?

Our boss sent an email which told us to "have your peer partner send you her plans". Should that be considered a directive?

Our union is actually filing a grievance over this language.

Our contract states that we cannot be forced to give our lesson plans to anyone. Our principal, as part of a professional development activity wrote "have your peer partner send you her plans," as opposed to "send your peer partner your plans". Since I have no means of "having" (forcing) her do this (I am not her boss), the implication to me is is that we should "request" this of our peer partners.

I think she deliberately chose "have" over "request" (in fact the union asked her to amend the email to state this was voluntary, and she refused) to confuse people into thinking she was telling them to send their plans to their partner since indeed, "have" connotes a command, but was covering herself by being able to say that she never told anybody to send their plans to the peer partner- she told us to have them send theirs to us.  Since we can't "make" our peer partners do this, in this case "have" means "ask".

It seems to me that this was a way of tricking people into thinking it was a directive, but the language was chosen carefully — so if necessary, it would prove it wasn't. I think the union will lose the grievance on these grounds, unless there are provisions in the contract against deliberately using language to mislead overworked teachers who don't have time to read emails through the lens of a lawyer.


texts: Can a CBE order holders use the title "sir"

texts:
I'm not sure it fits in this StackExchange site but here's the question:

Can a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) use the title "sir" or "dame" before their name?

Wikipedia states:

  The senior two ranks of Knight or Dame Grand Cross, and Knight or Dame Commander, entitle their members to use the title of Sir for men and Dame for women before their forename.

This would suggest that a CBE cannot use the title because it is reserved for GBE and KBE/DBE only.
However in Wikipedia articles regarding for example Elton John, David Attenborough and Anthony Hopkins you can see all of them being CBE but titled "sir". On the other hand Benedict Cumberbatch is also a CBE but it isn't titled "sir" in his Wikipedia article.

What is the rule here?


texts:
This is the last paragraph of a book review:

"To conclude, I quote the concluding paragraph from the..."

Is this correct English? Why is it "I quote"? Can "I am quoting" be used insteand?


texts:
State-wide is the best I can come up with, but I think National has more significance that simply nation-wide, e.g. a National Treasure.

  Planning restrictions were eased for the new building as it was deemed to have _____ significance

The blank space relates to its significance to a State. State-wide could be used, but doesn't sound quite right

I want to say "Statial" but that has a different meaning.


texts:
Similarly to the previous version of this product, this version contains the same feature and .... (a long description of the product)

Is the usage of "similarly to" in the sentence beginning correct? Or is there any better alternative? How would English people say this sentence in formal language?


texts:
I know the definition, but it's such an odd construction.
It means a comeback or a defiant response, usually verbal.

I'm aware of the song "Clap Back" by Ja Rule, but in curious if they created it out of whole cloth or if it was in use before that.

Perhaps related to "slow clap" (sarcastic applause).


texts: What word describes the amount an object is filled to, regarding its capacity?

texts:
Given an object that can hold a capacity of something, is there a word which describes the current amount it holds towards that capacity?

For example, if an elevator has a capacity of 20 persons, and the current number of occupants is six, the elevator's <some property of the elevator> is six?

Update: The commentary on @jwpat7's excellent answer made me realize something which hadn't occurred to me: the nature of the container and the things it holds have an impact on the appropriate description. I picked an arbitrary example using people, but the reason I've been seeking this word is to describe discrete (i.e. not something like liquid in a tank) inanimate contents.

A better example would be: an egg carton has a capacity of 12 eggs. It currently holds 7. How does one describe the amount currently held: "The carton's <this> is 7 eggs"?


texts: A word/name for when multiple people are taking the blame to cover/hide another

texts:
Like the title.

Example. One kid did something from, and when the teacher asks who it was, all the kids begins to take the blame to cover/hide the kid who did it.

This also happened in the french revolution


texts: What is the difference between 'man' and 'human'?

texts:
What is the difference between "Man" and "Human" in the broad senses of mankind and humanity? I recognize that some object to the term "mankind" because of the gender connotations. I was wondering if, ignoring that objection, there was a difference and also what the Hu in "human" means. Could people still object to the sexism of language because there is a man in human?

The Online Etymology Dictionary:

  human (adj.)

  mid-15c., humain, humaigne, "human," from Old French humain, umain (adj.) "of or belonging to man" (12c.), from Latin humanus "of man, human," also "humane, philanthropic, kind, gentle, polite; learned, refined, civilized." This is in part from PIE _(dh)ghomon_-, literally "earthling, earthly being," as opposed to the gods (see homunculus)*. Compare Hebrew adam "man," from adamah "ground." Cognate with Old Lithuanian zmuo (accusative zmuni) "man, male person."

  human (n.)

  "a human being," 1530s, from human (adj.). Its Old English equivalent, guma, survives only in disguise in bridegroom.

  man (n.)

  Old English man, mann "human being, person (male or female); brave man, hero; servant, vassal," from Proto-Germanic *manwaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Swedish, Dutch, Old High German man, German Mann, Old Norse maðr, Danish mand, Gothic manna "man"), from PIE root *man- (1) "man" (cognates: Sanskrit manuh, Avestan manu-, Old Church Slavonic mozi, Russian muzh "man, male").

  Plural men (German Männer) shows effects of i-mutation. Sometimes connected to root *men- "to think" (see mind), which would make the ground sense of man "one who has intelligence," but not all linguists accept this. Liberman, for instance, writes, "Most probably man 'human being' is a secularized divine name" from Mannus [Tacitus, "Germania," chap. 2], "believed to be the progenitor of the human race."

       So I am as he that seythe, `Come hyddr John, my man.' [1473]

  Sense of "adult male" is late (c. 1000); Old English used wer and wif to distinguish the sexes, but wer began to disappear late 13c. and was replaced by man. Universal sense of the word remains in mankind and manslaughter. Similarly, Latin had homo "human being" and vir "adult male human being," but they merged in Vulgar Latin, with homo extended to both senses. A like evolution took place in Slavic languages, and in some of them the word has narrowed to mean "husband." PIE had two stems: *uiHro "freeman" (source of Sanskrit vira-, Lithuanian vyras, Latin vir, Old Irish fer, Gothic wair) and *hner "man," a title more of honor than *uiHro (source of Sanskrit nar-, Armenian ayr, Welsh ner, Greek aner).

     MANTRAP, a woman's commodity. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," London, 1785]

  Man also was in Old English as an indefinite pronoun, "one, people, they." The chess pieces so called from c. 1400. As an interjection of surprise or emphasis, first recorded c. 1400, but especially popular from early 20c. Man-about-town is from 1734; the Man "the boss" is from 1918. To be man or mouse "be brave or be timid" is from 1540s. Men's Liberation first attested 1970.

     At the kinges court, my brother, Ech man for himself. [Chaucer, "Knight's Tale," c. 1386]

From this there does not seem to be any relation between "man" and "human" because one is Germanic and one is Latin. It seems to me that the "man" in human is just a phonetic shift from homunculus. It could also be possible that both words are derived from the respective culture's origin of man. Is there a relationship I am missing or something related to look at?


texts: Why is the P silent in "coup" and "corps"?

texts:
Corps = /kɔː(r)/: the PS is silent
Coup = /kuː/: the P is silent

Corps
Etymology Dictionary says "from French corps d'armée (16c.), which apparently was picked up in English during Marlborough's campaigns, from French corps (old French cors) "body," from Latin corpus "body""
Wikitionary: From French corps d'armée (literally “army body”), from Latin corpus (“body”)
For the Latin corpus, wikitionary gives this pronunciation in which the P is pronounced: /ˈkor.pus/
Coup
Etymology Dictionary: *from Old French coup, colp "a blow, strike" (12c.), from Medieval Latin colpus, from Vulgar Latin colapus, from Latin colaphus "a cuff, box on the ear," from Greek kolaphos "a blow, buffet, punch, slap," "a lowly word without clear etymology" [Beekes]
Wikitionary: Borrowed from French coup (“blow, strike”), from Late Latin colpus, from Latin colaphus. Doublet of colpus.
For the French coup, Wikitionary pronunciation is /ku/.
There's a similar question on Quora, but most answers there says "because English spelling is stupid". One of the answers says "because there's another word corpse" but that doesn't sound reasonable.
What's happening here? Why are the P's silent in these words in English? Can anyone explain it briefly?


texts:
I'm creating an application/website, that you can control "assets" with. (The fact this is an app/website is irrelevant, I'm just giving some detail)

Inside these assets, you can define attributes, and you optionally set the attribute(s) to be dependent on another assets attributes, I call these "dependent attributes", as that term refers to the relationship going from the child to the parent

Now if you're viewing the the parent asset, what would I call the relationship going the opposite direction? I keep thinking "dependents", but that would be confusing as heck.

If "dependent" isn't the best verbiage for something that needs to be described going both directions, then whats another good word? I actually looked up 'dependent' on thesaurus.com, and didn't find anything I thought would suffice


texts: Do words, that have two stressed syllables, in sentences usually lose the secondary stress?

texts:
I read from a English speaking book, it said a sentence "It was controversial.", have only main stress when we speak - that is"It was controversial".
Then I think secondary stress usually is lost when people speak.
Do I understand correctly ?


texts: English dialect/accent that switches out the letter "p" with a voiceless bilabial trill (ʙ̥)

texts:
Just to clarify the title: not sure if this dialect always switches the "p" out with the "ʙ̥". For example, if the p is in the beginning of word, maybe this doesn't happen.
Also, I'm not sure this dialect even exists. I have definitely heard this kind of pronunciation, like with the word appreciation being pronounced with a voiceless bilabial trill instead of the voiceless bilabial plosive that standard English uses. However, this may be an ideolectic or even situational (to add more drama perhaps) pronunciation.
So my question is this: does there exist an English dialect/accent that does this?


texts:
In Germany we have the saying "der Groschen ist gefallen", which exists in the English language, too:

  The penny dropped.

But there is also a variation for slower thinking, "der Groschen fällt pfennigweise", which would correspond to:

  Ten pence drop a penny at a time.

Is there any saying like this in English?