texts:
Having the following sentences:

He wouldn't like us to be stuck at home.

He didn't use to like us being stuck at home.

Which one is correct? Can I use both?


texts: What is a word for "someone to whom you pledge loyalty"

texts:
I'm looking for a single word that behaves almost like an antonym for "follower" or "constituent", but that doesn't carry the "official-ness" of "leader."

  He felt betrayed by his [person to whom he pledged loyalty]


texts: What's the opposite of "prototype product"?

texts:
From an Information Technology perspective, what's the opposite of Proof of Concept (prototype)?

I'm looking for a better word which means "full-fledged version".


texts: Using "TM" for trademarked term - every time or just once?

texts:
I am writing an email announcement to my company's customer base, and I will be using a trademarked product name several times throughout the email.  It seems awkward to use the TM every time I write the product name - is it acceptable to just do this the first time?

Example:

  "Hello everyone!  I am happy to announce some new features for JetboxTM.  Now you can do X, Y and Z.  Jetbox will also do your laundry, compliment your appearance, and get you free concert tickets.  Try Jetbox today!"

vs.

  "Hello everyone!  I am happy to announce some new features for JetboxTM.  Now you can do X, Y and Z.  JetboxTM will also do your laundry, compliment your appearance, and get you free concert tickets.  Try JetboxTM today!"


texts:
I came across this long sentence in a novel, and would like to analyze it grammatically:
"I spent [...] time racking my brains for gems of Philosophy [....] , but I have come up with nothing that you could not (and probably already) have found in Plato, Socrates and the pages of Punch Magazine"

I know what the speaker is trying to say.
Now, the whole sentence above (given as a reference for folks who would rightly want the whole context) is not necessary for my question here, so I left out some words and highlighted a sub-sentence, for simplicity. The relevant part is:
"I have come up with nothing that you could not (and probably already) have found in Plato"

With the double negative, what is the parallelism structure ?
I think there is something wrong here with the tenses because, it requires "could not have found" and "would not already have found". The original sentence does not have "would", and the parallelism seems improper.


texts: "There appears to be" or "There appear to be" + plural noun phrase

texts:
I'm wondering which of these is correct:

There appears to be no functional systems in place to handle this.
There appear to be no functional systems in place to handle this.

First takes "there" as subject. Second takes "functional systems" as subject.


texts: Word to describe "something which makes it compatible" "compabilitizer?"

texts:
I am looking for a single word for the term "something which makes it compatible". Can I use compatibilizer?

Google search reveals this term is used in chemistry but is it used in other contexts? Is the -izer suffix sufficiently productive that what might be jargon could be understood elsewhere?


texts: What are these classified as -- greed, hatred, pride, thinking oneself above others -- I don't want to call them emotions. I had originally thought of calling them virtues, emotions, conventions, desires... but I see that none of these work. Now I need a single word. Any ideas?


texts:
I want to say something like, 'Would many women, if asked, say they feel unsatisfied with the way they are treated? They would say that they /do/.'

A friend advised me to change 'do' to 'did'. But I'm not so sure...


texts:
Earlier this evening, I was trying to tell someone, "I don't care who wins the Superbowl this year. I don't have a-"

I could't remember how to complete this saying (to mean I don't have a personal interest in the outcome of a particular contest, debate, or game).

  I don't have a stake in this game.

That's the closest I can come up with, but I seem to remember there's an animal-related version as well. Internet searches have not been helpful. "A pig at this market" maybe?


texts: Why is the word "Holy" used before swear words?

texts:
People usually use the word "Holy" before "Shit", "Crap" or any other bad words to express their feelings, like surprise, anger, etc. Is there any reason why the word "Holy" is used with these bad words?

I think the words "shit", "crap", etc are considered as bad words while "Holy" is considered as spiritual or something related to God (usually used to mention something related with God), Right? So is it used with the bad words to neutralize the bad words?

Here is the link to another question related with the same subject that came into my mind after reading all the answers and comments here. How the phrase 'Holy s***' is formed?

Please help me find an answer for that question.


texts:
Is it appropriate to use a comma in these examples?

  We, however, discussed ways of improving the school's standard so as to increase the admission rate of students this year, and scheduled the next meeting to be on Tuesday for proper arrangements.

  He never looked for trouble (although he had a bag full of trouble for
  trouble-seekers), and had a high sense of humor, which made the few
  people who did not like him become his admirers.

I know that a comma can only be used before a coordinating conjunction if it connects two independent clauses. But this is not the case here. I thought of this question and wanted to know whether using a comma in these examples is correct.

Please note that example 2 is taken from a novel.


texts: Need an expression/idiom that's roughly equivalent to this Muhammad Ali quote

texts:
It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
  -- Muhammad Ali

I'm very fascinated by this quote, so I'm looking for expressions/idioms that are roughly equivalent to it. The one I'm looking for would be shorter and can be easily used in conversation.


texts: Word to describe the structure that holds/stores a shield (and possibly other weapons)

texts:
I am looking for a word that would used to describe either many shields, or a structure that would be used to carry them in storage.

If I look at this medieval photo, there is a wooden structure on which shields and other weapons are stored.  What is the name of this structure, or similar unit?

I am open to words from any era, since I'm going to repurpose it in the context of "conveying many shields".  Search terms are helpful, since anything that I google for "sword storage" sends me to a Public Self Storage/Mini storage location.

For context, I'm using this to describe a computer software firewall I'm programming, and would like contextually relevant variable names.  Examples include:

Umbo = The smallest, most defensive aspect of the technology
Shield = A grouping of Umbos (it's a misappropriation but good enough, I think a shield only had a maximum of one Umbo)
???? =  A collection of shields that are manufactured or shipped or stored in a batch.
??? = A used, and therefore useless shield


texts: A single word for "not allowed to be changed" or "must be this way"

texts: I'm looking for a specific word (that is slipping my mind) that means "not allowed to be changed" or "has to be taken as law". The word I'm thinking of sounds something like "invaluable" or "inviable". An example of how to use it would be "Since the CEO likes it, this feature is ___ "


texts:
When you run a sheet of metal through a bead roller and create sort of a rounded crease or gutter in a metal plate, what is this gutter called? I have seen the word seam, but I'm not sure if it's the correct term I'm looking for.

See the first half of this youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptJfcswihpY

See also the right side of this picture https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Can_solderless_seam_cutaway.jpg


texts:
I read this in an Agatha Christie novel from 1965:

  He certainly left here on Thursday evening carrying his BEA bag.

What is a BEA bag? Is it a brand or a specific type of bag? Googling doesn't yield very specific results.


texts: Should 'g' followed by 'e' and 'i' be pronounced with a soft or hard g?

texts:
In English, words with a 'g' followed by a front vowel (e, i, y) can be pronounced with a soft g or a hard g:

Words with Germanic roots are usually pronounced with a hard g: gear, get, gift, give
Words with Latin and Greek roots are usually pronounced with a soft g: gem, general, giraffe, giant

But how should a purely English word (if such thing even exists) with a 'g' followed by a front vowel be pronounced? In other words, if an English speaker saw a new word of unknown origin (eg: a neologism) that starts with gi- or ge-, how would they pronounce it?


texts:
A colleague of mine just asked me about the sentence:

  If the book were not so expensive, I would buy it.

She wanted to know why too was not a worthy substitute. I explained to her about the degree of intensity in too vs. so but I know there's something more to it than that. Is there something in the conditionality of the book costing more than I can pay that makes so the superior choice? Any input on this?


texts: Would it be right to say "I was at that school before," or do I have to say "I went to that school before/I studied at that school before"?


texts:
How should wireless technology names be hyphenated and capitalized?

"a wireless g network"?
"a wireless-g network"?
"a wireless-G network"?
"a wireless G network"?
none of the above?

Does a formal rule even exist for this?


texts: Is “duck and dive” only a British idiom?

texts:
I was interested in the phrase “duck and dive,” which is put in parentheses, in the following comment of a video ran by the Guardian with a caption, “Senator Marco Rubio's in-speech water break” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/feb/16/marco-rubios-water-break-video) :

  “In a video that has turned viral, the Republican politician displays
  a 'duck and dive' lunge for his bottle while barely averting his
  eyes from the lens”

Oxford English Dictionary defines “duck and dive” as "British use: one’s ingenuity to deal with or evade a situation."
But Google Ngram shows a constant currency of this phrase since cir 1840 and growing increase of use around after 1995.
Is this phrase still predominantly used in Britain, less in the U.S.?

P.S.
I think the expression “Duck and dive" posture is very similar to Japanese expression, “屁っぴり腰-heppirigosi" meaning 'move / behave nervously / apprehensively with one's buttocks stuck out,' thus indecisiveness.

If somebody is familiar with Japanese language, please advise me if my interpretation is correct or not.


texts:
What does for grins mean in the following?

  If the web service says the values are valid, the underlying fields
  are updated. If it says the values are invalid, it sets up error
  messages for the fields. For grins, on an invalid return, it also
  validates the level number itself.


texts: I was taking some online self improvement classes, the person (or the coach) says that we should be "coachable", and the first thought that I had was about whether that word is actually usable formally for describing our abilities when applying to a job. I researched on Google and couldn't find anything useful.


texts: As in the title, please What's the meaning of "Hardware drift"? Is it hardware change in terms of configuration change?


texts:
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?

For example, possessive nouns (both proper and common) are written with a apostrophe before the final s:

  Bill’s, not Bills
  Sarah’s, not Sarahs
  the bear’s, not the bears
  the lizard’s, not the lizards

On the other hand, several possessive pronouns do not have apostrophes before the s:

  his, not hi’s
  hers, not her’s
  its, not it’s
  theirs, not their’s
  ours, not our’s
  yours, not your’s

When and where did this usage originate? Was there any technical advantage of this usage?


texts:
I’d like to ask on the sentence from The Noble Bachelor by Conan Doyle.

A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, high-nosed and
pale, with something perhaps of petulance about the mouth, and with
the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose pleasant lot it had ever
been to command and to be obeyed.

I’m not sure what the latter part of the sentence above means, especially what this “lot” means (and what “it” indicates for that matter).
Does this “lot” mean “destiny, situation” here? Dictionaries say “lot” can signify “people, folks”, so is it used to mean that way, implying his servants or something? I don’t know.
And can someone tell me which word this “it” in the latter part of the sentence indicates? I thought this “it” refers to “eye” here. Is so, what does that make the overall sentence means? I’m not really sure.
Could someone clear it up for me please? Thanks.


texts:
I have this sentence, and I have a feeling that the verbs and subjects do not agree with each other, and it continues to bother me. How can I fix it?

  Furthermore, both mates in a couple could also each be albino (aa), meaning that because each mate is homozygous recessive, each child would also be an albino, which is greater than just "a quarter of all babies."

Excuse the weird sentence, but does it make sense? I bolded the words where I think I may have made my mistakes.


texts: Which one of these sentences is better? A thesis title - Apostrophes Showing Possession

texts:
Sentence 1 : The comparison of Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî’s "Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud" and "Umdet'ül- Kârî" books

Sentence 2 : Comparison of the "Şerhu Süneni Ebû Davud" and "Umdet'ül- Kârî" books of Muhammed Bedruddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî

Sentence 1 comes to me as more appealing and looking better. However, I am not sure which one is better for academic writing


texts:
(Sorry for the lack of proper terms in this question)

I noticed that in this example:

This page's content [...]

The word "page" is used with an apostrophe-s. I thought 's should only be used when the literal translation is "[this] page is [...]"

Can someone please clarify this use?


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase "Land Sakes"?

texts:
In a children's story I was reading the other day, one of the characters said

  "Land Sakes"

...from the context of the story, it must be to indicate they are surprised?

It was completely foreign to me and I just generally wanted to know more about it


texts: Can "process" be used as an intransitive verb?

texts:
I am currently spending some time creating a (partial) Liferay translation for the Greek language, and I came upon this original English message text:

  Your request processed successfully.

Can the verb "process" be used intransitively in this manner? Or would this be the correct form?

  Your request was processed successfully.


texts: Is there a difference between saying "Members are" and "All members are"?

texts:
Which is grammatically correct and why?

Members are requested to pay their subscriptions in time.
All the Members are requested to pay their subscriptions in time.


texts: "I was honored to have known him" grammar

texts:
Could someone explain to me the grammar of the second sentence below?
Why is it to have known and not to know?

  He was one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. I was honored
  to have known him.

"What happened to him?”

“He died.”

Thank you!


texts: What does "as big around as you can reach" mean?

texts:
It is a quote by Lao-Tze:

  A tree as big around as you can reach starts with a small seed; a thousand-mile journey starts with one step"

I understand what the quote is trying to get at, but I don't understand what "as big around as you can reach" means literally.


texts:
In a code comment:
# The code will first check if it's running under benchmarking mode
# or evaluation mode, depending on 'eval':
# Under the evaluation mode, this script will read a saved model,
#   and compute the accuracy of the model **against** a validation dataset.

I cannot understand its usage even after reading the dictionary.


texts: Why do North Americans pronounce "caramel" as "carmel"?

texts:
"Caramel", which (clearly) has an "a" in the middle, has only this spelling world wide.
But in my experience, North Americans (Canadians too) don't pronounce the middle "a". They pronounce it exactly like the girl's name Carmel. From my experience, all Americans pronounce it without the "a" and all other places pronounce it with the middle "a" voiced.
Why is that?
Can this difference in pronunciation be traced to a root cause?


texts: Unsplitting infinitives and change of meaning

texts:
I've been watching Generative Syntax from the University of Edinburgh on youtube and in chapter 1.1 while describing prescriptivism Prof. Caroline Heycock talks about Splitting infinitives (and the proscription of it by many prescriptivists).

She gives,

  "He decided to quickly leave the room."

as an example of a split infinitive construction, which she then proceeds to "fix" by changing it to

  "He decided quickly to leave the room."

Now I've been thinking about it for a while and to me that strongly sounds as a changed meaning. While I understand the first sentence to quite unambiguously mean that the "leaving of the room" was quick. The second "fixed" sentence to me sounds very much as though "his decision" was quick rather then the manner in which he left the room. I can just persuade myself that the second form should be read sort of archaically so as to apply the quickly to the speed of leaving rather then of the decision but it doesn't sound right.

My question is, can this be fixed without radically altering the sentence?

My feeling is that

  "He quickly decided to leave the room."

Unambiguously qualifies the decision as quick, but the last version I can come up with

  "He decided to leave the room quickly."

even though here I tend to parse the "quickly" as modifying the speed of exit still sounds slightly stilted and still not as unambiguous as the version with the split infinitive.


texts: Is there a single origin for the connection between the beguiled and gullible?

texts:
I was thinking that there might be a connection between beguiled and gullible because of the similarity of their letters and their meaning.
I believe there's a connection because gullible means easily beguiled or deceived and beguiled means to deceive.

So that led me to my research about if be-guile-ible got shortened to gullible at some point in history. However any other connection that is found is acceptable.

The origin of beguiled (through guile) by Google leads the origin being from old Norse

the origin of gullible leads only to the 19th century by Google

Is there a single, deeper origin for the connection between beguiled and gullible?


texts: Which preposition should follow the verb to upload — to, on, or something else?


texts: Converting a sentence to passive with "would"

texts:
I know how passive voice is created in general:

  He is rich => He is said to be rich.

  People say that he's not able to win => He's said not to be able to
  win.

There is a sentence:

  He would like to increase our profit.

How can I make a passive of that, I am confused because of the "would".
How to transform this sentence to a passive voice?

  He is said to (?)


texts: Meanings of word "nick" in British English

texts:
Word nick seems to be used to describe many things.  According to the dictionary, the main meanings are:

a small notch, groove, chip, or the like, cut into or existing in something.
a hollow place produced in an edge or surface by breaking, chipping, or the like.
a small dent or wound.

And other similar meanings, both nouns and verbs.

In British English (mostly slang level), word nick may also refer to a prison or a police station, but at the same time it may also mean to steal.  While I can make a guess that a prison cell is a small hollow place (of sort) and hence further a police station may be called a nick, I'm puzzled as to the meaning to steal. How could it have come about?


texts:
What is the rule to follow when we add number to indicate the year in congratulating sentences?
I'm sorry for my bad english.


texts:
a - There will be an employment fair held tomorrow.
b - An employment fair will be held tomorrow.

*IF (a) is correct, kindly explain the structure of the sentence. Thank you.


texts: A word or phrase that someone says frequently is called what? As an example, a friend says the phrase "Faithful God" frequently, say 15 times in day. So, what English word defines the term "Faithful God" with respect to the friend?


texts: I can't remember the word to describe sleazy politicians who just make fake promises?

texts:
The word i think start from D but i could be wrong. Its is used to describe politician who duped people by making tall promises but don't do anything.
Please Help


texts:
“what does your brother usually eat for lunch?”

  “Well, he likes eating Japanese food”

  “Well, he likes eating the Japanese food”

Can anyone tell me which sentence is correct?


texts:
Given the following sentence, in the context of a video about flying a plane:

  The heading remained unchanged prior to 02:50

Reversing the meaning of this:

  The heading remained unchanged after 02:50

Is there another word you can use other than "after"?

Aside: this is possibly a bad example, since "after" isn't a bad fit in that sentence.


texts:
I'm used to "pseudo" in academic contexts, where the word/prefix has no connotation at all. It essentially means "not genuine":

Pseudorandom
Pseudoprime
Pseudoephedrine
Pseudo-atoll

I was about to use the word in normal conversation, but I wondered about its connotation outside of academia.  I'm glad I withheld, because it seems to be quite negative upon first glance!  A quick google for "pseudo" gives plenty of synonyms:

  bogus, sham, phony, artificial, mock, ersatz, quasi-, fake, false, spurious, deceptive, misleading, assumed, contrived, affected, insincere;

Those vary from neutral to negative in connotation.  Oxford's definition and examples are neutral to negative as well:

  pseu·do

  adjective
  1. Not genuine; sham
  2. informal Pretentious or insincere

But that "definition" is one of many I found that is little more than a list of synonyms, and synonyms don't necessary imply connotation.  Does colloquial use of "pseudo" inherently carry negative connotation?  Or is it context-dependent like in academia?

Colloquially, when used with certain nouns, a negative connotation is obvious.  For instance, calling someone "pseudo intellectual," accuses them of only pretending to be intelligent, which implies that they are not actually intelligent.

A positive connotation seems possible, but if the answer to my question is affirmative, then I'm just misusing the word.  Say I have a friend who's claiming laziness despite actual hard work and success.  I could say to him, "you're only being pseudo incompetent, quit downplaying your achievements!"  That sounds strictly positive, but I might just be misusing the word.


texts: Can I use an emphatic "did" in the passive past tense?

texts:
Can I use the emphatic did in the past passive, or is it only for the active tense? For example:

  "The Romans did build the bridges!" (active voice)

How would I say that in the passive voice?

I was thinking:

  "The bridges did used to be built by the Romans!" (passive? with emphatic did? I am not sure)

Any suggestions?


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase "Hold the Pen"?

texts:
I've heard colleagues in my office say things like "I want you to hold the pen on this" or "I'll hold the pen on this".

My sense is that it means being the primary person responsible. I wanted to know if this is a common English language phrase and if it means what I think it means. I have googled this but was unable to find anything on it.

Well, I'm in the Singapore office of an American company. The folks I've heard this from are Indian, Malay, and Scottish. Some googling told me that the State Department uses this phrase to mean that while you may be writing something, the intellectual property and the views belong to the state department. By holding the pen, you're merely a drafter. This is quite a different meaning from the one the folks in my unit seem to use it in.


texts: "Attendant with" vs. "attendant to" vs. "attendant of"

texts:
Can the adjective attendant be used with the prepositions with, to, or of, and, if so, which is preferable?

For example, I could say, "This manual describes the operation of the product and its attendant risks," but could I also say, "This manual describes risks that are attendant with the operation of the product"?


texts: What is the difference between "on" and " upon" in these sentences?

texts:
There are clauses like:

  This is an equipment that stiffens on the collisions.

and

  This is an equipment that stiffens upon the collisions.

What is the difference between on and upon in the above sentences?

Which one is more suitable for this situation?


texts: When can the relative pronouns "who", "which", "that" etc. be safely omitted?

texts:
For example, instead of

  The guy who is beside me is a jerk

I can say

  The guy beside me is a jerk.

It is okay if I don't use the relative pronoun here, either way is correct. But instead of "The guy who sits beside me is a jerk" I cannot say "The guy sits beside me is a jerk." And I cannot say "The people sit beside me are jerks." or "The people sit beside me keep changing." etc.

What is the rule about this? In what situations do I have a chance to not to use the relative pronoun?


texts:
Watching an old episode of Home Improvement recently,

  Eavesdropping Neighbour: I was just hearing some tidbits of your
  conversation.

  Tim: Sounds to me like you heard the whole tid.

This sounded as a dialogue writer's invention to me. Is there any known usage of the word "tid" to mean the "whole part of something" or does it have any standalone meaning?


texts:
What's the meaning of "tibbies" in this context. The quote is from one of Richard Laymon's books:

  "You killed her, so you get first tibbies. So take the head. Everybody
  does. 'cause the brain's the best part. So you take first tibbies on
  the head, and give it to me."

I googled it and the results were mainly a dog breed which is not obviously how it is used in this book. I even checked Urban Dictionary but couldn't find an appropriate definition that would fit in this context.


texts:
I heard this in a movie. What does it mean?

  My time, as does most time, comes with a price. You make time.


texts: Direct speech inside another direct speech

texts:
Please, I'm not sure how in American English this "direct speech inside another direct speech" should be written properly. Here it is this sentence:

  "He was five and a half meters from her and he was talking to her, softly. He told her: 'Please, try to calm yourself down. Everything will be OK'."

The use of the quotation marks is it correct? Thank you everybody in advance for your help!

Andrea Iovinelli


texts:
I'm watching an episode, some may recall which one, of a comedy show and one guy says something like this if I hear correctly:

"I looked this woman in her optic stems"

which is part of the joke, however attempting to browse around looking for the meaning did not yield any result. Is it a short form/slang of Optical System?

Can anyone shed some light on those terms?


texts: Correct translatation of the German word "Folgeverhalten" in the technical domain of control feedback systems

texts:
I have asked various online dictionaries about the translation of the German word Folgeverhalten.

At these dictionaries it is translated as "subsequent behaviour" or "following behavior". I am in doubt that this is the correct translation because the example that are given there seem to target another domain.

I will use this term the field of control feedback systems (engineering). I would describe this as the "control feedback quality of a step response".

Google did not help, either. Perhaps I'm using the wrong search terms. I also read some English literature about this topics, but I could not find the English counterpart of it. Is there one at all?

Same applies to the german word Störverhalten (also term in control feedback)

What is here the correct translation of Folgeverhalten and Störverhalten?

Edit:

Based on the answer of mplungjan I found the translation.

Tracking performance — Folgeverhalten
Disturbance rejection performance — Störverhalten

It is for example used here:
http://www.mathworks.de/de/help/slcontrol/ug/tune-pid-controller-to-balance-tracking-and-disturbance-rejection-performance.html


texts:
Possible Duplicates:
  Should I Put Myself Last (“me and you” vs “you and me”)?
  When do I use “I” instead of “me?”
  Who wants ice-cream?

When identifying people in a photo—for instance,

  John, Valencia, and (I or me).

should I use ”I” or “me”? Which one is grammatically correct?


texts: How to describe something that's slower than it could be, but it guarantees success eventually?

texts:
I'm trying to name a module in a piece of software. The module guarantees the delivery of messages sent on a network connection that's only available intermittently, and makes no guarantees about when the delivery might be.

Is there a word than can sum up that behaviour? I've toyed with 'best-effort' but that implies the opposite of guaranteed delivery.


texts: Is there a single term for the sports "surfing", "skateboarding", and "snowboarding"?

texts: The three sports "surfing", "skateboarding", and "snowboarding" share a lot of similarities, historical roots, and sometimes appear together in topical magazines. Is there a single term to call these three sports?


texts: Can I insert a prepositional phrase between an attributive clause and its antecedent?

texts:
For example:

He eats an apple which I picked yesterday.

If I want to modify the apply by a prepositional phrase, can I say:

He eats an apple above the table which I picked yesterday.

If I can't, how can I express the same meaning within one sentence?


texts: How far back in time does "recent past" mean in the following sentence when applying for law enforcement?

texts:
How far back in time does "recent past" mean in the following sentence when applied to law enforcement?

  Have you used Marijuana or any illicit narcotics within the recent past?


texts: is there a word "merablum"? maybe "merablem"? It means scrap or remnant of food left on a plate. I always thought it was a word but I googled it and - nothing. Is Google unaware of it or is it a made up word? Grandpa and Grandma Turner always used it. Grandpa did sometimes use Hindi words, it's true, but this I thought was English. The merablums are the best bits. Like the crunchy bits. Help.


texts: Do "Ku" or "Klux" have any historical meaning beyond being associated with the Klan?

texts:
I would like to know about how the name of this group was formed. According to Etymonline the terms Ku Kux have a Greek origin, but it does not give  more information:

  1867, American English, originally Kuklux Klan , a made-up name, supposedly from Greek kuklos, kyklos "circle".

Can anyone provide  more information about the origin of the terms "Ku Klux" and how they came to be associated with  the well-know Klan?


texts:
For example someone wants to use both their nationality and occupation in their nickname (e.g. serb and coder), what is a better choice:

coding serb
coder serb

I understand basic semantic difference. For me coder is an occupation and coding is basically something you happen to do at the moment. I just want to know how it sounds for the natives. How would they perceive the semantics of both options?


texts: Where did the slang word "basic" come from?

texts: How did the word basic come to be used as slang for "the majority" or "the conformed." Where was it's first usage as such a word? Is it a new internet frenzy or has this word been used as slang before?


texts: Use of possessive apostrophe in a list and order of words

texts:
I would like to know what Lucy, Mary and a third person  think - taking into account they might have different opinions.
Would the following sentence be correct?

I would like to know Lucy's, Mary's and your thoughts on this issue.


texts: Is one operation on two separate things singular or plural?

texts:
I have the following sentence:
"Burning fossil fuels like oil and gas is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities"

My question is whether I should use singular or plural ragarding the source? So an alternative would be:
"Burning fossil fuels like oil and gas are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities"


texts: Pronouncing Dictionary.com's W.O.D "vade mecum" in English

texts:
The Word of the Day for April 7th, 2019 on Dictionary.com is vade mecum, coming from the Latin expression vāde mēcum meaning something like "come along with me." Dictionary.com lists the pronunciation options as,

  [vey-dee mee-kuh m, vah-]

It's been some time since I've studied Latin, but a couple of discrepancies are obvious to me here. In Latin, this would be pronounced

  wah deɪ meɪ cum/[wah-day may kum]

There's no "v" sound in Latin. That changes to "w". This change is understandable though. Nobody pronounces veni, vidi, vici with the "w" sound. However, the long A and E sounds they're using in the first syllables of both words are also absent in Latin, and, in thinking of some other Latin loan words--caveat, sine qua non, dramatis personae, carpe diem--I don't think I've encountered those vowel sounds before. So, considering that Dictionary.com is somewhat authoritative in providing pronunciation guidance, what are they basing their pronunciation on; and, further, how faithful should one be in pronouncing Latin words in English?


texts: What is a word similar to sour grapes but in a relationship context?

texts:
I'll clarify the question. Here's the scenario:
Person 1 and person 2 are in a relationship. Person 2 breaks up with person 1. Person 1 is hurt and doesn't want the breakup, but they act as if they did (for example, "that's your loss," "didn't want to be in that relationship anyway," etc.).

The sentence would either go like: Person 1 acted [adverb] after the breakup.
OR Person 1 [verb] after the breakup.

There's a similar question with answers like "feigning delight" but I'm looking for something with almost a spiteful connotation. I'm also looking for something in more formal language, i.e. "sour grapes" isn't cutting it for me right now.

Thanks!


texts: Observe in vs observe about vs observe of

texts:
This came out of a casual conversation with a friend - and now all three sound correct to us; could someone please confirm if it’s correct to say -
1. I observed this about you, or
2. I observed this in you, or
3. I observed this of you


texts: The IT industry is developing now and will be developing in the future? Is that correct?

texts:
I have had some argument with my teacher about this phrase. He said that it isn't correct to construct to say in that way:

  The IT industry is developing now and will be developing in the future?

And said that correct form of this sentence would be something like that

  The IT industry is developing now and will be being developed in the future?

But why? Can you explain me why it has to be that way?

I guest it because The IT Industry cannot develop itself, somebody has to do it. And in this case he have to use passive voice (an force is being applied to the industry)

But why is it possible to say in active voice?

  The IT industry is developing

Or can you explain how to properly construct this sentence (or something similar, where object by itself can't do anything and somebody else has to do something towards this object to change its state).


texts:
I am if sure if this sentence sounds correct or not,

"you can tell Rachel that your and her hunch was right"

For some reason my brain wants me to change the 'your' to 'yours'. Also should the 'hunch was' be plural or not?


texts: What is the difference between "simulate" and "emulate"?

texts:
The words clearly have a similar meaning. But I think there must be a subtle difference.

e.g. You get a "flight simulator", but an "ipad emulator".

Both are pieces of software for replicating the behaviour of something. So why are the words not interchangable?


texts:
This computer program treats photonic crystals like a periodic set of cylinders

I am having a hard time to figure out if I should use like or as in this sentence.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Word or phrase for this particular action

texts:
What do you call when someone does something that they already wanted to do but only do it because they saw someone else do it?

For example the Brexit business, or America after Trump became president. After these phenomenons people started saying racist things, and it kind of revealed what they actually wanted to say, but only did so because other people were doing it too. They probably know it's bad, but they want to say it, and they do because other people are saying it too, I assume.

I'm giving a presentation on Brexit and the title would be something like this: "Brexit and racism: causation, correlation and _______"


texts:
One of my favorite bands, Knuckle Puck, released a new album yesterday.
So, there is a track, named "Conduit" (full lyrics here)
And the chorus there sounds like that:

If all you are is under the surface
Then why is it so hard to be a
conduit?

In Oxford Dictionaries the meaning of conduit is

NOUN
1 A channel for conveying water or other fluid. ‘nearby springs
supplied the conduit which ran into the brewery’
1.1 A person or organization that acts as a channel for the transmission of something. ‘as an actor you have to be a conduit for
other people's words’ More example sentences
2 A tube or trough for
protecting electric wiring. ‘the gas pipe should not be close to any
electrical conduit’ mass noun ‘the cable must be protected by conduit’

So, regarding this, it suppose to be mean some person that acts as a channel for the transmission of something.
But I don't really get it, what exactly it could mean here?
P.S. My apologies if it's really stupid question, just let me know, guys.


texts: "One and the same" or "One in the same"?

texts:
Which is correct?

  One in the same...

or

  One and the same...

A quick google-vote says the former is "correct".


texts: extreme situations in a fuzzy phenomenon

texts:
I wanna point to extreme cases of a fuzzy phenomenon but I don't know how to call them:

- two ends of the spectrum
- two head of the spectrum
- ...

I'm wondering if someone tell me, how a native speaker call it.


texts: Is there any synonym for the word Sword/Knife/Blade that starts with a V or W?

texts: As the title says i need a synonym or even something more "removed" that could mean something akin to a bladed weapon that starts either with a V or W.


texts: “Who’s volunteer” or “who’s a volunteer” or ...?

texts:
in a classroom, a teacher wants to see who in the class is willing to come for a short presentation. Which of the following should the teacher say?

Who’s volunteer?
Who’s a volunteer?
Who’s volunteering?
Who can volunteer?

Which version is correct and which is wrong?


texts: What vs. which as relative pronouns in relative clauses

texts:
When are you supposed to use "what" vs. "which" as a relative pronoun in a relative clause?
According to Purdue's Online Writing Lab:

The most common relative pronouns are who/whom, whoever/whomever, whose, that, and which. (Please note that in certain situations, "what," "when," and "where" can function as relative pronouns.)

But it doesn't mention when you should use "what" in that particular role.
Some other examples are:

Where did you buy the dress what you wore last week?
You're that smart banker what killed his wife.

There was an ESL quiz from Singapore where "what" filled in the blank in the following sentence (and "which" was explicitly marked incorrect by the teacher):

This orchestra, ______ these musicians are from, is very good.

According to "First Book in English Grammar" in 1868:

The pronoun what is a relative, when equivalent to that which; when not, it is an interrogative.

Did this use of the pronoun "what" become "officially" ungrammatical at some point?


texts:
Is the word 'concomitant' utilized only when intention attends the usage? The word 'attendant' means the same in many cases but doesn't seem to carry the sense of intentional concurrency. Should these two words be treated as we treat 'look' and 'see', 'listen' and 'hear'? (I was thinking about these examples... 'look' is intentioned while 'see' is not necessarily intentioned.)

(information from some later comments made by the original poster):

In fact, I think I have it all backwards. I was focused less on definition and more on application - but after another click, 'Attend' seems to suggest more intention than 'concomitant' (Merriam-Webster: "attend").
There is even a suggestion that no intention attends the usage (Merriam-Webster: "concomitant").


texts:
Below is the excerpt from English Proficiency Test

Our professional designers produce high-quality custom logo designs (a) that exhibit just the image (b) that our clients want to project.

Question 1 Are there any difference between (a) that or (b) that grammatically?

If so, what would be the proper term for denoting their difference?

Question 2
In informal style, one can leave out the relative pronoun. However, as far as I know, this leave-out permitted only in case of in that relative clauses, the relative pronoun denotes the intention/object of the verb.

In addition to it, we can’t leave out the relative pronoun when it is the subject of the verb in infinite relative clauses. Do I understand correctly?


texts:
I'm new on this site and want to ask for your help with english learning. I read an article which said "a man is the owner of I Sold in Cash Provision Store." Does it mean that if you want to buy something in his store,you have to pay by ready money?
And then here is another sentence: Rotate Provision and Fancy Store was everything Cash Provision Store wasn’t. I want to know if "everything" here means the former store has more things to sell than the latter one? Thanks in advance.


texts:
OED lists two ways of pronouncing negotiate:

Brit. /nᵻˈɡəʊʃɪeɪt/ , /nᵻˈɡəʊsɪeɪt/

Which British dialects use /s/ rather than /ʃ/ and in what contexts does this difference appear?


texts: "In the preceding paragraph" vs "in the last paragraph"

texts:
I am writing an academic paper.
After finishing paragraph A, I want to refer to A in paragraph B, which follows A.
I am confused with choosing "in the preceding paragraph" or "in the last paragraph".
Both of them seem fine.
Do these two phrases only differ in popularity? I think "in the preceding paragraph" is used
more widely.
Or "in the preceding paragraph" is more formal?
Thanks in advance.


texts: Single Word Request for an adjective to replace my use of the word "gay" to describe

texts:
Single word request for an adjective to describe the disdain and contempt I feel toward someone else's cringe-inducing, affected, precious and pretentious behavior.

I currently say that behaviour is “gay” and I want to stop using that word improperly. Here is example I found of what I mean:


texts: What does it mean to "squeal on someone"

texts:
What does it mean?

  He can't squeal on him.


texts:
recently some on in LinkedIn send a message to me:

Thank you for connecting with me! I am recruiting for an Android Developer role (multiple levels) for a company whose product mostly likely impacts you every time you go out to eat. Come be part of a team making technology for seamless customer experiences for millions of people.
.
.
.
Warm Regards,
.
.
.

and I answer him like this:

Hi _,
thanks for informing me about this position.
and yes I'm interested and I want to know more.

but I did not hear from him back. is there anything wrong or rude in my answer?


texts:
Since being introduced to the bean bag-toss game of the same name, I've wondered about this word. The old farm game, similar to horseshoes, has recently gained such popularity that Googling cornhole is now anodyne. Aficionados are unapologetic about the game's name, but given the word's unsavory history, introducing the game to the unfamiliar can still be sheepish.

Checking Etymonline, I was surprised to find this:

  cornhole
  synonymous with "do anal intercourse" by 1930s, apparently the reference is to a game played in the farming regions of the Ohio Valley in the U.S. from 19c., in which players take turns throwing a small bag full of feed corn at a raised platform with a hole in it.

Does the game's name really predate the word's other meaning(s)? Where did the other meanings (I've seen it used as a noun and a verb) originate? I'm interested in any substantiated clues to the historical development of this Americanism.


texts: What does 'hanged' mean in this context?

texts:
LOMOV: Excuse me; I cannot continue this discussion: my heart is palpitating.
NATALYA STEPANOVNA: I've noticed that those hunters argue most who know least.
LOMOV: Madam, please be silent. ... My heart is going to pieces. ... [Shouts] Shut up!
NATALYA STEPANOVNA: I shan't shut up until you acknowledge that Squeezer is a hundred times better than your Guess!
LOMOV: A hundred times worse! Be hanged to your Squeezer! His head ... eyes ... shoulder ...
NATALYA STEPANOVNA: There's no need to hang your silly Guess; he's half-dead already!
LOMOV: [Weeps] Shut up! My heart's bursting!
NATALYA STEPANOVNA: I shan't shut up.

(This extract is from The Proposal by Anton Chekhov. "Guess" and "Squeezer" are the names of the characters' dogs.)
What does Lomov mean by "be hanged"?


texts:
71 people were rescued from the sinking ferry by the Latvian helicopter crew. (This is not wrong, but it is untidy.)
The Latvian helicopter crew rescued 71 people from the sinking ferry.  (This re-worded version is tidier.)
Seventy-one people were rescued from the sinking ferry by the Latvian helicopter crew.  (In this version, the number has been
written in full to avoid starting the sentence with 71.)

Above are the examples from grammar-monster.
Are the guidelines sound, and backed by a recognised authority?
Is there any limit to the number, I mean, does the same rule apply to the following sentence:

7100 people were rescued from the sinking ferry by the Latvian helicopter crew.


texts:
Taken from this article (image):

  ...indulge in a $5 coffee...

How should I read this? Is it a five dollars coffee or a five dollar coffee?


texts:
When ordering these two names of places, which is first? Why?

Newark, New York


texts: Can something be both a subject and an object in a sentence?

texts:
For example:

"The gladiators killed bulls but not before they killed quite a few gladiators as well."

In that sentence, "gladiators" is the subject, the verb is "killed" and "bulls" is the object but "bulls" is also the subject doing the verb, "killed" (2nd) as well. It would appear that bulls is both an object and a subject, am I correct?


texts:
There is the article 'Practice really does make perfect' at http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/practice-really-does-make-perfect

My question is why adverb is placed before 'does make'? Is 'do make' one word?


texts:
Throughout the history of Europe, from the beginnings of heraldry up
  to our time, national frontiers have shifted time and again, often as
  the result of war, but also for example through marriage or
  inheritance. (Volborth, Carl Alexander von., Heraldry of The World, pp177,178)

What is the grammatical relation of "time" in above sentence? Does it mean "frequently" in here?


texts:
Look at this famous phrase used by a British talkshow host when saying goodbye to his audience:

  'Nice to see you, to see you nice!'

Nobody in the UK (including my grandmother who was a frequent viewer) seemed to think it sounded strange...

I think it's grammatically acceptable - due to some missing but understood elements of the sentence.

Can you have a go at estimating what they may be?


texts: Why is a "Mystery in the Alley" a side of hash?

texts:
American 'Diner Lingo' seems to consist largely of humorous crossword-style references (Noah's boy = Slice of Ham, Mother and child reunion = chicken and egg sandwich, Dog soup =  water, etc).

Most seem fairly obvious in their origin but I'm totally at a loss to work out why a "mystery in the alley" is equivalent to "a side order of hash".

Is it simply that it looks like a big mess (e.g. that's been swept up from the alley behind the diner) or is there a more subtle derivation that I'm overlooking?


texts: Suggest a professional way to say this statement

texts:
A news reporter responded to a question as below:

  We have no idea about this.

I am not sure how correct this statement is in a professional environment.

Can someone please suggest if there is a better way to say this statement.


texts: What's the word for an alarm that goes so much such that it's ignored as inconsequential?

texts:
At an old work-site I heard alarms that went off too frequently described as "chattering alarms", which is the best term I can think of so far.

  Chattering alarms (alarms that repeat excessively in a short time interval) create a level of nuisance to the operator. - src

However it's not quite right because I'd like something that maybe captures how it becomes ignored.

I also don't particularly mean it in a "boy who cried wolf" scenario in that eventually the alarm will be important, moreso just that when someone's constantly being warned or advised, they just tune it out as insignificant.

Thanks in advance!


texts: If you haven't already watched my first video, there's a link to it in the description below. Ungrammatical?

texts:
I just finished recording an audio file for one of my podcasts.  And I'm debating whether I should delete the following sentence:

  If you haven't already watched my first video, there's a link to it in the description below.

I am trying to suggest to viewers that they watch my videos in order, which I think the sentence does.  But I think this sentence is also ungrammatical and nonsensical.

Whether or not my viewers have watched my first video, a link to that video will be in the description.

I suppose I could change it to

  If you haven't already watched my first video, please watch that first. You can find a link to it in the description below.

But changing audio files is such a pain.  Would it be ok to leave the sentence as is?


texts: Articles with initialisms: 'the' or no 'the', can both be correct?

texts:
(Skip to the end for the actual question.)
Definitions
According to Oxford Living Dictionaries, an initialism is:

"An abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately".

According to the OED's definition of acronyms, initialisms are also acronyms:

"A group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter or part being pronounced separately; an initialism".

General Examples
Many of those initialisms are used with the article 'the', some examples (using the abbreviation and writing the word or expression in its full form):

I live in the US. <=> I live in the United States.
The CIA operates globally. <=> The Central Intelligence Agency operates globally.

General 'rule' on the subject
I agree with this answer, which establishes that generally speaking, initialisms should be used with the word 'the':

"Whenever its full form (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is normally preceded by "the," I would expect its initialized form to be as well. "

Exceptions to the rule
I have, however, found that this is not always the case, for example with the initialism CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a public health institute in the US).
Another exception is 'ATF' (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, US law enforcement agency), which is mentioned briefly at the very end of the post.
First of all, we need to establish that the full form is commonly (perhaps not exclusively) written with 'the':

This seems to be the case in academia, 700 thousand+ results on Google Scholar
It also seems to be the case in the media: 160 thousand+ results on news.google.co.uk

Now some examples in which the initialism CDC is used without a definite article:

Some quotes from the CDC's own website:
"CDC is one organization"
"hard work make CDC a better organization"
Some more:
"Investing and acting globally enables CDC to be better prepared"
"Progress has been made in the year since CDC first responded to the Ebola outbreak"
"Recognizing that CDC’s nearly 30 years of collaboration"
Even more:
"the cornerstone of CDC’s mission of service "
"Today, CDC is one of the major operating components of"

"The CDC" is also used by many (where CDC is used as a noun):

There are 200 thousand+ results on news.google.co.uk.
There are almost half a million results in academia, according to Google Scholar.

My question
Are both versions correct? That is, can CDC and the CDC be used? If so, are they interchangeable or do both have their own use case?
Additionally, is there a reason why both versions are used with CDC, whereas most other initialisms seem to be used either with*, or without*, but not both?
*For completeness, a list of conventions
Initialisms which are almost without exception used with the:

FBI, CIA, BBC, ATM

Initialisms which are almost without exception used without the:

CERN, POTUS, FLOTUS, NATO, NASA, TLS, SSL

Initialisms which are sometimes used with, and sometimes without the:

CDC (see examples above), ATF (without, see first paragraph, this NYT article actually uses A.T.F. with and without the)


texts: Meaning of "How do I get featured?" in context of software development

texts:
This is my first question at English Language & Usage and I'm glad! My English is not so good and sometimes I feel myself very helpless when facing phrases like

  How do I get featured?

What does it mean? I've heard this phrase in Google I/O 2011 presentation and I can't figure it out.


texts: I want to describe my current research-assistant position saying that "I work under the advisory of John Green". Is this the correct way of saying that my advisor is John Green? If not, what is the better way to state the whole sentence?


texts: What's the difference between a spouse and an espoused partner?

texts:
I was looking at the Wikipedia article about Julian Assange, and was confused about this particular information:

  Spouse(s): Teresa Doe
  (married 1989; divorced 1999)
  Partner(s): Sarah Harrison
  (espoused 2009; separated 2012)

What exactly is an "espoused partner"? I understand "to espouse" as "to become a spouse", but if that were true Sarah Harrison would have been listed as a spouse.

What is the difference between the nature of a spouse relationship and a partner relationship? Does "partner" essentially mean "girlfriend" here, or does it have a more official significance? Is it typical to use the word "espoused" to refer to the beginning of a relationship as a "partner"?


texts: Do we use the word "disjoint" as a noun?

texts:
I've looked up in the dictionary and didn't find a noun form of the word disjoint.
What is the word if I want to mean the fact that 2 things are disjointed?


texts:
If I am not mistaken, the noun alternative has roots in the Latin word alter, which translates to: the other (of two).

My question would be: why does the word alternative have plural in English? It is clear from the definition of alter that to every possible choice there can be only one alternative?

To quote Oxford Dictionaries (link):

  Some traditionalists maintain that you can only have a maximum of two alternatives, because the word alternative comes from Latin alter ‘other (of two)’) and that uses where there are more than two alternatives are wrong. Such uses are, however, normal in modern standard English.

If the uses where there are more than two alternatives are considered to be wrong, why are they normal in modern standard English? Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

Remark. It is the same in several other languages (German and Croatian being two examples that I am aware of).


texts: Would pronouns be objective or subjective in this sentence?

texts:
Sentence:

  John's entire plan was nothing more than him/he and me/I walking by
  his neighbors' houses armed with twenty-eight inches of potentially
  bone-crushing sports equipment.

Should I use "he and I" or "him and me" in this sentence? I am actually an English teacher, but this sentence is giving me fits!


texts:
Currently I'm working on a presentation that has a video in it.

The video is at almost the end of presentation and 'till that there's only texts and speechs of mine.

So what I'm trying to say is
There was only words and talkings in the presentation, For that
just before the video starts I want to say

"Enough of talking, let's see a video that will help us understand"
Or
"Better looking than listening, Let's see a video that will help us understand"

meanig of "it's over with boring speech lets look at the video"

but I think the audiences might take this rude of me..
Could there be a better phrase that has more manners in it?


texts: Is there an English equivalent of the Hindi saying “sau chuhe maar billi haj ko chali”? (After killing/eating 100 mice, the cat goes on a pilgrimage)

texts:
In Hindi language, there is a prevalent saying:

  sau chuhe maar billi haj ko chali

which, if directly translated into English, becomes

  After killing/eating 100 mice, the cat goes on a pilgrimage

I think the translation is enough to convey the essence of the proverb. However, it doesn't quite pack the punch as its Hindi counterpart.

So what I am looking for is a similar proverb in English.

UPDATE

So, apparently, the translation conveys the essence to me due to my hindsight knowledge. My apologies.

Though I am not aware of the etymology – I picked the proverb from day-to-day usage – I can explain its essence. Basically, it could be used to describe a situation in which an entity, after intentionally inflicting a heavy damage, performs some 'good' deed, often as a cover-up.

I will try to put some context to the usage through examples.

A conglomerate, after ravaging a diverse ecosystem and profiting out of it, goes on to donate some negligible amount of money as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.
It could also be applied to the case of that guy, Jimmy Swaggart, repenting in public.

I hope this clears the air.


texts: When referring to computer coding, would the correct verb spelling (in British English) be "to program" or "to programme"?

texts:
I already know that there are different spellings in British and US English for "programme". Usually, I refer to a computer program with the US spelling as all programming is done in US English, so it only seems appropriate.

But what about the verb? Do you program something or do you programme something in British English?


texts:
"I could not afford a bicycle much less a car."

I wanna know what does this word "much less " mean ?


texts: Can the schwa[ə] sound be made even in the word calm, while which is being said in the sentences?


texts: After I abbreviate do I need to use "the" before?

texts:
After I use an acronym or abbreviation should I continue using "the" in front of it? I'm assumption is no. Example:

"...at the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Headquarters in Chantilly, VA."

Then later:

"For a number of years, IAFC has convened a round-table..."


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the pronunciation of “the”?

I've noticed that the word the is not always pronounced in the same way depending on the sound of the next word. I think it may be like the word a/an:

an for words starting with a vowel sound: e.g. owl, honest person
a for words starting with a consonant sound: e.g. dog, user

Is there any rule for this? What would be the exact sound for each case (please give a similar word with the same sound to have an idea)?


texts: Can I use a semicolon when linking a sentence fragment and a question?

texts:
Are there guidelines for using semi-colons in any of these kinds of circumstances (where a sentence fragment links with a question)? Please note that the words cannot be changed and dashes are prohibited as I am transcribing a conversation.

I was trying to leave; asking them to let me go.
She kept texting me; "What's up," "Want to go for a walk in the park?"
How did you feel about that; not having to go to work?
So why did you say what you did; "No," and later "I don't know"?
So about that cake; you made it yourself?
Talk about that for a moment; your tardiness, that is.
You bought icing; chocolate, right?
Is that something you regularly do; buy chocolate icing?


texts: "Whenever you arrive/are arrived/were arrived"

texts:
Which one of these sentences is grammatically correct? Would it be alright if the other sentences were being used in daily conversations?

  Let me know whenever you arrive.

  Let me know whenever you're arrived.

  Let me know whenever you were arrived.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Correct position of “only”
  Use of “only” and word-order

Should one say

  The bidders shall not be permitted to bid for one or two tenders only.

or

  The bidders shall not be permitted to bid for only one or two tenders.


texts:
I have come across, more and more frequently, that writers move the verb forward in sentences like:
Today some English teachers attend to grammatical niceties in a more analytical way than did their predecessors

in stead of

...than their predecessors did.

Is it an American/British difference? What is the King's choice (assuming he speaks the King's English)?


texts: Definition: Twofold, Threefold and Fourfold

texts:
It is "Twofold" racking my nerve for a while.

Not only should "Twofold" be taken into consideration but a series of them, like- threefold, fourfold, fivefold and so forth.

Should I consider them a replacement of double, triple, four times, five times.

If this is the case, below paragraphs makes no sense to me.

"The importance of this shift in focus is twofold. First, although cognitive models of job satisfaction such as Locke’s (1969) value– percept theory have a certain level of validity, they do not explain a majority of the variance in job satisfaction. Similarly, the dispositional sources of job satisfaction, although important, likewise do not fully explain individual differences in job satisfaction (Ilies & Judge, 2002) and do little to “enlighten the underlying process” (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996, p. 9). Second, because much of the temporal variation in job satisfaction may therefore be due to variation in mood or affect (Fisher, 2002), studying the affective foundations of job satisfaction may allow us to better predict and understand job satisfaction as it is experienced by individuals. Thus,"

What exactly does twofold mean? as far as I understand it, it is used having two different meanings.

amounts what are increased by multiplying them 2, 3, 4 ,5 ans so forth.
two or more different things having dissimilarity to one another having same concept.

Am I correct?


texts:
I thought it was incorrect to say I myself as in:

  I myself don’t like this idea.

However, last night I was watching the second Harry Potter movie, and one of the characters said:

  In case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions.

I think there might be a difference between the two, but I wonder whether the first one is correct or even whether the second might be wrong.


texts: What is the role of "that" leading the sentence?

texts:
This is a sentence in the Queen's speech regarding the fight against Covid-19. It starts with a "that" which I think is not necessary. As "the attributes" already serve as the subject of the sentence, then what is the role of "That"?

I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how
they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say
the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the
attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of
fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we
are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.


texts: Correct spelling for the abbreviation "FPS" (frames per second)

texts:
Well-known game journalists TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling use [the number of frames per second] fps instead of 30FPS or 30 FPS, without an intervening space between the units and the following units (like 30fps or 60fps).
Example One
http://www.thejimquisition.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mutants-in-manhattan-review/

PC users will be delighted to know it’s [the game] locked at 30fps on all
platforms.

Example Two
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9393382-The-Framerate-Police/

24fps lock
30fps lock

In my opinion 30 FPS (with space) is correct. Who is right?


texts: What word refers to how recent something is?

texts:
I feel like there's a really obvious word but I cannot bring it to mind. What word can I use to describe how recent or "fresh" something is? I've considered "recency" but it doesn't quite have the connotations I'm after. I want to describe how recently something was used.

I don't intend using it in a sentence but rather as one metric among several. Example metrics:

Experience (rated low to high)
Appeal (rated low to high)
Recency (rated 1 year ago to now)

I'd really prefer a single word here, but that's under the assumption that there is actually something better than "recency".


texts: What's the proper context to use this phrase? And who would usually say something like this? Sounds very childish.


texts: The act of baiting someone into (incorrectly) calling bullshit

texts:
Is there a single word, or commonly-used term, to describe the act of baiting another person into calling bullshit, when in fact you're not bullshitting?

Conceptually, this either a sub-type, or the direct opposite, of bluffing, which is the act of pretending you have better cards than you actually hold, in order to scare your opponent into folding.

The word I'm looking for will describe (metaphorically) the act of pretending you have worse cards than you actually hold, in order to bait your opponent into calling you.

I'm looking for a word which implies "actively misleading" (as in lying); examples might be a basketball player faking left (in order to make his guard shift left, so he can go around to the right) or generally faking out.

This is not restricted to gambling (just as "bluffing" is not restricted to poker), I'm only using gambling terminology to make my meaning clear.


texts: IS or ARE, when do you use one or the other?

texts:
The 1% is doing it.

The 1% are doing it.

Which of the sentences is/are correct?


texts: What is the exact meaning of the following sentence?

texts:
What is the exact meaning of the sentence below?

  We can't try to get away with something in an academic paper that we would abhor in a political debate (or worse yet, in a political advertisement).

The sentence is from the first paragraph of the article 'Being Logical'.

Especially, where does the something belong initially? In an academic paper or in a political debate?


texts:
Well, the title question says it all I think:

A footnote refers to the wrong document - what is a word to describe this kind of mistake?

Words like "discrepancy", "incongruence", "fallacy", or simply "mistake" may be fine, but I am presuming this specific kind of error has its own terminology.


texts:
Four meters of cloth is/are required.

Which one is appropriate? I think it's are but I ain't sure...

I got confused because the discussion regarding the SV Agreement commonly talks about the fraction before of-phrase (like "one-half of the cake").


texts: Does the word butterfly derive from transposition of word order, i.e., "flutter by"? Several dictionaries that I looked this up in so long ago that I've forgotten which ones, said either "origin unknown" or referred to butter, or German or Dutch words for butter, which doesn't seem to make sense, in that butterflies seek to ingest flower nectar, not butter.


texts: Meaning of "You might want to sit down for this"

texts:
And thanks, too, for contacting me, because you need to hear what I have to say. You might want to sit down for this. If you’re on anti-anxiety medication, all the better.

What does the columnist mean by saying "You might want to sit down for this"?


texts: A word or phrase for when something gets reported in the news and then similar stories follow

texts:
I'm trying to locate a word or phrase which describes this situation: when a relatively unusual news item is reported and then, in the following days, suddenly other examples of the same thing are reported.

It tends to happen with stories like dog attacks. What brought it to my mind this time was the execution of Cecil the lion being followed by reports (apparently untrue) of the death of Jericho the lion.  A second lion story was covered because of the huge interest in the first story.

The word or phrase I'm looking for is likely to be of recent origin.

A similar concept is "frequency illusion", where the mind is biased to observe patterns where none exists - for example, you see a blue car and suddenly you keep noticing blue cars and you think that blue cars are much more common than they really are.


texts: About people working in 2 or more institutions?

texts:
About people working in 2 or more institutions: which of the variants below is correct?

  those affiliated with/to/in two or more institutions

(My question is about using the term "affiliated", so please do not advise using e.g. "working at/in", etc.)


texts: Etymology of the phrase "cannot see the forest for the trees"

texts:
How did this phrase originate grammatically? I’m especially interested in the fragment “for the trees”.

See http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/see_the_forest_for_the_trees for its definition.


texts: Having a progressive verb and a gerund in a sentence

texts: Can we have two "ing" form in this way: "I'm thinking of settling down at 25" if so, is this the correct sentence break down I-subject, am-auxiliary verb, thinking- progressive verb, of-proposition, settling-gerund....thanks


texts: "Milk in first and Indian"—what does it mean?

texts:
Reading A Murder of Quality by John le Carré, I came across the following remark by Mrs. Hecht, a detestable upper-class Englishwoman (emphasis mine):

"Though, of course, the Midlands are different, aren't they? Only about three good families between Ipswich and Newcastle. Where did you say you came from, dear?"
"London."
"How nice. I went to tea with Stella once. Milk in first and Indian. So different."

I can't even begin to parse "Milk in first and Indian," even to the point of determining what the subject of the sentence is. To my 21st-century American eyes, "first and Indian" looks like a street intersection, but that can't be right. Why is "first" lowercased? What are the implied missing words? What is "Indian" modifying? Does "milk" refer to actual milk, or to something else? So many questions!
While this might be considered a question involving literary interpretation, I contend that John le Carré, who wrote popular novels, would not have put words in his characters' mouths that were not intended to be plainly understood by the majority of his readership. So I put it to you, the ELU community: What does "Milk in first and Indian" mean? How would the average reader circa 1962 have interpreted this phrase?


texts: Is there a general term for divisibility for each whole number?

texts:
Is there a general term for divisibility? I.e. A number which is divisible by 5 is called ____. A number which is divisible by 7 is called ____.

  15 is divisible by 5. As such it is called ____ or called a ____ number.

there should be a word - maybe one starting with pent ...


texts: Can I use "didn't" with "had" by reframing a sentence?

texts:
''Thank You' to everyone. I didn't have the time to reply. '

This sentence is obviously correct. But can I reframe it in the following way ?

''Thank You' to everyone I didn't had the time to reply to.'

(Ignore the essence of the sentence. The meaning remains the same in the original context.)


texts: Does the use of "until" entail that the verb in "until" will happen?

texts:
For example, in a sentence like

  This machine will keep working until the button is pressed.

Does this entail that the button will be pressed? Is a sentence like

  This machine will keep working until the button is pressed, which will not happen.

valid?


texts: Introductory phrases like "to tell the truth"

texts:
What is the difference between the following introductory phrases?

  To tell the truth

  Frankly speaking

  To be honest

Are any of the phrases more old-fashioned or formal than the others or are they completely interchangeable?


texts: Dropping linking R's from the middle of the words

texts:
Why does it exist and whom is it typical for? Is it the feature of the past century?

I noticed Americans to do it. There are two examples coming to my mind, dated 1960s. The first one is the verse from the song ‘Moon River’: wherever you're going, I'm going your way. Frank Sinatra doesn't pronounce the first R in wherever, neither does Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's — a British, but singing it in American way (it's at least about the -ing endings). The second example is Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp) in the film ‘The Sound of Music’ (figured it out that it's not him singing though, it's another American singer). He's singing the song Edelweiss, and the word forever is repeated many times in it. So he also says /faw evah/ every time.


texts: Could somebody please elaborate on the difference(s) between "at least" and "at the least"? Could the wrong usage potentially lead to misunderstanding or would it just be improper?


texts:
I would be very grateful if someone in the community could provide me with a definition of a rum cutter. The term appears in Thomas Frederick Littler's diary entry on June, 7th 1916.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  June 7th 1916

  We left our billets and went to the edge of the village, moving
  undercover of the broken walls, then entered a communication trench
  called 'Yale Street' (of y sector y29) moved along this trench in
  daylight for 300yds and then we were only 100yds from our own front
  line, and 400yds from the enemy front line, this 'com' trench was in
  places only 3ft deep, and we were exposed to the enemy fire, and our
  own work was to deepen this trench to 7ft, also make it wide enough
  for two men to pass, no earth could be thrown on top, but had to be
  put in sandbags and passed down the trench.

  Everything went well 'till 3o'clock in the afternoon when 'Jerry'
  started to strafe, and strafed us away from the work, and managed it
  without any casualties, during the time we were working we had to keep
  our equipment on, also rifles at hand, and leaving the trench we
  looked 'rum cutters' being covered with mud and clay, all around the
  place were 'gas alarms'. This day was the first time I had been close
  to the enemy lines, and the first time I had got as far as a Support
  trench.


texts: Why does the word gobs mean a copious amount?

texts:
Gobs is a word I've never seen in print; however, I've heard it used in an old moving picture and in an old situation comedy. I'm curious to know the origin of the word gobs as well as when it was first used to mean a copious amount.

I heard it used in the 1930 moving picture Ladies of Leisure when Marie Prevost is ordering a meal at a restaurant and tells the server she'd like "gobs of cheese" on her dish (I believe it was cheese). The next time I heard it used was in an episode of Three's Company "Ground Rules" which aired in 1977. Jack Tripper is with a young lady at the Regal Beagle and tells her "we can have gobs of fun here."

Those are the two examples I have for hearing gobs used to mean a copious amount. Any ideas for why gobs is slang for a copious amount and any ideas as to when it was first used or which decade/decades it was most popular.


texts: Idiom for something that appears to be easy but is in fact hard

texts:
I considered deceptively complex or deceptively simple (depending on how you interpret this previous post) as a way of expressing this.  But, I would like to avoid the potential for misunderstanding and just use an idiom or expression that is unmistakable.

For example, John gravitated towards enrolling in the college course Children's Literature assuming it to be an easy A, but he was deceived.  The course is in fact ______________________.  (INSERT IDIOM OR EXPRESSION IN BLANK)


texts: "WHY" - What part of speech is it? And can it be removed?

texts:
I wasn't sure how to look this up because I'm not sure the part of speech "why" is in this case, and if it was grammatically correct with or without.

Thanks!!!

E.g.

The exact reason why this surname was affixed to them is not entirely clear, except for the fact that they were German.

vs.

The exact reason this surname was affixed to them is not entirely clear, except for the fact that they were German.


texts:
I can't tell, but conclude that it was a good idea.

What is this construction?


texts:
since James Jeans was that famous British physicist, shouldn't there be:

Jeans's instability

instead of:

Jeans instability

(wiki link)

I have read couple (maybe not all) of saxon genitive related topics here but I haven't found the answer.


texts: Can "bete noir" refer to something for which one has mild disdain? Ex. 'my bete noir in that movie was the dialogue between Jack and Kate' [that being the exception, overall I liked the film]


texts:
I am looking for a word that can be used for the catch resulting from a hunt.

For example, a fox catches a rabbit and in that case, the rabbit is the prey. However if one talks about prey in general, then how to distinguish the rabbit which was caught?

It would be really helpful if there is a specific word to go with this circumstance.

As some of the comments pointed out, I need to include some more context. I was searching for a word which can be used to talk about the yield of a hunt resulting in their consumption, be it a singular or multiple prey which are caught. For my needs, both kill and catch work in my opinion.


texts: Is there a vendor-neutral synonym for podcast?

texts:
I was writing this sentence:

  I just came across this website with interesting podcasts.

And I felt that using a word tied to a specific brand wouldn't be optimal. So now I am wondering if a vendor-neutral synonym exists for the word podcast.

So far my search have lead me to an older question asking for a word with a broader definition covering all recordings of spoken words. But that is broader than what I am looking for, and none of the proposed answers to that question could be used in place of podcast in my sentence without mangling the meaning.

Is there a word with essentially the same meaning as podcast which isn't rooted in a specific brand?


texts: What do you call someone who finds everything?

texts:
I'm trying to define a character for a short story I'm writing, but I'm having a hard time defining him.

He has the ability to find everything.

What you do call someone who can find anything/everything?


texts:
Say I want to use the word cliffhanger in a sentence.

  The show ended on a cliffhanger.

Or,

  The show ended at a cliffhanger.

Not just this sentence; how do I know what is the correct preposition to use at what phase of a sentence?


texts:
What does the following sentence mean:

  “Mattan and the yellow jersey were right in the middle of the pack as it peddled hard in the blistering heat.”?

I don't understand what "peddle" means in this sentence, taken from Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English 5th edition.


texts: How to politely decline to take someone's help?

texts:
So I was looking to take someone's professional service and he offered me a quote. It was too high. So I declined it. Then he offered to give me some unofficial service as a courtesy.

All of this happened via email.

Now I don't want to take his courtesy service even for free for various reasons.

What's a polite way of saying so (via email)?


texts: Word for "had they not provided for us, we would have learned to provide for ourselves"

texts:
In a recent discussion about the license changes to Fusion 360 a user mentioned that the existence of a "free" tool (no payment necessary) has precluded development of a "libre" tool (a tool that the user can receive the source code for). I think that this is very insightful and pertinent to many actions we see in software, in politics, and in other places in life.
Is there a word that describes "had they not provided for us, we would have learned to provide for ourselves"?
There is of course the positive and the negative connotation of the idea. Ideally I would like a word for each: one assuming good intention (such as a helicopter parent) and another assuming bad intention (such as Nestle providing milk supplements just long enough to hinder the production of breast milk).
My intention is to use the words in a convincing format: Don't take the fish, but rather learn to fish.
If there are other angles, examples, alternate phrases, then I would appreciate being informed.


texts:
I am looking for a word, or multiple words, which would fit between the terms 'minor' and 'major'. For example: 'Major arterial road' and 'minor arterial road' describe two types of roads with particular traffic flows (and design requirements), but what if there is a scenario which does not fit any of the two precisely, but sits somewhere in between?

The reason I am asking is that I am attempting to devise a naming convention for drawing layers in CAD. Usually a 'minor' and a 'major' layer suffice. An example would be lines depicting concrete, where the 'major' lines are the outlines and edges and the 'minor' lines interior corners and hidden lines. Now I have come across a few scenarios where I need another option in between.

Please note that I am not asking for help with creating a naming convention. I am looking for a word in the English Language that is between 'minor' and 'major'.


texts: I have a question....( referring to a car that is in storage 6 months of the year)  what is the proper word.    It is only "drove" half the year, or It is only "driven" half the year.


texts: Can a sentence have two or more successive separate sentences in its womb?

texts:
This website, upon crossing the milestone of 250 reviews, has sent me a message (in the field entitled "Achievements", being one of three fields that are there on the left side of the black band appearing at the top of this page). The message reads:

  You've earned the "Reviewer" badge (Complete at least 250 review tasks. This badge is awarded once per review type) for reviewing "First Post".

I find the sentence, which the message is couched in, quite weird for the sentence has two separate sentences – "Complete at least 250 review tasks" and "This badge is awarded once per review type" – in its womb. How can a sentence have two separate sentences appearing in succession in it?

Supposing (but not agreeing) that there can be two separate sentences in succession in a sentence, should each of those sentences take a capital letter at the beginning and a full stop at the end? If yes, why is the full stop at the end of the second such separate sentence missing (despite the second such separate sentence taking a capital letter at the beginning)?

Secondly, if there could be two separate sentences in a sentence, then there could be even three, four, five and so on. What is the limit? How many separate sentences could be there in a sentence?

Finally, is the placement of the separate sentences in the sentence correct? Can a separate sentence be placed anywhere in the sentence? Or, should such placement meet some rule or logic?


texts: Right word to describe "people working together"?

texts:
Please consider the below sentence:

  Dean Shrivastava and his __ of twenty faculty members took care of the classes.

Which word of the below fits best into the above blank?

  a. Gang
  b. Team
  c. Crew
  d. Work Party

To me, all seem to suit fine. However, I cannot figure out which fits best.

Dictionary meanings:

  Gang: an organized group of workmen
  Team: a cooperative unit
  Crew: an organized group of workmen
  Work party: an organized group of workmen

These definitions I got from http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/.


texts:
I sometimes here casual phrases in English like a hipping and a hopping (a hippin and a hoppin).

How exactly does this fit into English grammar and what is the history of the construct?


texts: Grammaticality of "who fell to earth, shattering the land"

texts:
While watching Youtube videos, I recently came across this sentence

  Their quarrel turned to rage and their violent struggle darkened the skies,          until the Dragon of the South Wind struck down his brother, who fell to earth, shattering the land.

"Who fell to earth, shattering the land." Is this a grammatically correct sentence? It appears like quite poetic language. What exact rule is this? and if so, do you have any additional examples?

Edit: Apparently this is a special adjective clause. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with this special chase. Any examples?


texts:
How to refer to people you recently met (names have been introduced and a short discussion made).
We can't possibly call them friends, can we?

He raises his eyes to look at his (friends?)


texts: Definition of "Veteran" as applied to Motor Vehicles

texts:
In a documentary video about Lord Montague and the Montague Motor Museum, the following narration was used:

  And on this fine April day in 1959, hosts of strange vehicles are
  converging upon the peace and quiet of Beaulieu, to celebrate the
  opening of a new extension to the museum, housing over 200 historic
  exhibits. Feast your eyes on one of the largest gathering of
  veteran and vintage cars and motorcycles the world has ever seen.

Is there a particular distinction between vintage and veteran that denotes an age range, or does veteran denote some other specific quality pertaining to motor vehicles?


texts: where did the word 'skunt,' meaning to cut your grass very low, come from?

texts: growing up in the 60's in Dallas, Texas, we would cut our lawns very short at the beginning of the growing season, believing that this would cause the lawn to grow fuller in the summer.  We referred to this practice as "skunting" the lawn.  People would say, "Are you going to skunt your lawn."


texts: Can the phrase radiographic progression free survival be used if the imaging modality has been MRI and not an X-ray modality like CT?


texts: Is it grammatically correct to say "I wanted to please connect with you"

texts:
I was having a debate with someone about how this phrase sounds, as it seems incorrect to me but it's been proofread many times in e-mail (yes at an american company), without anyone saying anything about it.

EDIT: I don't know why it's wrong (if it is), which is why I'm asking the question. The current answer won't be accepted unless the author can elaborate.

EDIT 2: I was writing to a recruiter that I know on a professional level, and was getting help on a way to eloquently request that I add them as a connection on a certain social networking site. The way I would have worded it would have been "I would like to connect with you..." or something of the sort.

EDIT 3: I was trying to focus more on the placement and usage of the word "please" in this sentence, as it was the part that stuck out to me the most, and the sentence sounds more correct without it. To that point, maybe it's the tense of the verb that's odd about it? What if the sentence was, "I want to please connect with you"?


texts:
The phrase queer attitude used to be commonplace, simply meaning
a strange attitude or unhelpful behavior.

Unfortunately in the present era, I once used that phrase and sadly
offended an LGBT person, since people today use queer to mean
homosexual.

I can avoid saying queer attitude by just saying strange attitude.

What's a modern alternative to the common business phrase
"queer the deal" that doesn’t risk giving offence where none
is intended?

Other queer- phrases are easy enough to replace,
but I am stumped on this one.

(Funnily enough the other day I gave someone the long-winded
alternative: “I’m trying not to talk about it to not upset my
negotiation so don't find me rude but I’d rather not go in to details,
etc.”, and my colleague immediately responded “Oh, you don’t
want to queer the deal, got it!”  Geesh!)


texts: What does "but" mean in "Life is but a dream"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  The construction of “Known but to God”

What does "but" mean in this case and what other uses is this word used in the same context. I'm trying to explain what this word means but I can't think of any good common use examples with the same meaning.

The clearest word I can think of is "just"

Life is just/only a dream

Example sentences I did think of used "nothing":

I found nothing but junk at the store.

But is this the same meaning?

I found nothing, just junk, at the store?


texts: What is the actual meaning of Soundproofing?

texts:
This room is a soundproofing room.

Which means,

When you are in the inside room, you won't hear outside sounds.
When you are in outside, you won't hear sounds generated by inside
room
Both


texts: "Who wrote ... ?" or "Who did write ... ?"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Why is there no form of “do” in questions of the type “who knows?”

I want to know which is the correct way to ask this question:

  Who wrote this song?

or

  Who did write this song?

If the first one is the correct one, why doesn't it have an auxiliary? Which rule does it follow?


texts: Can I start a sentence with a singular noun with no article?

texts:
For example, which one of the following sentences can I use?

  Consumer of Product X needs to fill out a rebate form […].
  Consumers of Product X need to […].
  A consumer of Product X needs to […].

This is for a general-purpose announcement.


texts: Are there any conditions for using "would"?

texts:
In the following sentences, is on appropriate or for? Can the first about be omitted? Is would correct?

  On (for) actual LiDAR sensors, the  lasers turn (about) or oscillate about an axis, as is demonstrated in Figure 1. As a result, the lasers that are not perpendicular to the axis (would) trace out a conical surface.


texts: Is there another way to say, "drive the point in further?" or belabor the point?"

texts:
In a work I am writing, two characters are having a discussion that becomes quite heated. The man makes an observation about the woman that is less than flattering and then while she's still recovering, frames it another way, as if to drive the point in further.

I wonder if there is another expression or phrase or analogy that describes this better. Thanks for your suggestions.


texts:
I am an undergraduate student. I was applying to transfer to another university. I wrote to a university official requesting some information, and here is the conversation:
Me: ask if the college still accepts transfer students this year, and ask what materials are required for the application (where I listed some required materials I found on their website).
The official: says the college still accepts transfer students and asks what is my major.
Me: math.
The official: asks what courses I have completed.
Me: list some courses.
The official: "Seems like you would be in a good position as far as the math major goes."

I really don't understand the last sentence. Is the official implying that I am doing ok in my current university, and asking for the reason for applying? Or is the person saying that the courses I've taken have met their requirements and therefore I am eligible to apply as a transfer student?


texts: Does a "tenfold increase" mean multiplying something by 10 or by 11?

texts:
If you have 10 cookies, and your number of cookies increases tenfold, you have 100 cookies, right? That's what I thought at first, but I recalled that if your number of cookies increases 200%, you get N + (200%/100%)N cookies where N was your original number of cookies, so you end up with 30 cookies, not 20. Shouldn't a tenfold (or threefold, or fourfold, or whatever) increase work the same way as a percentage increase?

For what it's worth, I'm interested in whether I should describe an increase from 0.8% to 3.4% as a "fourfold increase" or "threefold increase" (since 3.4%/0.8% = 4.25) in a scientific paper.

(I'm not sure whether this question belongs here or on math.SE.)


texts: "Within a short time" vs "within a short period of time"

texts:
I am referring to sense 5 (time means period) of https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/time_1?q=time.

Is "Within a short time" equivalent to "within a short period of time" and are both equally idiomatic and have the same meaning? Given that time can be used in the sense of period, aren't phrase like 'time window/time frame/time period/period of time' a bit redundant?

Example sentences: "I do this within a short time" vs "I do this within a short period of time"


texts: What does " turning into the skid " mean here?

texts:
Tommy    must    have    tried   to  gun     the
engine  while   turning into    the skid,   but it  didn’t  work.


texts: Which is the head noun in "noun adjunct"

texts:
Is the head "noun" or "adjunct", and which is the correct plural form? "nouns adjunct", "noun adjuncts", or "nouns adjuncts"?

"nouns adjunct" sounds the most correct to my ears.


texts: How to interpret clauses split with "and"

texts:
I need some sort of formal rules-of-english assistance on the interpretation of the following statement (taken from RPG rules and simplified).

  When you hit a creature with this weapon, you can expend a spell slot
  to deal additional damage, and you can reduce the creature's speed to 0 feet until the end
  of your next turn.

Specifically, it is my understanding by the rules of grammar that the "you can reduce the creatures speed..." and the "you can expend a spell slot..." phrases would be the two phrases joined by the conjunction, but I can't find any sort of formal reference to back that up.  In particular, this has to do with whether or not spending the spell slot is necessary for the move reduction.


texts: What is meant by phrase "bid to broker"?

texts: I came across this sentence" Moussa resumes bid to broker compromise in Beirut" but couldn't understand it.


texts:
I wonder, what's the difference between I'm finished and I finished (or even I've finished)?

To be more specific:

I'm given = someone gives something to me

I'm told = someone tells something to me

I'm finished = NOT someone makes me finish BUT  I have finished doing something.

Why?


texts:
I am not a native speaker of English, and I'm having a problem at work about the word "shortened" .
I used this word to express that our new product can now load XXX much faster than the previous model, so I used in the Power Point as;
-Shortend time to load XXX
But then I received a feedback from other people (also non-native speaker of English), who says that this expression contains a "NEGATIVE meaning".
Honestly I didn't understand this but is this true?
Please someone help me..
Thank you.


texts: "You should be well-organised" or "You should be well organised"?

texts:
Should I hyphenate the term 'well organised'? The context, if it matters, is the following sentence:

  For this role you should be well organised and analytical with some research ability.

(I see there are other question here about hyphenation; do point me to one if this falls under a general rule, I just couldn't see it.)


texts:
A friend of mine believes that a thought that is underlying, and not the main focus of the mind, can be described as a thought had "unconsciously". I am convinced she is incorrect, and the word to use is "subconsciously".

The word could also refer to an action that is instinctive and not thought through?

Any input as to which (or both) is correct would be appreciated.


texts:
From Google Support:

Why to use page-level permissions
Page-level permissions allow you to..

Is the sentence "Why to use page-level permissions" grammatical?


texts: does "rather than" work exactly like "instead of?"

texts:
I just need to run a check on this one sentence please
context: I'm relating an incident to a friend, where person 'x' blames an innocent bystander instead of guilty party 'y"
I say: "I just didnt like how 'x' pinned the blame on an innocent person rather than calling out 'y'"
Should "calling" have been "call" instead?
Also, does "rather than" here function the same as "instead of"?


texts: Stress in the -ing form of verbs with initial-stress-derived nouns

texts:
It seems some verbs change the stressed syllable in the -ing form:

proCESS -- PROcessing
transPORT -- TRANsporting

and some do not:

diRECT -- diRECTing
proVIDE -- proVIDing

Is this related with that the verbs of the first group have initial-stress-derived nouns? Or, what is the rule?


texts:
What is the semantic difference between propensity and probability?

I'm thinking of a context like "Given his habbits, he has a high probability of dying of cancer".

Would the choice between propensity and probability be entirely taste-based here? Are there cases where they cannot be used synonymous.


texts:
Are there any noteworthy differences between the meanings of these words? Is "entity" just a fancy synonym for "thing"?

The definitions for "entity" and "thing" are referencing each other.


texts:
What is the difference between:

  I am leaving at 6 o´clock

and

  I will leave at 6 o´clock?

Do these serve any different function?


texts:
Is the article before the absolute value? I know that there is always an article in phrases like the absolute value of sth but I saw the sentence below without any article. Is it right? Thank you

A increases in (the) absolute value as d increases.


texts:
Mary: "Does he have any enemies here?"

Bill: "Not that I know of."

or

Bill: "Not that I would know of."

Is there a difference in meaning between the two answers Bill gives?


texts:
I have been thinking of this for the past couple of days.

Does the sentence sound naturally because it is grammatical or is it grammatical because it sounds naturally?