texts: Looking for a word to describe the sound of the morning as hundreds of birds begin singing before sunrise?

texts:
This time of year hundreds of birds come to the mountains. Before the sunrise they begin to awaken, as they do, they begin to sing their various songs. All together they sound like a boisterous cacophony, but soon you hear their individual sounds and it becomes a symphony of beauty and awe.

I suppose there is no one word to describe such a beautiful scene and I'll have to write a paragraph to describe this most inspiring of God's creative wonders.


texts: The usage of commas with the word "additionally"

texts:
Can you please tell me should one opt to insert a comma before and after the word "additionally" in this sentence?

Referring back to my school, it had a strong policy in terms of active life propaganda and, additionally, conducted a lot of well-organized sports clubs.


texts: What's a common phrase that means "To put it simply though not 100% correctly"?

texts:
Like when you want to say that you'll tell a short version of something which would alter the accuracy of the original version.

I was thinking of "In a nutshell" and "To make a long story short", but I felt like those phrases did not place emphasis on the "there might be an insignificant loss of accuracy" aspect.


texts: What is the correct usage for 'nominate'?

texts:
Can one say "have you nominated" or would you require an object, "have you nominated yourself"?

Context is that of an election, for example.


texts: What is a word for "the desire to be considered a victim"?

texts:
I'm wondering about this in relation to the notion of a "culture of victimization", when people want to garner sympathy and/or discharge their guilt by being considered victims.

The phrase "culture of victimization" refers to the situation of many people having that desire and not to the desire itself. "Masochism" is close I suppose, but somehow not quite right.


texts: Why Is "You did well." Even Grammatically Correct (American English)?

texts:
One of the classic battles prescriptive grammarians fight is that "You did good." is grammatically wrong, while "You did well." is correct. The justification for this is that "well" is a legitimate adverb but "good" is not. But as a native English speaker I cannot think of a single other case where "You did [adverb]." does not sound very obviously wrong in a similar environment, apart from synonyms and antonyms of "well".

From a grammatical standpoint "do" is either a transitive verb or an auxiliary verb. In "You did good.", "good" is the direct object (a noun), while "well" can only be an adverb. The only times when "do" is ever used without a main verb or direct object is in cases of deletion of a predicate that was stated immediately prior, e.g. "I didn't do it, but he did" or "I didn't go, but he did". I cannot think of any other cases where it is grammatically correct to use "do" without a main verb or direct object, and in such environments adverbs are never used because these are cases of deletion of the predicate. Yet if you were to say "You did good/well." it would almost invariably be in an environment where the predicate was not stated immediately prior.

Is it possible that prescriptive grammarians are simply wrong, and that ages of this prescription has made this particular case sound acceptable despite being a grammatical structure that is otherwise obviously wrong?

EDIT: Since this is a topic that is coming up in comments in multiple places, I'll put it here. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/do meaning 2 describes "do well" under the heading "Act or behave in a specified way". We might then suppose that the rule is not that "do" requires a main verb or direct object as I state above, but rather requires a complement which specifies what is done or how (which could be an adverb or adverbial phrase). This implies that any adverb describing manner should work in the phrase "You did [adverb]". How then do we account for the fact that most adverbs that are not a synonym or antonym of "well" (e.g. quickly, solemnly, angrily, etc.) do not sound grammatical in such a context?


texts: Panicking Internally vs Internally Panicking?

texts: Which order (Panicking internally/ Internally panicking) is correct or more widely accepted and why?


texts: What are the differences between "manual", "guide" and "instruction"?

texts:
What are the differences between the three, especially in this context:

  User manual

  User guide

  User instruction


texts: What do you call a wealthy person who doesn't care about how the poor feel and live?

texts:
In Persian a wealthy person with no hardships who is unfeeling and cruel to the poor is known as a:

  مرفه بیدرد - someone who is featherbedded and can't ever understand the unprivileged's feeling and pain.

Is there a similar word in English which denotes a filthy rich class who shows no sympathy toward the poor?

Example:

  In a stagflation or economic crisis ______ never understand how the middle class feel when they're trying not to slide down to the line of poverty, and just they're just trying to make ends meet.


texts:
I know that I can say "I jumped for joy yesterday along with her." But I want it to be more concise than that while replacing a single verb, as in:

  I _____ yesterday along with her.


texts: Why is putting some spin on a ball described in some circles as giving it some "English"?

texts:
Why is putting some spin on a ball often called "putting some English" on it?  Does it have anything to do with the history of billiards, the sport I most often see this phrase used?  What's special about English, exactly?

I tried doing some research on Google, but all I could find was an article on ESPN that was too jocular for my taste.


texts: Is there a single word when the clock hands meet?

texts:
I'm not sure if such word exists, but English is not my native language. The word I'm looking for describes the time when the clock hands overlap. In my language there is such a word, it is "cager", so the sentence

  It is now cager.

means

  It is now [the time when clock hands are overlapped].

This word is considered slang in my language, and I'm wondering if English has a similar word.


texts: "All, but her, " vs. "All, but she, had"

texts:
All, but her, had made an attempt.
  All, but she, had made an attempt.

If all is the subject of the sentence, should I use a subject or object in the parenthesis statement? Why?

Is this correct way to punctuate my statement?

According to the website, IndiaBix, the correct answer is All, but she,

I have searched for an answer in these two questions, but they did not help me.

Is "all but one" singular or plural?
"All but" idiom has two meanings?


texts:
What is the rule for using the verb listen?

Should I always add a preposition?

Is this sentence correct?

  I just listen carefully.


texts: What is the "not only ... but also" sentence pattern called?

texts:
"Not only ... But also"

What is this sentence pattern called in English grammar? How can I find these patterns?


texts: Do Americans "gee things up", or is it just a British usage?

texts:
As a Brit, I've always thought to "gee things up" (often followed by "a bit") was a relatively well-known Americanism - probably because I assume most figurative usages relating to horses come from the great American cowboy tradition.

In my usage, to "gee things up" always means to get things moving (normally figuratively, as of say action to deal with some problem). But I also hear/use "gee him up" with the sense of to tease or provoke, similar to rattle his cage or wind him up.

But checking gee things up in Google Books I found only 15 results, and to my admittedly untrained eye, they seem to be mostly British. Is the expression (and the tease/annoy meaning) familiar to Americans?


texts:
I read an article. But I have one difficult sentence to understand by myself.

That is "It is important to help students activate prior knowledge so they can build on it productively."

I couldn't understand it. What is the meaning of "build on"?


texts: What is the difference between "graduate students" and "postgraduate students"?

texts: I am reading about finding a good university for master studies and I am really confused if graduate students are the same as postgraduate students. Are the terms synonyms, or do they refer to different levels of studies?


texts:
"Tasks for life" - Would such a phrase be apropriate for a brand ?
Is it correct to say it that way ?
I want to create a task managing site, where people would manage their tasks in life.

PS: English is not my native language, so please, excuse me.


texts: Is it correct to start a sentence with "with" in English?

texts:
Is it correct to use with at the beginning of a sentence?

Here's an example sentence:

  With the development of the economy, living standards improved.

To my eyes this looks unnatural; I would rewrite it thus:

  Living standards have improved as a result of economic development.

I think it sounds better because, as I understand it, in English it is more natural to put the result at the beginning of the sentence, and then the contributing factors or background information after that. But I am not 100% sure.


texts: When is it legit to reduce a vowel in speech?

texts:
I want to say

peppermint ˈpɛpəmɪnt

as

pɛpəmənt

What, if anything, determines whether I can do so, besides accent?


texts: How did "bitching" get associated with talking behind people's backs or complaining?

texts:
"Bitching" can refer to complaining or talking behind someone's back. But a bitch is a female dog which has nothing to do with it.

How did "bitching" become representative for complaining or talking behind someone's back? Is there history behind this use?


texts: Preposition confusion: "in home" vs "at home"

texts:
I want to know the correct preposition to use in
 this sentence, which I wrote for my writing class assignment.
I have already received my grade, so I'm not trying to cheat or something.

  '...Freedom can also refer to being secure in home and hometown'

Is it correct to use 'in home'? or is it wrong? I know there are alternatives which fit better (e.g: at) but what about 'in'?

I looked this up on the internet but opinions seem to vary significantly.


texts:
I have a short story headline called "Los Números Hablan Por Sí Solos", referring to the basic numbers from 0 to 9 in a calculator screen, but I wonder what is more correct: "The Numbers Speak For Themselves" or "Numbers Speak For Themselves"
Thank you for the better translation


texts: A certain way of pronouncing words like 'me'

texts: I have noticed that in some British dialects, the long 'ee' sound is rendered as an'ay'. For example, 'me' as 'may', 'see' as 'say'. However, this is only an approximation as I am not sure how to transcribe it properly. I couldn't find anything about it on the internet. Could anyone tell me what this is called? (or if I am merely imagining it?)


texts:
Can I ask about the using of "from...to"? In my text, I have two sentences like this:

These products may range from garment, fashion products, footwear, perfumes, cosmetics to even agro-products, vegetables, fresh fruits...
Nowadays, women no longer restrict themselves in housework, from cooking to teaching children and taking care of the spiritual life for family members

The first one uses "range from A to B". But there are a lot of nouns between "from...to"in both two sentences. And the general rule I found on many dictionary websites is "from A to B".
Is it acceptable to use more than two nouns in "from...to" structure? Looking forward to your answers.


texts: Why it is okay to omit "the" in some cases only?

texts:
I am wondering why saying: Learn physics with Mr. Brown sounds okay but if Mr. Brown teaches vegetable names, for example, it sounds awkward to say: Learn vegetables with Mr. Brown

Or Learn vegetables with Mr. Brown is fine and it's just me finding it sounding awkward?


texts: the word for something that should not work but does

texts:
I am looking for a word that means "theoretically should not make sense or work, but actually does"

It starts with an a or e.


texts:
The New Oxford American Dictionary gives two meanings for actual:

existing in fact;
existing now; current

How common is the second of these meanings? Is it something that can be used without fear of being misunderstood (given that the differentiation between the two meanings will often not be clear from context alone)?

My feeling is that it is better to use other words to describe current because (again, this is my feeling), actual is really predominantly used in its first meaning. I am not a native speaker, however, so my gut feeling could be wrong...

EDIT: An example where actual is used to signify current but seems confusing to me:

  “The state of the system does not reflect its actual input.”


texts:
I was looking over my son's English papers and found a page on "Dead Words", which included the verbs "would", "could", and "should". No explanation is given for this section.

Can someone explain how these words are not right when used as verbs, and an alternate way that is better so I can get a grasp on this?


texts:
I don't like the word X, so I'm going to use Y onward.

This doesn't sound broken, would it be normal to use in common speech?


texts: Is there a word that means pants and/or shorts, or dresses and/or skirts?

texts: In Chinese apparently there is an extra character added for long/short pants and half/full dress. And footwear applies to sandals, boots, sneakers, etc. Is there an English word that means pants and/or shorts? And one that means a dress and/or skirt?


texts: A phrase for when one is reduced to quibbling on unimportant details having had to give up significant ground

texts:
Is there a popular phrase or idiom to capture the following very particular scenario? Person A and person B are arguing over something. Person A repeatedly gives ground to B until the argument becomes a matter of A trying to secure small details in favour of them, while having had to accept B's position.

The metaphor that I thought of for this was that someone threatens to kill you, but lets you choose at what time of day.

I realise that the phrase "winning the battle but losing the war" comes close to this, but I think there is a difference. There is the implication here that one's opponent is happy to allow one small victories having won the day. Obviously, a "hollow victory" is relevant here, but does not capture the particular cases I have in mind.

To give a common example:

When the UK political parties of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition, then the LDs were able to affect policy. But in doing so, they had to accept the fundamental outlook of the Conservatives. So they could haggle over the extent to which one or other benefit was cut, but in doing so they were conceding the very idea that there should be such cuts at all.

EDIT

I have found an idiom that comes pretty close: Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

This is not a perfect fit, since it means something more like "doing something that makes no difference because the major facts in the situation are already decided."

Perhaps the closest expression, rather than idiom, is something like "if you're arguing about detail x, then the other side has already won the argument".


texts: Is the § character recognizable as an icon for legal matters in English speaking countries?

texts:
I need a symbol in my navigation to represent the legal portions of a web application (disclaimer, imprint, and so on). I thought that it would be appropriate to use the § character; my customer agrees with me.

The app is intended for an international audience, all of whom will speak English from fluent to native speaker. The application interface is in English only. And after noticing it's not even on the QWERTY keyboard layout, I started asking myself if this sign is generally recognized to represent law or legal matters, or if this is a cultural symbol only.

Can I count on recognition if I use section sign to denote legal matters?

Edit: The reason why I am asking about it at all is that we are in Germany, and this sign is the first thing which springs to mind when thinking about law symbols here. Everybody I asked agreed unanimously. I almost didn't post the question, thinking that it's too obvious that it is universal, because it is so pervasive in the cultures I have seen. It's like using a ! for attention.


texts: Is there any extant movement for the revival of elements of Early-Modern English in regular, or academic usage?

texts:
I love Early-Modern English. It seems to me that words in Early-Modern English encode more information than their counterparts in Modern English.

I know of a few English reform movements, but none of them advocate for the revival of some of the most compendious elements of Early-Modern English.

Do you know of a (fringe) movement that advocates reviving some elements of Early-Modern English?


texts: Is there any curse/ swear equivalent for this Persian curse? " May your head be covered by soil!"

texts:
There is a curse/ swear in Persian that literally means " May your head  be covered by soil" and implies that " you'd better die and be buried /be underground!"( you are not important).
We use it in situations we are angry at someone specially when they haven't done something important they were supposed to do or they had done something very stupid or wrong ; or something intolerable/ inhuman (of course when we use it we don't really mean it and we don't really wish death for that person ( except for the criminals), it is just a kind of belittling statement to show our anger, hatred, disgust or dissatisfaction).

Examples:

1-Suppose you (as my sister ) have asked me to buy your anti-hypertension medicine on my way home, but I totally forget about it. When you ask me " did you get my pills?" I reply calmly " Ah, your pills?!! Oh! no, I forgot about it; but I will buy them tomorrow." Then you would say:"I knew that I can't count on you, may your head be covered by soil! You're good for nothing!"

2- You have told me a secret and has asked me not to disclose it to mom, but some day I tell that issue to the mom and thus she scolds you a lot! Then you say angrily to me " You have got such a big mouth! May your head be covered by soil! I shouldn't have trusted you!"

3- I hear in the news that ISIS has killed many innocent people in Iraq. When I see the heartbreaking pictures from their crimes, I say " may their heads ( ISIS's members' heads) be covered by soil, they are not human! May the God destroy them completely " ( in this case I really wish death for ISIS!).

Is there any idiom/ phrase/ saying in English that can convey the same meaning ?

I have found "Die in a fire!" (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Die+in+a+fire), can I use it for that Persian curse/ swear?


texts: "collaboration among" or "collaboration between"

texts:
I have seen “between” vs. “among” and am aware of the possible duplicate nature of my question. My point here, however, is specifically to find out what it should be in conjunction with 'collaboration'.

As you may see on the last page of the Grammar Girl source in the highest voted answer to that question (http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/between-versus-among?page=2) there are several training sentences. One is:

  The conversation [between/among/either] the teachers, the parents, and the students lasted for two hours.
  [Answer: between]

If the answer here is between, my hunch is that collaboration should also be 'between' any number of people. My friend, however, vehemently disagrees with me and says "among should be used when there's more than 2".

What do you think, and why?

My sentence:

  The successful collaboration among/between the contractors, the LA municipal office, and the funding provider resulted in reduced cost and higher efficiency.


texts:
I am unsure how to phrase this as I am uncertain as to whether it is a point of grammar or one of style.
In a book I am reading (by, admittedly, a quite scholarly author), the gerund is almost always preceded by the definite article and succeeded by the preposition 'of'.
He would write, for example, that 'The killing of the king' or 'The calling of parliament had three effects.'
In my view, both of these statements can be expressed without this construction ('kiling the king' and 'calling parliament') while not detracting from their meaning.
Accordingly, my question is: Does this structure signifying anything more than a matter of style? Or is it a rule previously observed (the author is a early twentieth-century academic)?


texts: Can "eponymous" be applied to a thing named after something that is not a person? For example, as we can say McAfee's eponymous anti virus software (named after John McAfee), can we also talk about Google's eponymous search engine or Pepsi's eponymous drink?


texts: How did the slang meaning of "flog" come about?

texts:
I've searched multiple dictionaries and Etymonline but the only origin for "flog" that I can find is:

  1670s, slang, perhaps a schoolboy shortening of L. flagellare "flagellate."

This clearly relates to its proper meaning, to whip or beat.

However, in (British, and perhaps other) slang, the verb "to flog" has come to mean "to sell" with an implication being that something being flogged is being sold quickly or cheaply.

The meaning is confirmed in several dictionaries, but I am at a loss as to why the meaning has arisen. And so I turn to you.

-Update-

I've not managed to find any further links between flogging and selling, which has led me to consider this possibility: Is it possible that the two meanings are unrelated? I had made the assumption that the "selling" variant was somehow derived from the same word which means "to whip or beat", but perhaps it's not.

Judging by the demographic from which the word appears to come from (first referenced by authors from around London), and given that its original meaning implied the illicit sale of goods, perhaps "to flog something" (in the sense of selling it) is a form of contrived rhyming slang.

Could anyone back this up?


texts:
It seems like every article on puns written in the last 150 years (most recently in The Atlantic) includes this quote by Samuel Johnson, who compiled the 1755 Dictionary of the English Language and was supposedly not fond of puns at all:

  He who would violate the sanctities of his Mother Tongue would invade the recesses of the paternal till without remorse.

What does "invade the recesses of the paternal till without remorse" mean? To my 21st century ears it sounds a bit a dirty, but the context suggests that that cannot possibly be the case. Maybe that's why its popular among modern pun lovers...


texts: What's the difference between the "me" and the "I" used in the quote below?

texts:
I read the next words (part of a bigger sentence, coming from musical lyrics):

  But my parents, they lived through the Blitz years, and me, I was sent to a farm.

Why are me and I used, instead of:

  And I, I was sent to a farm.

By the way, when I type the last sentence I'm not corrected by the grammar and spelling control program. Of course, the program says I'm wrong when writing two times me:

It just doesn't feel good to say:

"and me, me was sent to a farm."

Is it maybe because of the context in which these words are used? Or is there maybe some rule which says you have to use me and I in the way I described? I find it kind of strange because in Dutch we have also me ("mij") and I ("ik"), but used differently. We don't say the quote above with me and I, but two times ik. We do say, though, "give it to me!" (for example): "geef het aan mij". And there are more of these different usages of the two.


texts: Word for "Deeply Saddened by Good Events?"

texts:
I have an opportunity to make a career move but I am struggling with leaving behind a team I enjoy working with and with the vacuum that will exist in my absence.
"Bittersweet" is kind of too weak for this feeling, and "Pyrrhic" is a little closer, but this feeling isn't the result of any action I made.
Any thoughts?


texts: What is the word for "over-simplifying an explanation"?

texts:
I am looking for a word (or phrase, I suppose) that means/implies that an explanation of a deeply technical subject is over-simplified almost to the point of inaccuracy in order to convey a particular concept.

The borderline technical fallacies might be elaborated or clarified later on, but for the time of the original explanation, they are intentionally left vague or inaccurate.

An example might be trying to explain how to bake a chocolate cake. I might use a simplified explanation of saying that you must combine and bake butter, eggs, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.

But in reality if you combined them all then baked them, you wouldn't end up with anything remotely close to a chocolate cake, because there is a specific order in which all the individual ingredients must be combined before you end up with a real chocolate cake.

edit: I'm looking for a word (preferably) or a phrase (if a single word doesn't exist for the concept) that implies both the simplification of a concept, as well as it being for the purpose of conveying a specific concept. My cake analogy may not be the best, I'll try to think of a better one and edit this question if I do.


texts: Is there a word to describe the state of being the only one of something?

texts:
I need a word to describe the state of being the only one of something. For context, it's for the UI of a scientific device that detects and analyzes cells. In this particular case, we are talking about a particular cell that the device has judged to be the only one there.

The phrase needs to be short, so I want to use "Judgment of *". "Singularity" would appear to be the perfect word for what I am looking for -- if it hadn't already been taken for a very different meaning.

Any other suggestions?
I really think there must be a word for this; it seems a pretty basic concept. I have a feeling that maybe I am simply not seeing an obvious choice...


texts: What is the equivalent in English of the French "pipotron", which refers to meaningless filler content that looks like it was written by a bot?

texts:
I cannot find a good translation in English of the French word "pipotron". Could you help me?
In French, it refers originally to an automated process to randomly generate sentences. Now it is a pejorative word describing a text mostly void of content (filler text) that looks like it was generated by a bot. This kind of text can mostly be found in marketing material, with lots of fashionable words (like "cloud computing", "innovation" or "disruptive"). I'm looking for this second meaning of the word "pipotron".
From "pipeau" (noun) and "pipoter" (verb): to say a lot of random, meaningless, misleading or hard to follow statements, in order to confuse or deceive the listeners. Commonly used by salesmen and politicians. It's pejorative. And from "-tron", same meaning as in English, to indicate that is an automated process.
The closest I can find is "bullshit (material)", but it is vulgar while "pipotron" is not.


texts: I'm studying English compound word patterns and "easily-going" is mentioned as an example of a compound adjective formed by an ADVERB + PRESENT PARTICIPLE. But it sounds too odd to me. I've done a quick search on the Internet and couldn't find any information about that. Would someone be so kind to shed some light on this? Thank you.


texts: What is a word to describe the character of someone who plans his actions in advance?

texts: I am looking for a word to describe some individuals who  cautiously  plan for the  future all the time.


texts: When to use "fate" and when to use "destiny"? Are they interchangeable?

texts:
In Wordnet Dictionary, if you search for fate you will see that it has 3 meanings and all these meanings have synonym destiny.

  1- destiny, fate - an event (or a course of events) that will
  inevitably happen in the future

  2- Destiny, Fate - the ultimate agency that predetermines the course
  of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face
  of Destiny"

  3- fortune, destiny, fate, luck, lot, circumstances, portion - your
  overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that
  happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better
  fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of
  circumstances"; "success that was her portion"

Source: http://www.wordnet-online.com/fate.shtml

However, I think fate carries quite a negative meaning like "He died in a car accident, it's his fate", no one says "it's his destiny".

Whereas, destiny carries a quite positive meaning like "our destiny is to build a great company", no one says "our fate is to build a great company" as it sounds very bizarre.


texts:
My mother tongue is german, recently I heard the words in an english song "the day bleeds into nightfall".
What does this mean exactly.
Thanks alot.


texts: Another way to write, ''Why now''? When people know it is good, but are suspicious of the timing)

texts: Another way to write, ''Why now''? (When people know it is good, but are suspicious of the timing)


texts: Adjective for "having to do with the plot"?

texts:
I'm working on an assignment for English and I wrote the sentence.

"The quote is both thematic and []".

I'm attempting to find a word that fills the brackets and means "important to to the plot" or "having to do with the plot". Google and  dictionary websites haven't yielded anything of use, especially with the result spam generated because the term "plot" is included.

Does anyone know of such a word?


texts: When do I use "livestock is" and "livestock are"?

texts:
Honestly, I know the answer is most likely going to be some form of "it depends", so here's the context I'm using the phrase noun in:

the livestock are acting up and now I need to...
the livestock is acting up and now I need to...

I know there are instances when "livestock" feels more singular than plural, but in my use case I'm leaning plural. I'm just not sure.
Any help and other examples are appreciated


texts: I need one word that describes something as both (1) necessary/essential and (2) not sufficient/non-comprehensive/lacking

texts:
I need one word that could roughly describe or imply something as both (1) necessary/essential/fundamental/foundational and (2) not sufficient/non-comprehensive/lacking/in need/primitive

The word needs to imply both of these general concepts.

The closest word I can think of that even comes close to incorporating both of these concepts is "basic," because it could imply that something was both essential as well as non-comprehensive?

CONTEXT:
I am writing an essay for my sexual ethics class, and am describing the framework for sexual morality that we've been studying: "SMIFT seeks to merge the (word for fundamental/essential as well as lacking/limited that would describe --->) Libertarian-contractualist approaches with the insights of the Leftist (Marxist/feminist) critiques of morality"

Basically, the Libertarian approaches to sexual morality are our mainstream and foundational views which highlight individual rights and autonomous choice, and thus outline the need for mutually informed consent without force, fraud, or duress as criteria for moral sex. This view is foundational in the sense that no one would contest the claim that mutual consent is necessary for moral sex. But the theory is lacking/not comprehensive/not sufficient to justify moral sex because it ignores morally relevant factors like unequal bargaining powers, the historical oppression of certain classes of people, desperate circumstances, etc that are not covered under force, fraud, or duress but nevertheless constitute exploitation and undermine consent.


texts: What is the the most appropriate abstract noun to describe the relationship between a reference and its referent?

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe the concept of referencing or the act of referencing.

I'm configuring an issue tracking system that allows linking issues. A link is a pair of issues. These links can be configured to be of different types. This is useful to describe the meaning of a particular link – a link alone is too vague. For example, there is a link type called "Causality", with inward and outward relations defined as "A caused B" and "B is caused by A". Another link type is "Relation" which is a symmetric relation defined as "A is related to B" and "B is related to A". I need a link type name for "A references B".

Typically the word reference refers (at least, in my experience based on a programming background) to a specific reference and not the concept of referencing. For example: "variable x is a reference to value v" or "x references v". When I hear the word reference I assume an implicit "a", like "walk" as a noun seems to mean "a walk" and not the act of walking itself.

Is the act of referencing best called "reference"? Referentiality? Referenceness? Is there anything better/more appropriate than these terms?

More about abstract nouns can be found in this answer and wikipedia.


texts: Waitress asks question with different tense

texts:
Suppose a scenario that I want to have dinner in a restaurant, when I come into the restaurant, a waitress asks me the question whether I have a reservation. The way of asking can be as follows:

  1) Do you have a reservation?

  2) Have you made a reservation?

  3) Did you make a reservation?

  4) Have you had a reservation?

I have learned 1) and 2) from textbook, and then I write 3) and 4) myself. I know that all of them are grammatically correct. But what I want to know is what the differences among these sentences are.

P.S. I am not a English native speaker, but a English learner.


texts: Are proper adverbs falling out of usage in current spoken American English?

texts:
While watching American movies and TV series, I notice that in dialogue very often the usage of a proper adverb is replaced by the corresponding adjective (in the case where the adverb is formed by the suffix "-ly"). I don't have lots of examples, but one would be to say

  You came across very strong.

instead of "strongly".

Thanks to Anthony's answer, here's another example:

  I'm gonna go to the store real quick.

Is this a general tendency in current spoken American English?

I believe this is not the same as this question, where in the same word context both an adjective or an adverb can be appropriate. In my example sentence, it is clearly about a property of the action (adverb) and not about the person performing the action (adjective).


texts: Changing "I didn't think him to be so honest" into an expression of comparative degree

texts:
I didn't think him to be so honest.

How can we change this sentence into one of comparative degree without changing its meaning or sense?


texts: Why is the passive form "He was determined" used in this sentence?

texts:
I found a sentence in this link:

  He was determined not to complain in the presence of the nurse.

I got confused.
Was the man controlled by other people? Why the passive form?
Why not:

  He determined not to complain in the presence of the nurse.


texts: Is the sentence grammatically correct and is "get" or "have" correct?

texts:
I have completed the DP training program and I will be able to submit my documents for verification to Nautical Institute in UK for issuing the Unlimited DP License once I get the original letter.

Is this sentence grammatically correct? Is "get" or "have" the correct verb to use?


texts:
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "dog it" as:

Do less than is required; loaf or shirk. For example, I'm afraid our donors are dogging it this year. This expression originated in sports and soon was transferred to other endeavors. [Slang; c. 1900]

Move slowly, as in We just dogged it along from California to Oregon.

Does anyone have more insight into the etymology suggested by the AHD? What are some early examples of the use of this expression?
As an aside, I originally thought there was a connection between the term "dog it" and the term "dog day" (since both seem to associate dogs with lethargy). However, this seems to not be the case. Wiktionary suggests an ancient origin for this latter idiom:

Calque of Latin diēs caniculārēs (“puppy days”), a calque of Ancient Greek κυνάδες ἡμέραι (kunádes hēmérai, “dog days”), from κυνάς (kunás, “of or related to dogs”), from Κῠ́ων (Kúōn, “the Dog”) in reference to the star Sirius, which appears in Homeric Greek as "Orion's dog". The return of Sirius to the night sky (its heliacal rising), occurring in antiquity around July 25 (Athens) or 29 (Rome), was considered by the Greeks and Romans to herald what were considered the hottest, least healthy, and least lucky days of summer

(See also the SE question on "dog days".)


texts: When I flip something I say it turn it upside down. But how would you call the action, once it's upside down, to flip it again so that it's upside up again ? I'm talking about huge parts of a boat so to flip sounds inappropriate.


texts: "Let's plan to meet at three o'clock" vs. "Let's meet at three o'clock"

texts:
What's the differences between the two?

Personally, I'd say let's meet each other at three o'clock. Is formality the only difference between them?

Here is the complete conversation:


texts:
In this recent CNN article, I found the following sentence:

  It was one of two incidents involving South Korea, Tuesday.

It seems the comma is intentionally being used to separate the two proper nouns, possibly as a replacement for eliding the word "on," in order to make the sentence easier to read.

Is this use of a comma recognized or advised in any well-known style guide or grammatical authority? I could not find it when I searched.


texts: Need a computer tool to find words with certain patterns of letters

texts:
I am trying to decipher some illegible writing by a nurse. For instance, I have a word where I am fairly certain the word starts with an E, ends with an L and contains a T somewhere in the middle. It could be emotional for instance, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone know of a computer tool out there where I can get lists of words that satisfy criteria such those in the example?


texts: Use of "some" in "some kid in the classroom"

texts: Is it correct to say there was some kid in the classroom?


texts: Is it correct that "etc." can not be used together in a sentence with "for example" and "such as"?

texts:
I just read an article from a Chinese website for English teaching which mentions  that point. For instance, one can't say:

  "I can play quite a few musical instruments, for example, the flute, the guitar, the piano, etc.".

The correct one should be:

  "I can play quite a few musical instruments, for example, the flute, the guitar, and the piano."

Is it possible to find any references to prove that?


texts: A single word for someone who spends their wealth very foolishly

texts:
What is a single word for someone who spends their wealth very foolishly?

For example: A person is obligated to take care of their children but instead spends their money on unnecessary things leaving no money to provide the necessary things for their children like food and clothes.


texts: Were contractions used in spoken English in 18th-century London?

texts:
I am currently writing a story set in London of 1795.  I am trying my best to avoid linguistic anachronisms in the dialogue, but I have had difficulty finding reliable resources regarding spoken English of the period.

I would like to know whether any modern contractions (such as don't, can't, won't, isn't, that's, it's, etc.) were ever used in informal spoken English by Londonders during that period.  Obviously, if they are anachronistic to the period I would prefer to avoid using them.  However, if they were in use, they would help streamline my story's dialogue considerably in many places. I am principally interested in the application of "is"-contractions and "not"-contractions.

The characters in this story are for the most part, upper-class people with varying levels of formal education — lawyers, clergy, landed gentry, nobility, royalty, etc.

(And before anyone links it, I have read "True Grit Isn't True," but that article's focus on 19th-century American literature was not directly relevant to my question, though one of its sources suggested 17th-century origins for most is-contractions and not-contractions.)


texts:
Context: Top Notch 2
Conversation:

Agent: I have you returning the car on August 14th here at the airport.
Renter: Yes. That's correct.

I am puzzled by this sentence in a conversation between a rental car agent and renter. We use the simple form of the verb after have when it is used in causative sentences, but here we have the -ing form of the verb.
Do we have such a structure in English?
Is it a grammatically correct sentence?


texts:
I'm managing an online registration to some conferences.
The conference coordinator has to add info about that in an online form, when submitting his conference to the registration website.

Is there a better way to describe the date the registration closes?

I prefer a short straight forward name.

PS. Yeah, I know you hate me, for this nerdy question, but in fact I face this question many times in other terms as well.


texts:
I would like to ask, what grammatical construction was used in the sentence below.

  She had a test tomorrow, but she was getting nowhere.

I just do not understand this at all. It looks a little bit like Reported Speech but without "She said that (...)".

Also, can we say it differently, e.g.:

  She was going to have a test the next day, but she was getting nowhere.

[Future in the Past + Past Continuous to emhasize parallelness of thinking about test and going nowhere]

The next sentence from the same paragraph in the book is:

  Tomoko Oishi wasn’t going to be ready for it even if she pulled an all-nighter.

In this sentence we have "Future in the Past" construction.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.


texts: Ambiguous meaning of "turn your back on"

texts:
I read a sentence that goes "Don't turn your back on racism" from the statement of a large US company.

As a non-native-English-speaker, I always thought "turn your back on" meant "reject". But then this sentence clearly doesn't mean "Don't reject racism". So I googled and it could also mean "ignore". OK now "Don't ignore racism" makes sense.

But does this phrase really have these two completely opposing meanings?


texts: Is "a few street away" a grammatically acceptable idiomatic expression in some dialect of UK English?

texts:
I am an American and I am reading a book titled Bloodmage by a British author named Stephen Aryan.
He uses expressions I was previously unfamiliar with, such as "sat" instead of "sitting" (i.e., "sat at the table were three men") and "stood" instead of "standing."  I originally thought these were grammatically incorrect, but have since learned that they are a "standard" part of a northern English dialect.

Now I have come across a sentence in the book that begins with "A few street away..." This again seemed liked an obvious typo, but I checked online and found several edited British news articles that use the same expression (among the news sources were "Bristol Post" and "Sunday Express").
Is this also another "standard" or informal idiom of a dialect from northern England? If so, why is it used in place of "a few streets away"?


texts: Which is correct in using "consider as" of Cambridge and Oxford dictionary?

texts:
I get a bit confused when counterchecking the dictionaries of Cambridge and Oxford against one another. In the Cambridge dictionary, it is written that "We don’t use 'as' with 'consider'" and an incorrect example is given. Cambridge dictionary:

On the other hand, I found that according to Oxford dictionary  it can be used .
Oxford dictionary (second meaning):

The links provided below are the places where I found this difference between the two dictionaries. Can anyone  explain this to me, or tell me which is correct? Thanks so much for your help.
Oxford: "https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/consider?q=consider"
Cambridge: "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/consider-or-regard"


texts: Isn't it redundant to use "then" after "if"?

texts:
Since "if P, Q" is grammatical, is it not the case that the "then" in "if P, then Q" is redundant?

Where P and Q are clauses.

For example, "if it rains today, the road shall be wet tomorrow" is grammatically impeccable. (Or is it not?)

Doesn't that mean that the "then" in "if it rains today, then the road shall be wet tomorrow" is redundant?
I am referring to the logic that using a word would be redundant if the same meaning is conveyed without that word.

But I see that, when the antecedent clause gets too long, the occurrence of "then" serves to mark the distinction between the two clauses.

Except in that sense, can we not say that the usage "if ... then" is redundant in English, and should be replaced by "if ..." especially if the clauses are short enough?

Ah, except in programming languages, of course.


texts: why is it "one European institution", but "European Institutions" (with capital i) if talking about several authorities?

texts:
I found this spelling differentiation on the website of the EU commission and you can see it on wikipedia, too:

"There are a range of European Institutions in Strasbourg (France), the oldest of which dates back to 1815."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_institutions_in_Strasbourg

If someone could point out the grammatical base of this differentiation, I would appreciate that!

Many thanks,
Alexandra


texts:
Here is the situation:

Kids in a small yard are about to play soccer. There are no goalposts in that yard (or "goals" or whatever you call it, I mean those metal frames on each side of the soccer field that have nets on them. Once the ball is in the net, the score changes). So, one boy picks up some sticks from the ground and tries to mark out the goalposts for each team. While doing that he says:

"This will be your team's goal and that will be our team's goal"

Is the first goal that he mentioned the one that his team will be defending or trying to get the ball into?


texts: In older variations of English in history, how much evidence of written language samples are needed to define the grammar and usage of that period?

texts:
In older variations of English in history, how much evidence of written language samples are needed to  accurately define the grammar and usage of that period?

For example, if we want to define how English was in the year 500 CE, how much evidence in the form of parchments and samples must we have and analyze? Is there an official figure or standard?


texts: What does mean phrase "grizzly statistic"?

texts:
I run into a phrase - a powerful example of how this grizzly statistic can manifest itself. What in this context means the word grizzly?
Thank you.


texts: What do you call a project which is tossed up as a very plump & has potential but is just creating busywork for some people's existence?

texts:
What do you call a project which is tossed up as a very plump & has potential but is just creating busywork for some people's existence. The potential project will eventually end up losing its fizz. Serious people will work on it because of inept management's push not recognizing for what it is or merely turning blind eye and eventually it will never actually realize (as in some sort of whitewash).
Just as we say empty talks as talks which has not actual value, what would you call a project which is inherently empty (not going to materialize or does not have real value) and is just a cover up to keep some official's position intact or their attempt to take temporary credit for doing some serious work while it is in its conception.
Example:
"New construction and rendering services of 3 Restaurant boats" at Crescent Marina was merely a ________ project
or
"New construction and rendering services of 3 Restaurant boats" at Crescent Marina was merely is a ___________
work that is created to show one's relevance (or justify one's salary).


texts: What is a short term for person agreeing and later disagreeing

texts: What is some one called when the person agrees to anything mindlessly early on and then realized that those agreed beliefs are against one own and start to disagree ?


texts: What does the word "abjection" mean in this context?

texts:
I am learning vocabulary and need to know the meaning of abject and abjection, as well as how to use it. I referred to Merriam Webster. They use this quotation as an example:

  I protest … this vile abjection of youth to age!

I still can not understand it, so I read the source, which is Man and Superman by Bernard Shaw in 1903.

  TANNER [working himself up into a sociological rage] Is that any reason why you are not to call your soul your own? Oh, I protest against this vile abjection of youth to age! Look at fashionable society as you know it. What does it pretend to be? An exquisite dance of nymphs. What is it? A horrible procession of wretched girls, each in the claws of a cynical, cunning, avaricious, disillusioned, ignorantly experienced, foul-minded old woman whom she calls mother, and whose duty it is to corrupt her mind and sell her to the highest bidder. Why do these unhappy slaves marry anybody, however old and vile, sooner than not marry at all? Because marriage is their only means of escape from these decrepit fiends who hide their selfish ambitions, their jealous hatreds of the young rivals who have supplanted them, under the mask of maternal duty and family affection. Such things are abominable: the voice of nature proclaims for the daughter a father’s care and for the son a mother’s. The law for father and son and mother and daughter is not the law of love: it is the law of revolution, of emancipation, of final supersession of the old and worn-out by the young and capable. I tell you, the first duty of manhood and womanhood is a Declaration of Independence: the man who pleads his father’s authority is no man: the woman who pleads her mother’s authority is unfit to bear citizens to a free people.

I've read it, but still cannot understand what abjection in this context means. Can someone please help me?


texts: Spell out numbers or use numerals when in a list?

texts:
So we often get the general advice that we should spell out small numbers and use numerals for large numbers. However, what if you are referring to a list of a few numbers, some large and some small. Switching between numerals and spelt-out numbers. For example, consider the following

I repeated the experiment five times using five, eight, 10, 20 and 100 mice.

This just looks awkward. Would,

I repeated the experiment five times using 5, 8, 10, 20 and 100 mice,

be better?


texts:
What would be a better replacement for the informal phrase “passing the buck” (ie. shift responsibility for something to someone else)?
I am in need of a single-word verb that captures the all-too-familiar bureaucratic practice of referring endlessly.
“Refer to” is too neutral of a meaning; it lacks the hypocrisy inherent in “passing the buck”.
“Defer to” implies a responsible act, whereby the referrer is conceding their limitations.
“Abrogate” is open-faced shirking of responsibility - whereas I am after the lazy bureaucratic practice of “passing the buck”.
EXAMPLE:
A comes to B with a problem. B is lazy and doesn’t feel like putting in the work to solve it, so they ______ to another department.


texts: Noun + V-ing without V-to-be OR relative pronoun

texts:
I've read this, and the answer states we can omit relative clause heads when the verb that follows them is a present participle

Can we really say:

"The baby sleeping is Mike's son"

instead of saying:

"The baby who is sleeping is Mike's son."?


texts: Do east side and west side implicate poor and rich respectively?

texts:
One day I googled the words and I got the meanings and I remembered them as below

East side = poor city
West side = rich city

Is this correct? I want to know the historical, cultural background of those words and what they really mean in the real life of America and who uses the words usually ( tugs or gansters or ordinary people? ). I especially hear one of the words in some music from time to time.

"East side lovers living on the west end" from Red hot chili peppers - Can't stop
"He used to meet me on the Eastside, the city where the sun don't set"
from Benny Blanco, Khalid, Halsey - Eastside


texts: Which part of the given sentence has an error and why?

texts:
Below is the sentence, divided into four parts:

  (a) I will try
  (b) to be on time
  (c) but do not worry
  (d) when I am late.


texts: Why is [ɚ] used instead of [əɹ] in IPA phonetic transcriptions of English words?

texts: Is there any pronunciation difference between both? Shouldn't IPA use one symbol per phonem/allophone? Curiously, this happens with the schwa, but not with "true" vowels, eg the A in car [kɑɹ].


texts: Is "used in anger" a Britishism for something?

texts:
On a different board, someone referred to a computer language that had achieved popularity beyond the academic world as "used in anger", the way a shot fired in combat instead of on the practice range is said to be "fired in anger".  A Google search returned only people wondering, effectively, wtf?

Is this an actual expression or I am being put on?

EDIT

I think I didn't make myself clear: I've heard "used in anger" in plenty of cases where anger seemed more or less appropriate -- weapons, armies, that kind of things.  Does anyone have a cite where the phrase has become detached from any aggressive context?


texts: Comma use when omitting a repeated verb (ellipsis)

texts:
I am 'querying' an agent...  And I would like to keep grammar mistakes and infelicities down to a manageable dozen. So here goes:

In the following sentence,

   "In the story, Gilgamesh is king, and Enkidu lowly beast."

is the second comma necessary? According to the internet, it seems so, and I tend to agree. On the other hand, I would also have been tempted to write,

   "In the story, Gilgamesh is king, and Enkidu, lowly beast."

Is this incorrect? If not, is one form preferable over the other?

Thank you in advance.

(Note: the above sentence does not appear in the 'query' letter, but one with that structure does.)


texts:
(This is very similar to how to conjugate verb in dependent clause inside subjunctive mood — but that question has no accepted answer and this question is about independent, not dependent clauses.)

The sentence in question (referring to a virtual machine, a computer program that simulates an actual hardware device):

  It acted exactly as if it were a hardware machine and its power was/were[?] cut.

While the "as if" forces the first verb into the imperfect subjunctive "were", I think both "was" and "were" are syntactically acceptable for the second verb but have different semantics:

  It acted exactly as if it were a hardware machine and its power were cut.

expresses the idea of both clauses implicitly being introduced by "as if" — in other words, it acted exactly like a hardware machine, and acted exactly like its power was cut. Obviously there would be no argument (except with the wordiness) in making this explicit:

  It acted exactly as if it were a hardware machine and as if its power were cut.

—the second "as if" demands the subjunctive just as the first does.

But

  It acted exactly as if it were a hardware machine and its power was cut.

expresses the idea that only its being a hardware machine is counterfactual; having imagined such a machine, the possibility of the imagined machine's power being cut is not counterfactual.

Thus my intuition is that using "was" for the second verb more correctly expresses the sentiment. Going back to sentence #3 with two "as if" clauses: while grammatical, that sentence seems slightly nonsensical, since cutting power is something that is impossible to do to a virtual machine, which lacks a power supply. "[The virtual machine] acted as if its power were cut" standing alone would be a sentence without any sensible meaning. Only in imagining the counterfactual hardware machine can the power being cut have meaning, and that meaning is not a counterfactual, but an eventuality.

This is my intuition from the old minimal pair,

  If my boss calls, tell me immediately.

vs.

  If the President were to call, tell me immediately.

My boss calling is an eventuality; the President calling is unlikely to the point of being a near-counterfactual.

And similarly, power failing to a hardware device is an eventuality, so I'm inclined towards the indicative, not the subjunctive.

I haven't yet entertained the possibility of:

  It acted exactly as if it were a hardware machine and its power were to be cut.

because this seems needlessly wordy, even though it is technically a different conjugation — the "as if" isn't distributive here — and it sounds grammatical to my ears. If, for some reason, I needed to make explicit the conditional sequencing of the imagined machine and its power being cut, this sentence's wordiness might be acceptable.

To restate the question explicitly: is either "was" or "were" obligatory in the second clause, or are both acceptable? And, if they are both acceptable, do they express slightly different ideas, and if so, in what way? (To restate implicitly: am I right?)

—

p.s. One digression: Am I correct that the second clause is an independent clause? I asserted that from the outset, but I'm not so confident.

The "its" makes it possible it is a relative clause—it could be rewritten as "...machine whose power was cut", but "its" could be entirely dropped, resulting in an unequivocal independent clause "...machine and power was/were cut", so I think it's an independent clause even though it contains a referring pronominal.


texts: A word for the feeling that only last a few moments

texts:
I'm searching for a word if you guys can help me find it.. It is the moment when for ex: you are just about to jump out of an airplane (with parachute x) ) or when the song hits THAT great note.. Or when a horse rears when you are on it.. Or any moment that only lasts for a few seconds after a longer build up..

I can't find a good word that would describe it.. closest I have found is word like 'epiphany' or 'Climax' or 'Eureka'.


texts: When and why do you call it a sister-site?

texts:
Usually some sites are referenced as sister-sites by others, Why are they called sister-sites?

And what relation should both sites have to call each other sister-sites? Same authors? Same owners? In that case why not call it "our other-sites"? Is it because of the different content?


texts:
I'm a moderator at another StackExchange site and a debate has come up about the usage of the trademarked name that site is about, i.e. WordPress. Note as a trademark it is spelled in CamelCase and thus we wanted our guidelines to be that you render it in CamelCase or we'll probably edit it so that it will be consistent (we don't expect that people will all notice this nor are we trying to get people to obey, we just want to let them know that we'd prefer they do it this way and if they don't we'll probably edit it for them as we are writing our answers).
Of course there is always at least one person who takes issue when a group tries to create order partly in this case because of a dust-up created by the founder of WordPress who recently added a function to WordPress to CamelCase the name in content on people's sites and has dismissed the outcry about it from a group of passionate people as not his concern. Ignoring whether he should or should not have done that (I see these two issues as orthogonal) my view is that for our site if WordPress is cased as WordPress by its founder it makes our site appear more of an authority if we are generally consistent in that usage. But this one individual wants to debate that and part of his argument is as follows:

Spoken professionally, names should be
written orthographically correct.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my
best knowledge in English (both BE and
AE), this means with an uppercase
first letter per each word -the rest
lowercase.
I'm aware that companies can get very
"creative" to break the "burdening"
constraints of language for their own
and their products names. But to make
everything well read- and
understandable, authors should first
aim for an orthographically correct
writing instead of fulfilling the
marketing needs of a specific company.

So I'd like to know if it would be considered more proper in written English and why to use casing such as Mcdonalds, Powerpoint, Thinkpad, Jpmorgan, Ebay, L'oreal, Conocophillips, Unitedhealth, Wellpoint, Pepsico, and Fedex OR the casing that follows their trademarks; i.e. McDonalds, PowerPoint, ThinkPad, JPMorgan, eBay, L'Oreal, ConocoPhillips, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, PepsiCo, and FedEx and relatedly would be be easier to read/more understandable?  Note his last statement seems to imply he is really just trying to use this his statement on the "proper" way to do it in English (which is ironic as he's a non-native speaker) in order to justify his apparent desire to be "anti-marketing."
So I am coming here hoping for support that CamelCase for trademarks is the correct form in English usage but will be open minded in hearing your opinions and might even change my mind as I often do when presented with better evidence.


texts: Distinctive features of English diphthongs

texts:
I am looking for a table of distinctive features for English dipthongs along the lines of that available for other vowels here.  I don't trust my purely book learned linguistic skills to produce an accurate feature matrix.

A tool I wrote uses a distinctive feature table based on a very old theory and I would like to update it.


texts: Animal-related alternatives to the 'black swan' expression

texts:
I am looking for animal-based alternate expressions to the 'black swan' for a rare event (or a rare item, even though that's not precisely what black swan signifies).

I believe I have heard other (and possibly more humorous) animals mentioned in this kind of 'rarity' context, but can't recall which.
Slang/idioms/colloquialisms ok, some humor preferred (in contrast to 'black swan' connotations).


texts:
The commercial online assessment services currently offered by PV installation companies require the input of personal details such as email addresses which hook in clients.

"Hook in" seems like a bit of a colloquialism, is there a better term for this? To me, the noun hook in the context of "marketing hook" seems alright, but as a verb it seems rather casual.

I want to convey the idea that once the consumer uses this service and provides any personal information, they are stuck or trapped in a loop and are forced to have additional contact or dealings with the business.

I looked up in a thesaurus and came up with snared or lured, but does anyone have any better suggestions please?


texts: help: punctuating a long list containing abbreviations

texts:
any suggestions for the following list:

"such as: joiner, Hollaender swivel T, Hollaender horizontal flat plate, jr. end piece, Hollaender split cross, flange base, [Matthews] Big Ben, speedrail ear, swiveling alum. Cheeseboro, Modern swiveling cheeseboro, Modern sliding D-ring, grid clamp to 3/8” thread (often used with cheeseplate), side mount jr. grid clamp, baby grid clamp, and jr. grid clamp."

I'm editing this for a friend. The items are jargon, which I can't change. The periods after each abreviation are confusing, but spelling out "junior" isn't an option. Would using semicolons instead of commas be ok, even though the other lists in the doc use commas?


texts: What's the connection between the word 'roam' and the cell phone roaming?

texts:
"Roam" is defined as "move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment".

What does it have to do with the cell phone roaming? Why is roaming called that?

  Roaming is a general term referring to the ability for a cellular
  customer to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and
  receive data, or access other services, including home data services,
  when travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home
  network, by means of using a visited network.


texts: Is there an 'official' way to suggest a new word become part of the English language?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Regulatory bodies and authoritative dictionaries for English
  Creating a new word
  What are the criteria to adopt new words into English?

I've always been told, at least in English class, that English is so complicated for non-native speakers to learn and has a variety of flaws.

These teachers also point out that English's greatest strength is picking up new words. I know we assimilate words from other languages, 'promote' words from slang to standard and sometimes just come up with new words.

Opinions of educators aside, how is it that words get added to the language? Does someone call up the folks that write the Oxford English dictionary or what?

Edit in response to Callithumpian's comment: that's good to know about the Oxford folks, but what about any other standardization groups? If not, how does it usually happen that new words trickle in to different official publications? I've never heard of any International Society of English or anything like that. On the other hand, I haven't looked terribly far.


texts: Is it customary or grammatical to drop ‘to’ in “I’m not going to go look for it”?

texts:
There was a scene a thirty-something wife refuses to go looking for the wedding ring her husband lost in a courtyard when she was asked by her husband over the phone, in the fiction titled “The Lost Order” appearing in New Yorker magazine (January 7).

  “I think I lost it when I was in the courtyard with Monkey [their
  pet dog]. I’m sorry to put this on you, but would you mind taking a
  look around for it?” - - -

  “I’m not going to go look for it,”

  I find myself saying into the phone. It’s not really a decision, it’s
  more like discovery.”

I noticed that there is no ‘to’ or ‘and’ used in “I’m not going to go look for it.”

Is it customary or grammatical not to bring ‘to+inf’ or 'and' after ‘go.’
Is it customary to say “go play baseball,” “go see movie” “go buy pumpkin” “go swim to the pool” or "go help someone."?


texts: Alternative to "For the purpose of comparison"

texts:
In my current paper I have the sentence

  For the purpose of comparison we also provide Definition 1, which is more concise and complete than previous similar definitions.

The sentence needs to be shortened (I am fighting with every syllable). So I am wondering whether I could shorten this to one of the suggestions of https://www.powerthesaurus.org/for_the_purpose_of_comparison/synonyms. In particular I am considering

for comparison purposes
for comparative purposes

Could a native speaker say whether these are sounding smooth or somewhat awkward?


texts:
''According to a Gnostic legend, a war broke out in heaven among the angels, in which Michael’s legions defeated those of the Dragon. The nonpartisan angels who had been content to look on were consigned to earth, in order to make there a choice they had not been able to determine on high, one all the more arduous in that they brought with them no memory of the combat or, indeed, of their equivocal attitude.''

E. M. Cioran, Drawn and Quartered

I've got this text from above, and, given the fact that, obviously, I'm not a native, I have quite a hard time comprehending it. I don't understand, precisely, the words in bold, I mean, individually I do understand them all, but in this context I just can't come up with a correlation between them. Could someone explain it to me?


texts: Difference between TAKE UP and TAKE ON (= to begin to do something)

texts:
Could anyone please give me the answer of the english exercise below and help me tell apart take up and take on, which both mean beginning to do something? I appreciate your help with this exercise.

You looked exhausted. I think you’ve _______ more than you can handle.
A. turned on
B. taken up
C. turned up
D. taken on


texts: Is there a real word that means "pre-enact"?

texts:
Most of us are familiar with the word "re-enact."

re-enact |ˌrēəˈnakt|
verb [ with obj. ]
act out (a past event): bombers were gathered together to re-enact the historic first air attack.

A historical movie might include a re-enactment of the American Civil War, while a fictional movie about the future might include a "pre-enactment" of World War III.
A pre-enactment would be an enactment (the process of acting something out) of something that has not yet happened but one hopes, suspects, or knows will happen.  Just as re-enactments are flawed and don't perfectly represent what they intend to, pre-enactments may have missing details or variations from what actually will happen.
This word would be different from "practice" or "rehearsal" because it's not the precursor to a performance.  Rather it is the precursor to an actual event that would occur normally but which may be represented by a pre-enactment.
One example involves rituals performed by religious groups—they may pre-enact a reception into heaven or a ceremony that is to take place after death.  They do this while still living, even though they believe such an event will occur regardless of their pre-enactment.
Another example is of a couple (probably in a cheesy romantic comedy) that has recently fallen madly in love.  They're so caught up that they pre-enact their marriage ceremony, albeit without a few key people and the necessary wardrobe.
However, "pre-enact" doesn't appear to be a widely used word.  Is there a similar word that means to act out a future event?  If not, is it acceptable to use "pre-enact" despite it not being found in most dictionaries, not even Wiktionary?


texts: Next week, in particular, is my wife(')(,) Liana's(,) show

texts:
I was writing an email to my department, and was informing them about an art show my wife was having.  So I wrote:

  Next week, in particular, is my wife Liana's show.

But then I realized that I usually would write "my wife, liana, ...", but the apostrophe made it look strange. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should be putting the apostrophe on "wife" instead.

After thinking about this for more than a few minutes, I decided to drop all commas and send the email, since I was wasting time.  But I wanted to know what the correct punctuation would be in this case.

Also, I apologize if this seems trivial or is a duplicate.  I could not find a decent answer to this elsewhere.


texts: B is 4, A is 10 times more, is A 44? I am really confused by "times" and "more" or "better".


texts:
This is a comment that came out of a discussion on McDonalds:

  I remember working at McHell for over 2 years. 25 cars in the Drive-Thru was nothing. The worst part was a semi-full lobby/Drive-Thru and then a buss pulls in. That shit would get everybody rustled in the place... Shit being thrown everywhere, people yelling. Good times.

What does rustle mean when he says the buss would get everybody rustled in the place? I couldn't find a definition in the dictionaries that's appropriate to the context. And I'm assuming he made a typo and meant bus instead of buss?


texts:
What is the difference between saying "during summer" and "during the summer"? As in:

  I work during the summer.
  I work during summer.

Are both common? Is my feeling correct that the first stresses that I work (only) this summer, and the other is more a general statement — every summer, during summer, but not in (the?) winter?


texts:
Is there a word for describing something by what it is not?

For example if I describe a thing as odorless, tasteless, and colorless.

The context is that of describing something divine.


texts: Another word for 'not decorated as much'

texts:
I am trying to describe a room that my character walks into. I want to say that this room is similar to an earlier room I described, but none of the ornate objects are present (it is a simple room). So I would say

  The room was just like the throne room, only less [word]

or alternately

  It was roughly the same size as the throne room but lacked the [word]

What would that word be?


texts: How do I identify "infinitive clauses/phrases" and "subjects"?

texts:
In sentences such as the following, there is (as I understand it) an infinitive clause and an infinitive phrase. Which part is the infinitive clause and which part is the infinitive phrase? And what is the subject?
Examples:

One thing to do about this is to stop feeding animals junk food.
One way to improve your dancing skills is to practice on a hot tin roof.


texts: Why is "listen" always followed by "to" in the command voice?

texts: When I say, read it or drink it or take me, there is no to in-between. Why is it that when I use the verb listen, I have to say listen to me or listen to it?


texts: Which one of the sentences is grammatically correct?

texts:
1: In their article published 10 years ago, they concluded that the ant was an amazing creature.

2: In their article published 10 years ago, they concluded that the ant is an amazing creature.


texts:
See this youtube video at 17:18, the lady said that:

  for the stops, we can't prolong the sound
  for the continuants, we can prolong the sound as long as we still have air in our lungs.

So, my question is that:

Could you list all stops & continuants?

Here is what I think:

Stops: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

Continuants: all fricatives (f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h); all nasal (m, n, ŋ); all liquids (l, r); all glide (w,j)

So there are 2 lefts, the affricates (tʃ & dʒ): I don't know whether they are Stops or Continuants

Could you list all stops & continuants?


texts: Is there any word for the the feeling/act when the food is so tasty that you close your eyes and chew it slowly?

texts:
I'm just looking for a word by which one can explain the moment / feeling / act of closing your eyes and chewing your food slowly with taking enjoying every part of your food.

I'm looking for a noun, but any word adjective/adverb that can replace this long sentence is fine.


texts:
I think the standard Irish/British pronunciation is as in Louis the king. But musicians seem to say "Lewis".

I've heard people say Joe Louis as in the king as well. Is this wrong?


texts: Single word that unambiguously describes the product of folding

texts:
I am writing a scientific paper in which I perform a mathematical operation that is illustratively called folding, which is already an established term. I now want to assign a similarly illustrative name to the product of that folding. This word should refer to the whole folded object (red) and ideally neither be usable for the process of folding (blue) or just the point of folding (crease, green), as this could confuse readers.

I have considered the following words so far:

fold – while this word can indeed be used for what I need, it can also be used for the point of folding (green). Still, I consider this one of the better choices for now.
foldth – a neologism in analogy to warm → warmth, break → breach, grow → growth and similar. However, there are also strong → strength, wide → width and similar, which work differently. Being a new word, it cannot be confused for something else but may be confusing due to being new, in particular as the morphology behind this feels rather old and unproductive to me. Also, the ldth sequence may be difficult to pronounce for some (there is no English word containing this sequence).
folding – fits in analogy to build → building or scaffolding. However, it can also be applied to the process of folding (blue).
origami – quite illustrative, but not morphologically related to to fold. Also, it might be considered silly by readers.
foldee – something I would use for someone who is being folded. Yet it does not quite fit for something that is being folded. Moreover it rather describes the object of the folding, not the result (compare to examinee vs. graduate).
foldery – a neologism in analogy to bake → bakery, flatter → flattery and similar. Does not really fit as I would rather use it for a place where folding happens or for intensive or repeated folding.
folder – does not really fit as it rather describes somebody or something that folds.

I am wondering whether I missed some better option. Note that I am looking for a single word and I am open to neologisms, if they are intelligible.


texts: A since-clause in present tense marking off a period of time

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Question:

In English, can you use a present tense since-clause to mark off a period that starts at some time in the past and continues to and includes the present?

Background:

Unfortunately, my paradigm of the clause in question is a German seit clause.  Consider, for example, a widow speaking of her living arrangements since her husband's death.

  (D) Seit er tot ist, lebe ich allein.
  (E1) Since he died, I have lived alone.

It seems to me that D has two clauses which are in present tense and imperfective (present) aspect while E1 has a since-clause in past tense and perfective (aorist) aspect and a main clause in present perfect tense and resultative aspect.  (If any of this is wrong, please feel free to point out.)

The kind of since-clause I have in mind would have the same meaning (i.e. a period of time, not e.g. a cause) as that in E1, but go as follows:

  (E2) Since he is dead, I have lived alone.

The question is not confined to present day English.  An example from any historical period of a since or other subordinate clause in which a verb in present tense and imperfect aspect marks off a time period that continues to the present will do.

I want to add the following as forming a (sort of) continuum from (E2).

  (E3) Since he is gone, I have lived in the house.
  (E4) Since he has gone, I have lived in the house.
  (E5) Since he has lived in the house, I have kept out of it.

E4 and E5 seem to have the same tense and aspect in both clauses (be they present perfect and resultative, or otherwise) and sound acceptable to me.

The since-clause in E3, it seems, can be assimilated either to that in E2 or that in E4 and E5.  E3 sounds strange to me or at any rate not as likely in today's speech as "since he's been gone" or "went away."

Anyway, any historical or literary precedent for the seit-like usage of since in English is what I am looking for.


texts: "Much obliged" — Old-fashioned? Polite? Pedantic?

texts: I've heard someone say "Much obliged!" a couple of times, instead of the usual "Thank you!". A common phrase in Portuguese ("Muito Obrigado") and maybe other languages, but certainly unusual in English. My question is: is it old-fashioned? Polite? Or pedantic?


texts: Looking for a Synonym for the word "Desire" or "Whims" but applied to a political context

texts:
I'm looking for a Synonym for the word "Desire", "Whims" or "Quarrels" but applied to a political context. I can't think of the word off the top of my head, but I know the context in which it is used.
For example, you can say

Hitler appealed to the masses of the German
people, because he appealed to their "quarrels"

It's not that they appealed to their desires, but they appealed to their need for change and wanted to right their wrongs. He also appealed to their quarrels, or the things that bothered the populace the most. There is a word that is perfect for this context that is very similar to "quarrels", but I cant quite think of it.


texts: What does "move states away for" mean in this sentence?

texts:
I read a sentence: "His ambition, twinned with desperation, resonates with any teenager who wants to journey off to college or move states away for work, in a bid to escape youthful boundaries. "
Not sure what is the meaning of the phrase "move states away for". Does it mean quit working?


texts: Is there an abbr. for 'Up To Today/Date' like YTD?

texts: While giving a short comment for the report, to describe that the data is counted from the beginning to today. It's just like YTD - Year To Day, except that I don't care about the starting date here. Is there such an abbreviation? Do we use UTT - Up To Today?


texts: Is sentence "The artist I studied their art from is (name of the artist)..." correct?

texts: And if it's grammatically correct, does it have ambiguity to it? If so, how to rephrase this sentence to get rid of this ambiguity?


texts: What's the English name of the oi sound written as "eu" and commonly found in Germanic words like Deutschland, and names like Euler and von Neumann?


texts: What is an antonym of improved/improvement?

texts:
Consider these sentences:

"I improved my essay."
"I made an improvement to my essay."
"How much did you improve your essay?"
"What improvements did you make to your essay?"

What would I say, if I meant the opposite, like

"I changed my essay in a negative way."
"I made a change to my essay that negatively affected it."
"How much did you change your essay in a negative way?"
"How many negative changes did you make to your essay?"

Ideally, this would be a word or short phrase that would work well in other sentences too.

EDIT Additional example:

"Most improvements were due to me, but this one was made by John."

I'm looking for a verb and a noun. (They don't have to share the same stem, though that'd be great if they did.)


texts: One word for motivating someone through personal experience

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Is there a word used to describe an action where one motivates an individual or a group of people to do something through sharing their own experience/journey.
Learning from experience is wisdom. What describes motivating people by imparting wisdom?


texts: Why is a woman a "widow" and a man a "widower"?

texts: There are lots of words that have male and female forms, and usually there are alternate suffixes to the words which indicate the gender; for example, "waiter" vs. "waitress", "mister" vs. "mistress", etc.  The one that has always puzzled me, though, is "widow" and "widower".  Following the form of the previous examples, I understand "widower" for men--but why the form of the word with no suffix for women?  Why isn't a woman called a "widowess"?


texts: Can we use "I can't come right now, I need to take a shower" if we are informing a friend? Or should it be "I can't come right now, I will need to take a shower"?


texts:
Is there a word for the day before the last day of a period, which is measured by days?

When it is the last day of a period, one may state:

  This is the last day to pay this bill.

I'm looking for a word to use in this sentence:

  This is the first day of the last two days to pay this bill.

Is there a general word for the second last chance/hour etc.?

For example:

  You have two trials to win this game...

but I would like to say:

  This is your XXX chance to win this game.

while XXX is the first of two last trials to win a game.


texts: Is there any word for 10 days in English?

texts: For example, I am preparing a report for 1-10 of the month, then 11 to 20 and then 21 to 30. Is there any specific word for 10 days in English like weekly report which consist of 7 days?


texts: Phrase for ending up paying for having done a favor

texts:
In my mother tongue (Gujarati) there are two phrases describing the adverse effects of doing a favor. What are their English equivalents, if any?

The phrases are:

આંગળી આપેને પ્હોંચો પકડે (someone) is offered a finger and (they) grab the hand
ધરમ કરતા ધાડ પડી Making a donation and getting robbed. ધરમ કરતા more often means performing religious ceremony, so another interpretation could be to get robbed while doing pooja.


texts:
I'm trying to do a translation and can't find any example that solves the question; is it walking in or on the dunes?

'Dunes' to the Dutch refers to an area which contains some sandy hills near the sea. The footpath is usually at a lower level, so we'd say 'in' the dunes for walking in the area, instead of 'on' as in on top of a sandy hill.


texts: What loan-words keep their native pronunciation?

texts:
Being a non-native English speaker I recently discovered that for some words you don't use English pronunciation. For instance you seem to be omitting the l's when saying tortilla.

Yet this isn't always the case considering that with a comparable word karaoke you don't use the Japanese pronunciation. Are there more commonly used words that are pronounced in their native tongue that I should be aware of?


texts: What's the difference between I've had and I've been having?

texts:
For example, what's the difference between:

I've had a wonderful time here
and
I've been having a wonderful time?

Does the present perfect simple indicate that the action is over?


texts: The rebels [could / were able to] draw on the support of over 20,000 soldiers

texts:
I don't understand why both are correct answers.
Isn't it supposed to use [be able to] rather than [could] if the situation is a specific event in a specific moment, which I think is this case?
For example, be able to is correct, not could, in this sentence : We [were able to] finish the football match before it started snowing too heavily.

By the way, this is a question from Advanced grammar in use.
Please let me know what I am missing. Thank you.


texts: Why does the word "joed" mean weary, tired, exhausted, fatigued, etc.?

texts: The word "joed" is a word I use frequently to describe my feeling tired or exhausted. As a child, I used to hear my grandfather say "I feel joed" before he would sit down for a respite or turn in; however, I'm not certain why the word joed means tired. Has anyone the least notion why "joed" means tired?


texts: Was "nowadays" ever spelled with hyphens?

texts: etymonline doesn't note that nowadays ever had a spelling with hyphen but I found a few random sites claiming that it once was hyphenated. Was it ever spelled as "now-a-days"?


texts: Word or phrase for that part of writing that ensures clarity of speaker and place

texts:
I was reading a book the other day and, at several points in the story, became very confused as to which character was talking. It would also happen that the characters would suddenly be at new locations without explanation or transition. Even though other aspects of the writing were quite entertaining, this poor scene-setting made reading the book frustrating.

Is there a word or a technical term that describes that part of writing, the nuts-and-bolts part of the prose that glues together the story and keeps the reader from confusion?


texts: "Keep me motivated" or "keep myself motivated"?

texts:
Which statement is more correct?

  I am doing this to keep me motivated.

OR

  I am doing this to keep myself motivated.


texts: "Less than" - Do you see anything wrong with this statement?

texts:
I have had a colleague me about a potential typo. The text is currently as follows:

"... whereas the XX team once had around XX support tickets a semester, that number is now 75-80% of what it used to be."

My colleague suggests it should read:

"... whereas the XX team once had around XX support tickets a semester, that number is now 75-80% less than what it used to be."

I have been looking at both of these until I am blue in the face, but I am unable to detect quite how the new phrase is justified. Perhaps the expression, taken in isolation, is poorly worded in the first place.

Any suggestions?

/luke


texts:
Research efforts in understanding the underlying mechanism have been ramped up
  over the past few years.

I came across this sentence in a published work and now I'm wondering if "efforts" shouldn't be followed by "on" or simply the infinitive form of understanding ("to understand").

Is it a special case because "understanding" also exists as a noun?
I'm speculating that "in" is possible as long as "understanding" is not considered as gerund but as noun. Can anyone confirm?

Anyway, wouldn't it be more appropriate to use "on" or "towards" instead of "in"?


texts:
According to what I was taught as school, the past tense of 'get' is 'got' and 'gotten' is "an American corruption and, therefore, is not a proper word".

Example:

  "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
  And never brought to mind?" — opening lines for Auld Lang Syne

Note that this is not as follows, which seems to be popular usage:

  "Should auld acquaintance be forgotten, And never brought to mind?"


texts: Is one more correct: "lucky for me" or "luckily for me"?

texts: Is it "more" correct to say "Luckily for me" or "Lucky for me"? I found a few sites that discussed this (including m-w.com, under the rubric "hopefully") but I'm still not sure if one is specifically right or wrong, or both are acceptable. (Or one is right, while the other is acceptable using colloquial language.)


texts:
I stumbled upon this sentence: "Wake up an hour earlier each morning".

This was listed as a good habit people should pick up. Given the context, I assume that it recommends you wake up an hour earlier than you usually (i.e. currently) would.

But could it also mean that you should wake up an hour earlier each morning going forward (compared to the previous one)? If not, what is a way to phrase it?


texts: What is called when a word is intentionally spelled in another way to highlight another word that is similar to a part inside of it?

texts:
I guess it will be best explained with an example from the text I am reading.

Dumas was spelled as DumbAss as a means of satire.

What is this called?


texts: What is the difference between "emoji" and "emoticon"?

texts:
I have seen these two words used to describe :) or .

Are they different in any way? How could I tell when to use one or another?


texts:
She is a karate coach. She is not very powerful, but she is very quick/fast/rapid.

Can I use all three words quick, fast or rapid in the sentence?

Could you tell me the different meanings between them, if they are fine here?


texts: How should one punctuate a sentence like this?

texts:
How should one punctuate a sentence like the following?

  If she were to find out about our . . . "secret plan" shall I say . .
   . it would be the end of everything.


texts: Is there an adjective for someone who has a "sense of entitlement"?

texts:
When someone has unreasonable expectations and feels that he is owed by others, this trait is described as a "sense of entitlement". But how do you refer to the person who has this trait other than calling him "a person with a sense of entitlement"?

If there is no single word to describe this kind of character, can you suggest a few equivalent phrases for "a person with a sense of entitlement"?


texts:
Let's say someone has a tendency to react right away to moments of stress but then after it has been noticed or pointed out, he/she forms meditation habit and after some time, doesn't have such tendency instead having awareness like 'Hey this person/event/noun is leading me to be distracted/stressed out. I shouldn't react right away.'

We say this person became less impulsive or more...

Conscious? Cautious? I'm not sure the antonyms here work.

...I'm thinking self-aware, but it seems to be applicable more for planned times of meditation, self-review, etc than for unplanned stressors.

Then it would seem that during meditation, one is not training to be self-aware but rather being self-aware but then training to be...?


texts: What is the English word for "one who composes prayers"?

texts: I remember meeting a priest from Rome who described himself as a [missing word here] which he defined as one who writes prayers. I cannot for the life of me recall or find this word, and I'm starting to wonder if perhaps he coined it or borrowed it from another language.


texts: What is the proper usage of "Y'all" in southern American dialects

texts:
The construction of the word to me implies that "you" is singular, whereas "y'all" is plural.

To a football team: "Y'all are going to play a great game."
To a tennis player: "You are going to play a great game."

However, I hear southerners address me personally as Y'all quite often.

What's the correct usage?

Aside:  Comments that y'all is improper are not helpful.


texts: What does it mean when someone uses two periods?

texts:
In past communications with non-native English speakers, I occasionally see the use of two periods.
Some examples:

Ok.. let's meet soon.
Sounds good..
Thursday Meeting..

This seems to show up mostly in informal communication. It looks to be some kind of half-ellipsis.
Where does this come from and what is the intended meaning?


texts: Proper way of saying: "The one who listens to others is the one who is listened by others"

texts:
I'm doing a presentation and one of my key point (as the one developed in Forbes.com here) is that to be relevant to others you have to listen them first.

I would like to say it in a compact and catchy way using twice the same verb ("listen" here but I am open to any suggestion) in order to insist on both the passive and active part of the action.

Thank you


texts: what is the right meaning of "The most important thing of being rich is helping others"?

texts: Is it asking about the most important ting for the rich or the process to be rich? What role do "being" play in this sentence?


texts:
If my fingers and toes are all cold, I can say "My digits are cold." However, if my shoulders and hips are aching, (or elbows and knees, or wrists and ankles), I don't know of a word to collectively describe these  "similar" parts of the body.
Anybody know of any words to describe these?


texts: If there is honey, the bees will come from nine mountains away

texts: This idiomatic expression implies that, if there is a favorable financial situation ( a situation in which money can be made )  people who would like to use such a situation to their advantage, will cover long distances  to make the most of it. Is there a similar expression in English ?


texts: Is it correct to use Present Prefect with "past week"?

texts:
I am having hard time judging if the use of present perfect is correct in the following question: "How many times have you done these things in the past week?"

According "Practical English Usage", we cannot use present prefect with finished-time words such as "yesterday, last week, three years, ...etc". Is the "past week" a finished-time expression?

Please, help me get to the bottom of this.


texts: move to vs move on to the next topic/lesson/item/activity

texts:
I'd like to know if both of the following sentences are correct.

  Let's move to the next topic.
  Let's move on to the next topic.

If yes, is there any difference in meaning?


texts:
I'm a non-native speaker active in a labor union that does not use English internally. The union has a representative assembly (made up of representatives of branches), whose existence is mandated by our by-laws/statutes, with all sorts of functions and procedures. Which of the following shall I refer to the assembly as? What is the difference between them?

a body of the union
an organ of the union
an institution of/within the union


texts: Do British speakers have problems understanding Jamaican speakers?

texts:
I'm still learning English but I think that, at the moment, my level is becoming acceptable (I can keep a real conversation with a native speaker without problems). The point is that I've been listening to a song by Sean Paul (a Jamaican singer) and I really have problems understanding most of what he says.

This is the song, from 1:15 to 1:35.

The question, as you may know, is: Do you have any problems understanding what he say?


texts: Using apostrophes with plural and possession

texts:
We have something going to print today, but everyone in the office is arguing as to where to correctly place the apostrophe in the sentence (if at all!)

The sentence is:

  Bring your event into the palm of your guests hand


texts:
I am making a precis. I have a sentence here.

A child feels sad when he is not allowed to do things on its will.

How can I replace sentence with a single word. "not allowed to do things on will"

Thanks


texts: Any connection between -dom (kingdom) and dharma?

texts: Appreciated the article on the derivation of -dom as in kingdom; any relationship between that and dharma? I see that -dom goes back to Old English for doom, judgment, law statute, and dharma goes back to Proto-Indo-Iranian root *dhar- ("to fasten, to support, to hold") (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma), but was wondering if OE traces back to that as well.


texts: non-typical copular and predicative expression

texts:
SMASH!  The door was hit with such force that it swung clean (1)
  off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed (2) flat on the floor.  (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

(1), (2) both seem to be the resultatives of the verbs: the former predicative prepositional phrase, the latter predicative adjective. When the verbs are not typical copulars, can we call them all the predicative expressions?


texts:
The equipment ....... delivered tomorrow afternoon.
A) will been B) will be

And I appreciate it if you explain the differences between the two of them.


texts: What's the word for a flashback or a rush of memories triggered by something?

texts:
I'm thinking in the context of school, like flipping through your old notebooks and just having all the knowledge flood back to you.

It's sort of like nostalgia, but more in the camp of knowledge than experiences. I've found memory boner, but that's not quite what I'm after. Is anyone familiar with a word or a description for what I've described?

Thanks in advance.


texts: An adjective for "extremely naive, almost dumb"

texts:
Is there a single word (adjective) in English to describe an extremely naive (almost dumb) person?

Example 1: you get a phishing email or an email with a malware attachment - you'd want to tell the sender "Are you so [naive] to believe I am going to open it?" or "Do you think I am [naive] enough to open it?".

Example 2: your colleague lends a significant amount of money to their friend, knowing that the person had never returned any borrowed money before. "Were you [naive] enough to believe you'd get your money back from him?"

I would accept slang, informal word as long as it is not vulgar.


texts: Is it acceptable to nest parentheses (for example, if I (meaning myself) write like this)?