texts:
Which one of these is more correct:

"The process of adaptation is different in any case"

"The process of adaptation is different in every case"


texts:
What is the difference between supposed and expected?

For example, which one should  be used in the following example?

  I am confused about the two words base and basis. I often use one when
  the other is expected/supposed.


texts:
Jimmy: Did you read my novel?
Sara: Not yet. People told me it was romantic.

Is it fine to use 'was' here? I suspect 'is' most suitable here, because that book still exists, so use of 'is' is appropriate. Another versions can be:

People told me it is romantic.
People told me it was romantic.
People tell me it is  romantic.
People tell me it was romantic.


texts: Designators, quantifications and predicates in Predicate Logic

texts:
So, I got my Predicate Logic exercises back, and I had apprently made one mistake. What is annoying is that I don't know why.

The taks was to identify all the designators and predicates in a certain number of sentences. The one I got wrong on was this:

  "Everyone tells the officer to keep an eye on City Hall"

I identified two designators here, and three predicates, like this:

  Designators:

 the officer
 City hall

  Predicates:

 Everyone tells x to keep an eye on City hall
 Everyone tells the officer to keep an eye on y
 Everyone tells x to keep an eye on y

Where I had gone wrong was apparently in the last predicate ("everyone tells x to keep an eye on y"), for there my teacher had crossed out "Everyone" and put "z", like this

 z tells x to keep an eye on y

My questions are:

    1) Why is everyone substituted for z, when I have explicitly learned that "everyone, each, some, all, none, etc are not designators", and I though one could only remove designators to make predicates ...

    2) Why is it only substituted for z in the last predicate and not in the two first one?

    3) Why is it "everone" not listed as a designator, when it is removed for the sentence?

Thanks!


texts: Should I capitalize the abbreviation for a unit of measurement?

texts:
I'm creating a table in which everything in the columns are being treated like titles- "Suggested Serving Size," "Flavor of Yogurt," etc.

So how do I deal with this one- "Profit per 16 oz. Container"? Should it be "Profit per 16 Oz. Container?" I know ounce would be capitalized, but what's the protocol for abbreviations?


texts: What word would you use to describe poorly ventilated clothing?

texts:
Can stuffy, as in a stuffy room, be used to describe clothes?

"This shirt is too stuffy to wear in the tropics." No? Any suggestions?


texts:
In sentences like "Two questions are what I wanted to ask", should I treat the subject, "Two questions", as singular or plural?

It seems more natural to treat it as plural. But when I reverse the subjects I'll need to use the singular form instead : "What I wanted to ask is two questions" and this doesn't look very natural.
Does the same apply to chronological sentences like "5 months is/are what I have left to finish this project of mine"?


texts: Logic: Interchangeability of Roles in Sentences

texts:
Do the changes in the following sentences change the meaning at all?

He's my friend
I'm his friend

Or

He's my co-worker
I'm his co-worker

Or

he's my brother
I'm his brother

Besides emphasis - is there any change in meaning in these sentences?
Can they be interchangeable? (Assuming friends are not just one sided!)


texts: Infinitive Verbals versus prepositional phrase

texts:
I am working through sentence diagrams and continue to have trouble determining when a construction is an infinitive verbal or if it is simply a prepositional phrase.

Example 1:

"Stephanie likes to fix cars"

As per my book, the answer is that "to fix cars" is an infinitive verbal.

Example 2:

"The stain, the sticky spot, needs to be cleared"

As per my book, the answer is that "to be cleared" is simply a preposition.

Any guidance will be much appreciated!

thank you


texts: What is the correct way to pluralize improper fractions?

texts: Say, for example, I'd like to express that I have four complete six-slice pizzas and one with five out of six slices. Would I say "I have 29/6 pizzas"? "4 and 5/6 of a pizza" for mixed fractions?


texts:
If you have two objects which are plural (e.g. apples and oranges) and a non-restrictive relative clause, to which does the relative clause refer? E.g.:

  He noticed the apples and oranges, which were rotting, in the room next door.

Are the apples rotting? The oranges? Both? Is this statement clear or ambiguous?

If you tried to restrict the relative clause only to "oranges":

  He noticed the apples and oranges (that were browning) in the room next door.

Is that not an improper "that," since it is non-essential?  Does it still appear ambiguous? What is the proper protocol on this?


texts:
While I was reading something I came across with this structure.
" Car wouldnt start this morning."
Why was "wouldn't" used here...
Whats the difference as meaning with these examples.
Car wont start
Car doesnt start
Car wouldnt start this morning
Car couldnt start this morning
Car didnt start this morning
I'm wondering if there is any difference as meaning or the time


texts:
What's the difference between the two English words "liquid" and "fluid"?

For example, "US liquid gallon" vs "US fluid ounce".
Can we also say "fluid gallon" and "liquid ounce", too?

Thanks in advance. Have a good weekend to you all.


texts: "..profit from burgers is more than offset by the damage..." how to understand this sentence

texts:
"To help quantify the costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate this impact in terms of a most famous food, the burger. I concluded that the profit from burgers is more than offset by the damage they cause in health problems and environmental harm."

I found this sentence from a passage in which the writer encourages people to cook.

My questions are:

is "offset" a verb here? If so, how to understand the function of "more than"?
which two things are compared, the profit and offset or the profit and the damage?
profit here means the advantage or benefit that is gained from doing sth, not something finical or economical, right?

Please help~


texts: Single word to represent few things like arriving late, leaving for the day, working from home, etc

texts:
In a team people would like to communicate to the rest over a chat app to let them know that they are late to office, taking leave, or working from home.

Would like to name a chat group, so looking for a phrase or a single word that can be used as group name (representing the activity)


texts: include a document to the folder or in the folder

texts:
I have attached a letter to the folder that I submitted or in the folder I submitted ?
Help please


texts:
May I use further to refer to time? For instance: I'll do it further

Thank you


texts: What is the word to indicate that a thought has been repeatedly occurring to me since 2 days?

texts:
A particular came to my mind after a work related meeting, and it has been consistently occurring to me since then. I want to say "This thought has been -----------ing since last 2 days"

I thought about using the word: "Pestering", but its meaning "trouble or annoy (someone) with frequent or persistent requests or interruptions." seems to have a negative connotation.

A negative connotation is not what I am experiencing. It was repeatedly occurring in a positive sense really. How do I express this?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What does “ain't” mean?

What's the difference between "you're not" and "you ain't" ("...coming home")? I do realize that ain't is a contraction of are not — but still.

Which of the two forms should be used and when? Which is the most formal/informal?


texts: Hyphenation of a phrasal attributive with an open compound: "A B to C noun"

texts:
I'm wondering how to properly hyphenate (or en-dash) the following phrase:

  fiber optic to BNC converter

That is to say, a device that converts "fiber optic" to BNC. If it didn't contain an open compound, I'd simply write "optic-to-BNC converter; but I'm not sure how the open compound "fiber optic" might affect the situation. I prefer not to write "fiber optic–BNC converter", as this could cause confusion in some contexts if the reader doesn't read "–" as "to". I also thought about

  fiber optic–to–BNC converter

, but that looks too strange to me.

My best guess is

  fiber-optic to BNC converter

. I think this expresses that "fiber" and "optic" are related but "BNC" and "converter" are not. Is this the right way, or is there a better solution?

Note: this is actually an example of poor writing because fiber optic is essentially a transmission medium, while BNC refers to a connector type. So I actually solved my problem by writing "optical-to-electrical converter" (and afterward, "optoelectronic converter"). Nonetheless, the basic question remains. Another example phrase that exemplifies the problem is "surface area to volume ratio", for which I've found evidence of a variety of hyphenation styles.


texts: How do you describe a project should be advanced?

texts:
When you believe that a project should be advanced, which way(s) do you use out of following? Please also advise more native friendly expressions if you have.

We will proceed with the project on schedule.
We will take forward the project on schedule.
We will push ahead the project on schedule.
We will advance the project on schedule.


texts: Has the meaning to the question "Do you mind" changed ?

texts: When a person asks "Do you mind if I ..."   The response now days seems to be "Yes ..sure go ahead" which to me means they DO mind.. I hear this constantly on TV and in the work place, it just seems to bug me...


texts: Grammatically equivalent sentences, for use in symbolic logic

texts:
Initially posted to Math Stack Exchange: HERE

I believe that English grammar expertise is needed as well.

Is the statement:

  No student is friendly but not helpful.

Equivalent to:

A

  There does not exist a person such that that person is a student, that person is friendly, and that person is not helpful.

or

B

  For all people, if a person is a student, then that person is not friendly and helpful.


texts: What to use after a word which ends with "se" to indicate possession?

texts:
I apologize for the seemingly simple question. I've searched on Google for this, but could not find anything.

The word "Recluse", meaning (noun) "a person who lives a solitary life and tends to avoid other people."

I would normally put an 's after it to indicate possession, like "Recluse's Home". But saying it out loud it doesn't sound quite right.

Is 's the proper way to indicate possession after a word ending in "se"?

Extra: How about possessive form of Jesus (no pun intended), and how is that pronounced? I always pronounced it like "Jesuses", but that doesn't flow very well.


texts: Difference between second actor coming first or second with trivalent verbs

texts:
Take the following two sentences:

  She gave him an apple.
  She gave an apple to him.

What is the difference between the two sentences?

I heard that the object at the end of the sentence gets more emphasis, but I know that there is no emphasis on the object at the end of the sentence. Instead, the object at the end of the sentence will be new information and the other is old information.

Am I right?


texts: Complacency vs complacence, stagnancy vs stagnance, etc

texts:
I could only find this blog that suggests that complacence is "is a calm satisfaction with oneself" whereas "complacency means a self-satisfaction but coupled with a lack of awareness of what is happening around it."

Is there a difference between the two and if not, is one more proper than the other? What would be the grammatical term for such a difference in the ending of a word?

I just remembered that stagnation is probably the preferred word, so perhaps ignore the stagnancy vs stagnance part (stagnancy seems to be entirely incorrect anyway).


texts: Stack Exchange profile: “This user prefers to keep an air of mystery about them”

texts:
When a user does not fill his "about me" section in his profile, the following sentence appears:

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

To my knowledge (which are restricted I admit), it should be

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

I'm pretty sure that I'm wrong, however I really don't understand the use of plural in "them".

Could you please explain me the underlying grammar rule that justifies such a term? Also, I'd be happy to know if replacing them by him or himself would be correct.


texts: How to phrase a list that continually refers to the first word in the list

texts:
How do I properly write this sentence?

  The census shall provide the total population, its structure and spatial distribution.

The second two items are dependent upon "population", but it seems repetitive to say "the total population, the population's structure, and the population's spatial distribution". Any thoughts or alternatives, or am I best to repeat?


texts: Can an acronym be pronounced as a construction of letters and words?

texts:
I've found this question Pronouncing acronyms in which people discuss how to pronounce acronyms, and they can be pronounced either as single letters or as a single word.

However I would like to know if they can be pronounced as a combination. For example in computer science SPOF stands for Single Point Of Failure, can it be pronounced as S.POF? Or it must be pronounced either as 'spof' or S.P.O.F.?


texts: Is the English Language becoming more generic, in the sense that English is distinguishing less between masculine and feminine?

texts:
To clarify: what I mean is that in Australia for instance there is a trend in English to use words that do not distinguish between men and women. E.g. Chairperson instead of Chairman.

So the question relates to whether or not English is (both in terms of the adoption of new words and the adoption of words into common usage) moving away from distinguishing between masculine and feminine gender terms.


texts: Is there an English idiom for Bengali idiom "সবজান্তা গামছাওয়ালা"(wise towelsman)?

texts:
In the Bengali language there is an idiom, "sobjanta gamchawala" (wise towelsman), meaning a man whose occupation is  merely to sell towels, but claims to know everything and gives valuable advice on any and every topic.

As you can imagine, wise and valuable are used here as sarcasm. In Bengali, the phrase is used to point out a person who always makes a comment on every topic without knowing the context.

Is there is an English idiom or phrase for that?

I'm not looking for jack of all trades is a master of none. A jack of all trades is able to do a lot of things fairly well, but sobjanta gamchawala isn't.


texts: What is the proper way to cite a title of a poem, written in lowercase, from a book of poetry using MLA?

texts: If the title of the poem were "apple and trees," would it be best to write it as "[A]pple and trees," or is there a preferred method?


texts:
Note that English is not my mother-tongue.

Would a native speaker understand that the following sentence is trying to convey that the protagonist is relieved by the fact that he'd been able to set down his heavy backpack, or would they rather be confused due to the theological origin of the term "salvific"?

  The backpack thumped down on the parched ground with a salvific thud.

If the word is bewildering (or plain wrong) here, what would be a better alternative?

Update:
After all the commotion I have reconsidered my word of choice and came up with an alternative, that, as I believe, is more apt in the context.

  The backpack thumped down on the parched ground with an extricating thud.


texts:
Does English have the phrase "face control"?

I've found in the dictionary that it's a Russian concept and was taken from English not as a concept, but as two separate words. It refers to people who stand near the entrance and check if those who come in are of suitable appearance.

What do you call it in English? I'm looking for the name of the activity which would fit into a sentence like "the burly guy was assigned to face control at the entrance"; in this sentence it's a noun which names what he is doing.


texts: 1 % of (the) GDP - with or without the article?

texts: What is the correct form? I have consistently encountered both forms. Definite article: required, optional or wrong?


texts:
Desideratum is a desired feature.
Which form is right?

Google search shows that "set of desiderata" is more common. But is it correct?

e.g., a sentence

In this paper, a set of desiderate for memory systems of companions will be presented, together with case studies of the memory subsystems of two existing

or

We formulate a set of desirable characteristics, or “desiderata” for a generic IDR.


texts:
I read the following sentence on YouTube and initially thought it was grammatically incorrect:

  Here are 10 minutes of the movie Black Hawk Down!

I thought "are" should have been "is" but then I realized minutes is plural so the plural form, are, is used correctly. I also thought how most people would naturally say "Here is ten dollars in change" but is the use of the singular form, is, correct since dollars is plural?

Am I misunderstanding a rule?


texts:
I am looking for the word to complete the following sentence

"Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily _"

Meaning simplicity doesn't preclude sophistication.

Edit: I am not looking for something that means opposite, they are not opposites of each other obviously.  I am looking for a word which means presence of something doesn't rule out the presence of the other( like presence of high iron rules out anemia ).


texts: The counterpart to "overheard" when reading?

texts:
What is the counterpart to overheard, when I did not heard, but read something in passing? Overread is rather the opposite, namely

  To read over, or peruse.

Possible alternatives I could think of are notice and found.

From: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Overread


texts:
How do you think, which variant is correct:
1) pictures in different/various styles
2) pictures of different/various styles


texts: what is the word for someone not trying their best or performing badly on purpose?

texts:
It sounds like a street slang, but both webster and urban dictionary gave the same definition.
Can't remember what the word/phrase for it is - like when someone plays bad at first to hustle someone else.


texts: When a question is followed by a bulleted list, where does the question mark go?

texts:
Where do I put the question mark when I want to ask about a list of items?  For example:

  Should we mention other books by Charles Dickens, such as:

  A Tale of Two Cities: a novel describing the chaos of the French Revolution from the perspective of a handful of people from England and France.
  A Christmas Carol: a novella following Ebenezer Scrooge as he is haunted by spirits that teach him what his avarice is doing to those around him.

In particular, the question mark doesn't seem to have a home because:

The text at the beginning can't be punctuated by a question mark, since it wouldn't form a complete sentence.  A workaround might be to go ahead and ask the question, followed by "Examples include:" .
The list items are sentences of their own, rather completing the beginning of the question in alternative ways.

Although the points above offer ways to avoid this construction, one or both might not work for a given scenario (e.g. if the bullet points consist of several sentences each, not just one).

Is it possible to keep the construction above and put the question mark somewhere, or do I have no choice but to reword in some situations?


texts: What are antonym-like prefixes to the Greek "crypto"?

texts:
What is a prefix that is similar to "public", or "accessible", or "ubiquitous" such that it is harmonious with the spirit of currency needing to be of public domain, widely adopted, accessible, etc.

It doesn't have to be of Greek origin, perhaps Latin.


texts: Is "not eating or drinking" equal to "not eating or not drinking"?


texts:
Should "a" be used in the titular expression? I've found instances in which "a" used :

  This book presents a practical introduction to signal analysis techniques that are commonly used in a broad range of engineering areas such as biomedical engineering, communications, geophysics, speech, etc.

and those without "a" :

  KNN algorithm is used in broad range of classification problems such as: medical diagnosis, image processing, predicting of properties of amino acids sequences.

I think both are identical, however, could not prefer one over another.


texts:
In certain sentences, I use that is to rephrase something, be more specific or elaborate.

Example:

  This coffee is so black, it must have
  been prepared by someone who works a
  lot, that is: an insomniac.

But in certain circumstances, this colon is unpractical because there's another colon around. Or it makes the sentence insist too much on this particular point.

And I think that I already saw that is without a colon.

Is this punctuation sign required?


texts: Single term that describes both "permissions" and "restrictions"

texts:
I'm looking for a single word or term that describes "the degree of being allowed", if you will, both in the positive sense (permission) and the negative sense (restricition).

As a technical example, a user could be allowed to edit a file, but restricted from creating new files (explicitly restricted, as opposed to just not having the permission).

A non-technical example would be an employee who is allowed to sign contracts on behalf of the company, but is explicitly forbidden from talking to the press on company matters (because that didn't work out well the last time).

In each case, the word I'm looking for would encompass both. For example if X is my word, the folder in the employee's file that contains the list of things they may or may not do could be titled "Steve's Xs".

The best word I can come up with is "access" or "access level", but that's not quite what I want because it's constraining the use to only a subset of imaginable permissions/restrictions (e.g. it would work for the first example, but not really for the second one).

On the other end of the spectrum, the word "options" came to my mind, but that's 1) really too broad, and 2) has the connotation of choice, which isn't what I want.


texts:
If you want to come, call me before 5:00.

Which one is correct?

  He said if I want to come to call him before 5:00.

or

  He said if I want to come I will call him before 5:00.


texts: Do all variations of this sentence seem grammatically correct?

texts:
There is an interesting English sentence which is making rounds in the social media nowadays. It goes like this:

  For the following sentence, add the word "only" anywhere in this
  sentence, and each time you get a different meaning out of the new
  sentence.

  "I hit him in the eye yesterday"

So, if we try doing the above, we get following eight variations.

The Message:

ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)
I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)
I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)
I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)
I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)
I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)
I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)
I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

The sentence No. 5 and 6 do not look grammatically very correct. What do you guys think? Are all of these grammatically correct or is there a problem with any/some of these?


texts: What's a word for someone you haven't seen in a long time?

texts: What's a word for someone that I haven't seen in a long time? I remember one person saying: "Oh, wow! I think I'm seeing a ghost. I can't believe it's you!" But I'm not so sure if "ghost" is right, given that seeing a ghost means "appearing to be very scared or shocked." Any suggestions are welcome! =)


texts:
I would like to say "This is evident to me in both my academic and work experience." But I am not sure if I should use "in" here.

Is my sentence correct?


texts: What do you call a person who is new in town?

texts: I was just wondering if there is a single word for the person who has recently moved to the new city or new in town.


texts: "Osteoarthritis patients" vs "people with osteoarthritis"

texts:
In the scientific literature, I've seen two different preferences to refer to "people who have disease X". For example:

Osteoarthritis patients
People with osteoarthritis

What are the actual differences? Why do some authors (strongly) prefer the latter over the former? Is it more respectful to those people?


texts: Why does English primarily use the Greek names for diseases?

texts:
In Dutch, my native language, most diseases go by normal Dutch names (longontsteking for pneumonia, buikgriep for gastroenteritis, hersenvliesontsteking for meningitis, etc.), whereas in English the Greek names seem to be the default choice.

Is there any reason for this seemingly lack of anglicisation?


texts:
In this question : Is there a counterpart of "sufficient"/"enough" meaning "not more than the needed maximum"?

In the accepted answer it is given that insufficiently low means (too low). I just wanted to clarify if this is correct or insufficiently low means not low enough (ie too high).

Context : "Perhaps your IQ is insufficiently low to understand that"


texts:
I am trying to say something very weird, but I'm not sure if any of these sentences makes sense:

'Recursion is the way in which a function is specified in terms of itself'
or
'Recursion is a way by which a function is specified in terms of itself'


texts: Is "et al" always accompanied by a period?

texts:
In this sentence, is it necessary to include a period with et al?

This is an interesting paper, written by G. Andrews et al. Here, et al means Dr. X, Dr. Y, and Dr.Z.

Does the second et al need a period? Like et al.?


texts: I arrived on time, as my classmates did, but the lecturer wasn’t there.


texts: Adjective for exclusive/selective/picky with positive connotations

texts:
I'm working with a friend who's looking for a word/phrase to describe her clientele. She's good enough and well-respected enough that she commands top dollar in her field and usually only works with 2-3 clients a year. She's also very selective about who those clients are. She building her brand as a luxury, well worth the price, hard to get but very much in demand, exclusive, etc. She wants "I've worked with _____" to be a status symbol and source of envy among her prospective clientele.

Imagine a high-end designer personally making three gowns a year. The three starlets who got to wear those to the Academy Awards have all eyes on them as they walk the red carpet. We're trying to talk about that kind of prestige.

So far, we've brainstormed:
"Serving an exclusive clientele since 19xx" & "Serving a select group of clientele since 19xx." I feel like we're missing the mark, but just can't seem to find a word that's going to express what we're going for. I need some other perspectives.


texts: What are verbs specific to living subjects called?

texts:
The set of verbs applicable to living organisms can also apply to other inanimate subjects like rain forests (e.g. resembled, looked) but I'd like to identify those verbs which are strictly applicable to living organisms.

Perhaps this is a better representation:

While it's possible for a forest to speak figuratively, I only want to focus on the literal use of these verbs. I want to identify the organism verbs, including human verbs. Oh, and deceased subjects that were once living should also be considered as organisms.


texts: Is it a correct sentence when you say "Orange is not a vegetable, and neither is Apple"?

texts:
Is it a correct sentence when you say “Orange is not a vegetable, and neither is Apple”?

I would like to do the below..
1. I wish to point out the similarity of 2 different subjects (Orange and Apple here).
2. I wish to have the first subject as the first word of the sentence, and the second subject to be the last word of the sentence. Giving it a symmetric appearance. Also I wish to keep the first sentence with 'Something is not something..' format.
3. If there is a way to keep the word 'Neither' in the second half of the sentence (as I have in my example), I would prefer that.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Can "born" be used with creatures that come from eggs?

texts:
I have just seen this post on facebook.

It says "This two-headed turtle was born on June 18th..." so I wondered if the word "born" can be used with animals that lay eggs. Is there another word for that?


texts: Why do we use the gerund of begin but not end when discussing a range?

texts: In colloquial speech, one often hears the use of the beginning and the end to denote a range, but you rarely hear them paired in the same form or or the opposite pairing: ie begin and ending, begin and end, beginning and ending.


texts: "The President Obama" or "President Obama"?

texts: I wonder which of these is right, or are the both expressions right? What do you think?


texts: Artists shall make a living (by) making art

texts:
Which one sounds better and/or is grammatically right?

  Artists shall make a living making art.

or

  Artists shall make a living by making art.

or any other formulation?


texts: What is the grammar for the following sentence: "It is used to avoid legal action should future problems arise"?

texts:
I was wondering what the associated grammar with this sentence is:

  "Disclaimers are a simple device used by sellers to avoid legal action should future problems arise".

Actually, I don't know why an inverse structure is used here.


texts:
Is this correct grammar? I changed the actual content so that my teacher doesn't get angry.

  In the United States, turtles can be yellow, as the chemicals in the water dye their shells.

That isn't true. I made it up.


texts: What is the word for "inclined to vote in an election"?

texts:
I'm looking for something analogous to how "litigious" means "unreasonably prone to go to law to settle disputes". Is there a word for this?

The best I can come up with is "democratically inclined" or something equally complicated.

Edit: Here is a hypothetical usage--

"I voted today. I'm so _______!"

analogous to

"I just sued someone today. I'm so litigious."


texts: What is the difference between "comprehend" and "understand"?

texts:
What is the difference between the verbs comprehend and understand?

Can we say

  comprehend a lesson

?


texts:
I saw this uncommon contraction a couple of days ago. The sentence read something like

  I'za stupid farmer boy, but know a thing or two about computers.

What does the contraction really mean? Is it short for something like "I iz", so that it would seem that the speaker is uneducated? I tried searching online resources, but with a query this short, the results I was getting were pretty useless.


texts:
What do you call the rush of air you experience when riding on a motorcycle or in a speed boat?

I want to say breeze, but that is caused by the wind, not the movement of the vehicle.

Update: I am not looking for a technical term.  I want to express this:

  Riding my Harley, I felt the NOUN in my hair.


texts:
Is the following punctuation usage correct?
To Jim it was a mystery; to Jane, a revelation.


texts: Are these two uses of "think of" in this sentence appropriate?

texts:
When you think of the Middle Ages, you think of first castles and knights in armor. (self-made)

There are two “think of”, are they all comprehensible? The first is in the first stage of thinking, whereas the second belongs to the second. Can other words represent the two layers of meaning of “think of” more effectively and clearly?


texts:
Scientific writing often involves writing down a list of facts.

I frequently come across a situation where I need to point out a fact or an observation that is not obvious, and sometimes not completely connected with the previous sentence.

I mostly use "Note that..." followed by the observation. I am looking for variations to open a sentence in a similar way. I tried looking at charts related to cohesion, linking phrases etc. but did not come across any category that precisely provides me with substitutions for "note that".


texts: Prior to the 20th century, what was the noun for an individual person from a country whose demonym ends in '-ese'?

texts:
As a Redditor pointed out, using a demonym that ends in '-ese' as a noun sounds incorrect or at least awkward (especially a singular noun--someone on the thread writes, 'For example you could say “I met a Chilean” but not “I met a Chinese.”').
Most of the countries with '-ese' demonyms seem to be in East Asia, and hence perhaps people in English-speaking countries didn't have much occasion to talk about people from them until relatively recently. (The exception might be the giant country of China, for which there was a separate nounal demonym that is now considered a slur.) That might explain why there is no natural-sounding way to refer to 'a Japanese', 'a Vietnamese', etc. But what about countries that have been known to English-speaking peoples for a very long time, e.g., Portugal, or the city of Vienna (or perhaps Malta)? Did earlier English speakers have another way of referring to an individual from Portugal or Vienna (or anywhere else I might have missed) other than 'a Portuguese' or 'a Viennese', and if so, what was it? (And, out of curiosity, was there ever a separate nounal demonym for, say, Japan, or Burma, in the Victorian period, like there was for China?)


texts:
I'm using in hopes that in the following sentence. However, it does not seems to be formal and appropriate for a scientific paper. Is there any similar phrase that has the same meaning but more formal ? Thanks.

  To overcome this crucial issue, a popular solution has been used where
  a task is assigned to many workers and the results for this task are
  aggregated in hopes that the aggregated result is actually the correct
  one.


texts: Using "I had rather" instead of "I would rather"

texts:
While commuting to work, I encountered a bumper sticker that said

  "I had rather be on/Cape Point Fishing".

I found this curious, since I always thought that the correct expression would be "I would rather be...", instead of "I had rather be".

Is there a joke I'm not getting, or was this bumper sticker just incorrect?


texts: A name for the tendency to criticize those who don't succeed

texts:
This could apply to a single person, but also to a group of people or even a nation. Is there a word for the widespread tendency to express disapproval towards someone who is unable to accomplish something or succeed at something? Examples include criticism of a politician who loses his/her election, or disapproval of a sports team that doesn't qualify for an official competition, but also ridicule of an ordinary person who fails an examination or cannot obtain a job. These are instances where people often tend to become hypercritical and unsympathetic. What expressions can best define this attitude?

P.S.: I am not saying that people are bad by definition; nonetheless, I think that the attitude that I am trying to describe exists!


texts:
I want to order a Grande-sized cup of iced latte. Should I order "Iced Grande Latte" or "Grande Iced Latte" ?

I looked up for adjective order. The first result from Google says

Quantity or number
Quality or opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
Purpose or qualifier.

So according to the list, "iced grande latte" seems to be the correct one. Somehow I remember that I have heard both of them, although "iced grande latte" comes more often.

EDIT: Now that I am aware of  What is the rule for adjective order? (thanks to @TimLymington for giving me the pointer), it is still a bit unclear to me as to which one is the correct answer. Or does it even make sense to ask about the correct ordering here? Because after reading the post, adjective ordering seems like a topic that we have not fully understood yet. Lots of discussions are still ongoing.

The thing is that I always order "grande iced latte". But the barista almost always says "iced grande latte". After I come to think about it more deeply, it may be because with different sizes of cups (tall, grande, venti, etc.) they add different amount of espresso shots (1, 2, 3, etc.) and that ice cubes are the last things they put into the cup.

Then different sizes of cups should generally contain different amount of espresso shots. Because of this the barista then needs to know first which size to prepare (i.e., how many shots to get from the machine). So in general, when ordering coffee from a cafe, it seems to make more sense to say "iced grande latte", doesn't it?


texts: What do you call someone who 'has' a non-material thing? (I.e. a conversation)

texts:
This question might seem slightly odd, since I'm trying to find a single word for a person who 'has' something yet does not necessarily own it.

Someone who has a house for example would be called an owner. However, someone who has a conversation does not necessarily own said conversation, yet still has it.

This is different from similar questions about possession/ownership since most of those questions refer to material things, in which case if one was in possession of something (i.e. a house) which doesn't necessarily belong to them you could simply refer to them as the 'holder' of said thing.
And although you could probably refer to someone as a 'conversation holder', it seems inappropriate given the context of what it means to hold something, which still implies possession of some sort.

I was dwelling on the possibility of a conversation haver, however that word does not exist as a noun derived from a verb in the way that: someone who holds would be a holder. (Someone who runs would be a runner, etc.) Why is it that the verb 'to have' cannot be translated in the same way into a noun?

Those two men conversing at the table are conversation _________.

Conversationalists? (this implies they must be good at or fond of conversing, which is not necessarily the case)

Simply 'talkers'? (talking and conversing are not the same thing though).

As I write this I notice that this might also have to do with our usage of the word conversation, for someone who has a thought is simply a thinker, and the same with most other verbs I can come up with.

I guess the term 'interlocutor' could work, however it still does not refer to the idea of having as possible noun...

Any ideas?


texts:
Training and improving these skills yield/yields better decision-making and fewer mistakes during a game.

Training and improving - it should be 'yield' but 'yields' sounds better - can someone help on this? Which is grammatically correct?


texts:
I would like to know if in the following sentence the last comma (before 'will inevitably') is necessary.

Actions such as cheating, manipulating, bad-mouthing, will inevitably bring adverse consequences on the perpetrator.

The above is just one example. I actually want to know whether, in a sentence similar to the above, it is necessary to put a comma after the last item in the list to separate the list from the end part of the sentence.
Thanks


texts: What would you call a separate second floor of a house (not an apartment, flat, attic, etc)?

texts:
I am looking for suggestions for a word that would describe this living situation: in many Arab countries, multiple generations of families / multiple families live in the same building/house, on separate floors that function as self-contained living units, almost like apartments. They are not quite apartments, though, I think. For example, a mother and father may live on the first floor (A), while one of their sons and his wife and children live on the second (B), and another son and his family live on the third (C), etc. Each of these living spaces has its own bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, entrance, etc. They may only be connected by a stairwell.

I don't feel it's accurate to describe B as living "on the second floor," as this implies the family could just walk down the stairs and be in A's living room, for example. It also feels inaccurate to say B lives in a second-floor flat or apartment, because it's all really one family house, just sectioned into individual living spaces.

Any ideas? Sorry for the long description - let me know if this makes sense. Thanks so much!


texts:
I'm working in a company that to date has been selling an educational product to schools. We're now aiming to branch out into selling to private consumers, who want to use the product for their family or some other small group of kids.

What's the best word to describe these non-school customers, that distinguishes them from school customers?

We thought of "consumers", but schools are also consumers. They're not "individuals", since there are multiple users in that group, and they're not necessarily "families" either; they could be a group of friends.


texts: Is "would you like to ... ?" an example of the conditional mood?

texts:
Edit: More Context: At least one other Indo-European language (Latvian) uses a morphological conditional mood for the politely enquiring about desired future states: vai tu gribētu ... ? Is equivalent to "Would you like ... ?" and the verb is in the conditional mood. This prompted me to consider whether (and how) "Would you ... " is in the conditional mood in English.
Edit: Not a duplicate:
Not a duplicate of Which dialects of English consider "would" to be a polite form of "will"? because that question deals with cases in which would is directly substituted for will. No such substitution can be made for "Would you like to dance?" - "Will you dance?" has a different meaning and *"Will you like to dance?".
Question:
Most explanations of the conditional mood (e.g. WP) are statements not questions, and the examples they give generally include both the the apodosis and protasis.
I am looking for an analysis of expressions like:

Would you like to dance?

(in which I assume to like is in the conditional mood).
Possible Explanation 1
Does it have an implied dependent clause? E.g.

[If I had opportunity], I would like to dance.
[If you had the opportunity], you would like to dance.

And then as a question:

[If you had the opportunity], would you like to dance?
[If it was with me], would you like to dance?

Possible Explanation 2
I am not 100% satisfied with those examples though, because to me any condition is specific, and omitting the dependent clause also omits any "specificity". Which makes me wonder if lack of specificity is the whole point of omitting the dependent clause, for example:

[There exists a condition under which] I would like to dance.
[Does there exist a condition under which] you would like to dance?
[*Does there exist a condition under which] would you like to dance?

Edit: Possible Explanation 3
Replying to comments I thought of some constructions that demonstrate the probable conditionality of "Would you like ... ?"
Take an unambigious conditional like:

If it happened, you would like it.

We can step towards "Would you like ..."

If we danced, you would like it.
If we danced, you would like to dance.

Now question the truth of that statement:

If we danced, you would like to dance?

But the statement has some redundancy, let's remove it

[If we danced] you would like to dance?
You would like to dance?
Would you like to dance?

Or maybe "Would you ... ?" is not in the conditional mood at all?


texts: What is the origin and meaning of 'lookit'?

texts:
A recent English Language & Usage question (Information about "lookit") noted that a number of dictionaries do not have entries for the word lookit. I checked Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary,the fifth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles, the second edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, and The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (the one that comes with the magnifying glass—and couldn't find any coverage of the word.

I am curious about the origin, meaning, and syntactical application of this word, which leads me to ask the following questions:

Where and when did lookit originate?
Does lookit have more than one meaning?
Is the form "lookit here" related to "looky here" and "look-a-here"?

I had done some research on these questions and wrote up an account of my findings, but originally I posted that account as an answer to the "Information about 'lookit'" question noted above, which is only tangentially related to the questions that interested me. So I am posting the questions that interested me here, and I have moved my answer to this page, where it belongs.


texts: Am I syntactically wrong in these sentences?

texts:
I have recently written a few sentences for discussion of rhetorical ways in writing. The outcome turned out to be so unexpected that I was blamed for how wrong I syntactically was. So I cordially wish to get an exact answer upon whether I was syntactically wrong. Here are the sentences:

A house was bought by Allen last Sunday.

A house had Allen bought last Sunday.

Allen had a house purchased last Sunday.

Allen made a purchase for house last Sunday.

Last Sunday was the time for Allen to buy his house.

Last Sunday witnessed Allen along his purchase of house.

Buying a house became true for Allen last Sunday.

Thanks for your warmhearted help in the answers. :)


texts: A better way to express this sentence to clarify its meaning?

texts:
I apologize if this is a broad question.

My friend and I have been arguing about the following sentence for 2 hours.
I think that there is something missing in the following sentence. Though, I am not a native English speaker, the sentence doesn't sound good to me. Are there any tips or guidelines to know whether a sentence is meaningful or not? Or is this is just based on personal English knowledge and intuition? I agree that there are English Grammar rules for writing correct sentences, but I am also looking for clarity in the sentence. Moreover, I think that there should be a better word instead of describes.

Could someone resolve this, please?  It would be great if you pointout any grammatical mistakes in the sentence.

  In this article, he describes how a choice made by three computer science legends 30 years ago produced dangerous consequences and in the worse it took 15 years for getting a realization about this.


texts:
I have seen usage of "what" like this:

  Depending on what data it receives, it will follow different
  instruction paths.

It appears to me that use of "what" above is redundant. Doesn't

  Depending on the data it receives, it will follow different instruction paths.

convey the meaning?


texts: What does this passage from "Great Expectations" mean?

texts:
I was reading Great Expectations the other day, and came across this passage that I couldn't make any sense of whatsoever:

  Why should I loiter on my road to compare the state of mind in which I had tried to rid myself of the stain of the prison before meeting her at the coach office with the state of mind in which I now reflected on the abyss between Estella in her pride and beauty and the returned transport whom I harbored? The road would be none the smoother for it, the end would be none the better for it, he would not be helped, nor I extenuated. (ch. 43)

I've been able to decipher Dickens and his unbelievably long sentences so far, but I'm stuck with this one.
What does it mean?


texts: "A, together with B" singular or plural?

texts:
Which is the correct form of the following structure?

  A, together with B, provide an efficient means of...

or

  A, together with B, provides an efficient means of...

Certainly, "A provides", and "A and B provide". My intuition tells me that the second form is correct because A is the subject and is singular.


texts: Has there ever been slang-dense phrasing?

texts:
In today's culture, mainly with the rise in Gen Z kids getting online, slang in English seems to have become more fluid.
In a YouTube video from JackSepticEye, while he was reading sentences that combined Gen Z parlance, he commented that one can make whole sentences where nearly every word is slang.

e.g. I low-key deadass yeeted my hydroflask and dabbed on the haters

Whereas in the past slang was usually a word or two, usually in response to something or an adjective.

Rad, Cool, Grok, Dude
No doubt?, You trippin?
Cleaned my clock. Give me the skinny.

Has there been a time where slang was pidginned together similarly? Specifically if the majority of the sentence used English slang (so not including actual pidgin or languages like Creole languages).


texts: Is there a better word than "discoverer" for someone who discovers something?

texts: Looking for something that sounds a little better than "discoverer"


texts:
Corinth was a rich, but not a very enlightened state

OR

Corinth was a rich, but not very enlightened state.

Which one should I use? Thanks in advance.


texts: This book will change your wife – trope?

texts:
“This book will change your wife.”

The cliché is “This book will change your life”.

By changing one word, the cliché is transformed into a more interesting sentence: in this case about a novel, 50 Shades of Grey.

Is the word wife in this context a trope?

  trope (trp) n.

  A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor.
  A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies.

"This book will change your wife" was one of the comments in a television program on Channel 4.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sex-story-fifty-shades-of-grey

  The programme examines the sociological and cultural effects the book is having in the UK, as sales of obscure classical music and bondage gear increase.

  TV REVIEW: Sex Story - 50 Shades Of Grey - The Study Of A Phenomenon Of BDSM, Or 'Mummy Porn'

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/29/tv-review-sex-story-50-shades-of-grey_n_1717230.html

BDSM

bondage and discipline

sadism and masochism

Actually, I was hoping for a little bit more of a discussion about 'What is a trope?' and 'Why, wife in this context, is not a trope?


texts: In "I scheduled a meeting for you and me to chat," should I replace "me" with "I"?

texts:
My first intuition is that it should be:

I scheduled a meeting for you and I to chat.

But then I noticed that I would use "me" in:

Patrick scheduled a meeting for you and me.

and

Patrick scheduled a meeting for me to chat with him.

I think the reason I'm struggling is that in the first sentence, I cannot tell whether "you and I" plays the role of an object (for whom the meeting is scheduled) or the subject (who is chatting).


texts: What word refers to a person being acted on behalf of?

texts:
Using the following definition of agent:

  a person who acts on behalf of another person

What word can we use to refer to the person who is being acted on behalf of?


texts: When "a" before plural form can be used?

texts: On BBC website I have read the article "Coronavirus: How to open a hairdressers after lockdown". Why is "a" particle used before plural form of a noun? Isn't that incorrect?


texts: Medical terminology and using certain word parts

texts:
I'm taking a medical terminology class right now and I'm having issues discerning which word roots I'm supposed to use when they have the same meaning. For example, the combining forms pneum/o and pneumat/o both mean "lung" according to my textbook, however, a hernia of the lung is a "pneumat/o/cele" as opposed to "pneum/o/cele". I even googled these words up and only "pneumatocele" seems to be the proper term. A student in class asked the professor how we're supposed to know which word roots to use and the professor's reply was a bleak "you're just supposed to know". A lot of medical terms involves prefixes, suffixes and combining forms of similar definitions yet there must be some vague rule about knowing which parts to use with what. Another example, the suffixes "-ia" and "-osis" both mean "diseased condition" but a diseased lung is called "pneumon/ia" as opposed to "pneum/osis".

I'd REALLY appreciate any tips or forms of guidance with this. My professor is obviously very useless so I'm relying on this right now because I've googled for tips and tricks and can't find ANY.


texts:
When should one use the word "coming" vs. "going"?

For example, is it "I'm coming home." or "I'm going home."? (Ehhh maybe that was a bad example).  "Are you coming?" vs. "Are you going?" may be a better example.

I always get confused by this expression but most people I notice use the word "coming".


texts: When and where did "idren" enter the English language?

texts:
The first time that I heard the word idren was in the song "Bad Boys", which is the theme song for the television show "COPS". When and where did this word enter the English language?

The song lyrics are in English, but idren is an unusual word.

Bad Boys (theme from Cops)

  Nobody naw give you no break
  Police naw give you no break
  Soldier naw give you no break
  Not even you 'idren naw give you no break
  Hey


texts:
I moved to Montreal from Australia 3 months ago. So English is my first language.

So I'm having an argument with a French speaking (bilingual) friend here. She says that "hypocrite" is a synonym for disingenuous, two-faced, or just being a fake person. I told her that "hypocrite" in English captures a more narrow meaning. It has to imply that your judging someone else but doing the thing you're critical of yourself. You would use the word "hypocrite" in English if a guy called someone a terrible father but went home that night to beat his kids. My friend also wants to use the word hypocrite for a situation where let's say a girl is talking to another woman and she pretends she likes her but as soon as she's gone she says "I hate that woman". I would never use the word hypocrite here. Am I right?

Are the words different in French and English? She's insisting they mean exactly the same thing and now she has me questioning it. I looked up the origins of the word and it is an Old French word. I'm fascinated about whether it's possible for identical words across languages to have their meanings drift over time. You could imagine how this might happen a lot.. Especially in cases where the meaning just mutates a little or gets a little more specific in one language. Most English people, if they heard a French person say "hypocrite" in the 2 faced meaning would probably not even bother to correct. Because it's close enough.

Does "hypocrite" also mean fake or 2-faced (like the french definition)? Thanks a million for helping me solve this!


texts: What term describes "a loss of immersion" while reading?

texts:
If a book is good, readers can easily imagine the story and forget they are reading. If they encounter a problem, perhaps a spelling error or something unbelievable within the universe of the story, the reader suddenly loses this immersion.

Is there a formal term which means "something which causes a loss of immersion"?
Is there a technical or more formal phrase meaning "to lose immersion"?


texts: When a sentence starts with Simple present tense should I end with past/simple present tense?

texts:
In this sentence

  Reports net profit of Rs5.16 crore for the financial year ended Mar 2019.

Since  the sentence starts with 'Reports' - simple present tense, should I end the sentence with 'ending Mar 2019' instead of 'ended Mar 2019' to be in sync with the tense?


texts:
Im making a massage flyer and in the middle my deal is a massage bundle of 4 sessions. Then it shows the price $220 and under it im not sure if it should say regular $260, or usual $260, standard $260?? What is the correct way to word this?

Layout looks like this:

4 Sessions
  $220
Regular $260

So they see the sale amount but what is the correct way to say it.. keep in mind the shorter the better as im limited on space.

Thanks!


texts: Difference between 'Educational' and 'Education' system

texts: As a non-native-speeker, I'm having difficulties to understand difference between 'Education system' and 'Educational system'? Is 'Educational system' appropriate at all?


texts: How to refer to an upcoming month/season/year?

texts:
I wanted to know what is the correct way to address a certain day/month/season (I apologize in advance that I might have written the title wrong)

For example, when referring to the summer of 2020 (assuming we are speaking about it in April 2020), which way is applicable and which one is not -

"I have a competition this summer."
"I have a competition next summer."
"I have a competition in the upcoming summer."
"I have a competition this upcoming summer."

I pretty sure 2 and 4 are wrong, but I am asking here to be certain.

In addition, if there are more than one correct way, when should I use one way and not the other and which one will be more formal?


texts: Can anyone prove this sentence is in the passive voice?

texts:
I don't believe it is, so I'd like the experts to chime in (I'm well versed in the passive, but thought maybe I'm missing some fine point familiar only to Ph.D's in linguistics).

The sentence in question is:

  The marathon participants were Harry, Luke and myself.

There are those who claim myself is correct because the sentence is in the passive (???), whereas if we switch it around,

  Harry, Luke and myself were the marathon participants,

it all of a sudden magically "becomes" the active voice, so you can no longer use myself, you have to use I.

I have scoured countless off-site sources as well as posts here, yet none of them seems to support the assertion that the first example is in the passive.

Not to mention the fact that if it were truly the passive, we'd have to use me, not myself.

  The marathon was participated in by Harry, Luke and me.

EDIT:  So I need proof that the first example is in the passive.


texts: I'm from Germany and in German both translate to the same word (kaum). I'd like to know the difference between these two words, hardly and barely.


texts:
Is the usage "but implicitly" in the following sentence correct?

  B is also assumed but implicitly.

The context is as follows. We know that both "A" and "B" are assumed. But compared with "A", the assumption "B" is only implicit.


texts: Difference " I grabbed his collar" and " I grabbed him by the collar"

texts:
Which one is more used in a daily conversation?

To me, "I grabbed his collar" would be more used than " I grabbed him by the collar".

Is there any different shades of meaning?

"I grabbed him by the collar"  seems like "I subdued him in any way by getting hold of his collar" : a police officer catching a criminal by grasping his collar tightly.


texts: Better way of saying "those who are curious"?

texts:
I am writing a note in which I want to ask (curious) readers to refer another paper.
The phrase curious minded comes to mind, but it seems somewhat awkward.

Is there a better way to convey similar import?


texts: "To go so far as to" — suitable for academic writing?

texts:
Is using the phrase "to go so far as to" in an academic context (e.g. in an article in humanities journal) acceptable?

New Example:

  I do not know why Mister X went so far as to assert that Mister Y's argument is blatantly invalid (-- after all, it seems to be quite convincing).

This phrase sounds rather colloquial to me, but I think I have read it quite often in journals -- maybe due to a lack of alternatives...

Are there any reasonable alternatives?

I realized that my intended-to-be entertaining example distracted from the actual question. So I edited the question and added a new, updated example.

Sorry for the confusion.
To keep the answer by Bill Franke reasonable, I keep the original example:

  I do not know why Mister X goes so far as to assert that Mister Y is a scumbag.


texts: "what that amounts to" vs. "to what that amounts"

texts:
It is clear that A degrades the value of B but it is not clear to what such degradation amounts.

I am trying to say that the degradation is for sure but we are not sure what [the amount of] that degradation exactly is. "Amounts to" might as well mean "of what sort/character". So it is not just about the degree or amount. The second sense is essential in my sentence.

I assume the usage of "amounts to" in that sense is idiomatic. If not, please let me know.

But my main question is whether using it in the above form is idiomatic. Due to some biases, I couldn't find reliable examples of such a usage on the web, and some principal sources (Cambridge Dictionary, Collins Dictionary, and Merriam Webster Dictionary) do not give such examples.

If you think such a usage is not idiomatic or is ambiguous, I appreciate your suggestion of verbs to replace "amount".


texts:
I don't understand what's the meaning of "cited after" in books, when they cite a source,
e.g.,

  (cited after Manin 1997: 3)


texts: minutes minutes vs short minute of a meeting

texts:
I heard and used "meeting minutes" for quite some time but just read today somebody asking for "short minute of your conversation" (as opposed to minuteS)
Since it looked odd, I checked thefreedictionary which clearly states that "minute" (singular) can be used for a "note or a summary" (see #6 & #7)

My question is, does it sound normal to use "minute" to describe a summary?
For clarity, I understand that common use is minuteS


texts: Is there a term for the words whose stress is on the first syllable?

texts: I know that oxytone, paroxytone, and proparoxytone mean that its stress is on the last, penultimate, and antepenultimate syllable, respectively. Does a term for those having it on the first exist? Thanks.


texts: Word for one's pursuit of deadly obligation?

texts:
Maybe, 'duty' or 'faith' is also applicable instead of 'obligation'.

When one is doing self-sacrificing acts to follow his/her obligation, what word can describe one's frame of mind best?

Suppose NAVY SEAL team members say "No one left behind", what emotion or resolution will appear in their mind?


texts: Looking for a collection of alternate words - not a thesaurus

texts:
I'm looking for a database of alternate words, not like a thesarus, but as they're listed in a dictionary. E.G. not "terrible" => "bad, awful" etc but "terrible" => "terribly".

Is there a specific term I should be looking for for this sort of list? All my googling is just bringing back thesauri.


texts:
When I use the word "range", can I end my list with "etc."?

Here is my concrete sentence:
"These data sets range from transport to tourism, fishery, forestry, and agriculture etc."


texts: How to avoid mixing past and present tense in narration?

texts:
I looked through the related questions, but I didn't find any concrete advice.

I understand that it's OK to do so. I'm not sure how common it is, but I'm a beginner writer and want to keep things as simple as possible. I can pick up that fancy stuff later.

To illustrate the problem, I'll use the following example, where first-person POV narration has present tense sandwiched between past tens in a single paragraph.

  I wound through the corridors toward the center of Down 15. None of the elevators were nearby, so I bounded up the stairs three at a time. Stairwells in the core are just like stairwells on Earth—short little twenty-one-centimeter-high steps. It makes the tourists more comfortable. In areas that don’t get tourists, stairs are each a half meter high. That’s lunar gravity for you. Anyway, I hopped up the tourist stairs until I reached ground level. Walking up fifteen floors of stairwell probably sounds horrible, but it’s not that big a deal here. I wasn’t even winded.

From "Artemis" by Andy Weir

When I go through my texts, I see that I'm doing the same. I'm writing in first-person POV, past tense, but when it comes to descriptions (little info dumps) and the narrator's thoughts (comments) I often switch to present tense (without thinking).

The problem lies in the word "often". I don't do it consistently.
Also when I find a spot like that I start to think can I really do that? If in the above example the Moon was blown up by the end of the story, would it still make sense to talk about the stairwells in the present tense? It's just too complicated to deal with all these logical traps. I want to keep it simple.

I can't just search for present tense (such as "are") in the word processor. As we use the present tense in the dialogues.

Is a good copy editor the only option?

Or is there maybe some mind trick that one can use? Like maybe one needs to pretend and always keep in mind that a story is told by a person who is at his/her death bed, the events happened years ago, and the storyteller doesn't know anything about current state of affairs (what happened to all these people and places). Can a certain mindset break a habit?

Any other ideas?

Please advice.


texts: Where does the comma go when you have a prepositional phrase and a relative clause modifying the same noun?

texts:
I created a handout for clients that explains our policy.

"for clients" is a prepositional phrase, and "that explains our policy" is a relative clause.  Both modify "handout", so where does the comma go?


texts: What do you call the thing on which something is attached?

texts:
I'm looking for a good word with which to identify the target of an attachment. For example, if a tick is attached to a dog, I'd like to say:

  The dog is the ____ of the tick.

And I'd also like to use it in non-biological (inanimate) cases. For example, if a scope is attached to a rifle, I'd like to say:

  The rifle is the ____ of the scope.

Bonus points if the word is somehow cognate with "attach" (but not necessary).


texts: "A scored 66%, 10% more than B?" What is B's score?

texts:
It sounds like a maths question but what I care about is the usage of the term 'percentage'. Can anyone tell me, how to go about the correct way to use when the meaning of the sentence is:

B scored 60%
B scored 56%.


texts: Why does one "stand there like a lemon"?

texts:
I was standing around like a lemon the other day (meaning, standing doing nothing when I ought to have been a little more active) when it occurred to me to wonder, why does one stand there like a lemon? Does anyone know the origin of this term?

I know that when you buy a poor-quality car it is said to be a lemon. Why does this particular fruit have such negative connotations?


texts: Why do we use Roman numerals for some page numbers but Arabic ones for others?

texts:
Why is it that certain pages in English-language books are numbered using Roman numerals, but other pages are numbered using (so-called) Arabic ones?

Has it always been this way?  Or was the split once different?  Or wasn’t there a split at all?

Surely page numbers were not always used; I’m pretty sure the Romans never used Arabic numerals in any event.

When did we start doing it this way, and why?


texts: Which is correct: "Set up something" or "Set something up" or "Setup something"?

texts:
As a programmer, I often have to use this expression:

  Set the application up.

or something like that. But I'm not sure what the correct grammar is, and what this grammatical area is called in English.


texts: Is there a specific name for these sentence parts?

texts:
Is there any specific name for the bold portions of the following sentences, or for their structure?

It has been suggested that drinking water is good for your health.
It is unknown how long could this last.


texts:
So I've been writing [English] scientific articles for quite a while, but for years I've wondered what preposition is needed in the following sentence structure (just an example in my field of research, but it applies science-wide). I'm a non-native English speaker.

  We measured speech understanding scores [preposition] cochlear implant
  users.

[preposition] options as far as I can see:

in : is technically awkward, as speech understanding is tested by verbal testing and hence it's not an objective measure obtained within the body. However, it is commonly used in the scientific literature;
of : sounds a bit weird, but technically it seems OK;
from : also quite awkward, as it seems to imply something is taken from the study subjects;
by : In a way this is a good choice, but requires a different sentence structure, like: 'We measured SRTs obtained by performing speech recognition....'. This is OK, but more words are needed and the 'active' format of the sentence is lost. I therefore do not support this option.


texts: Is there a verb describing the way paint mingles with water and forms those amazing shapes, almost smoke-like.


texts: Is "left for heaven" a common phrase in English?

texts: Is "left for heaven" a common phrase for native English speakers?


texts: Is there a single-word English alternative to "Bravo"

texts:
"Bravo!" Is an exclamation of appreciation with Italian origins (I believe)

Is there an English single word with the same meaning?

We have phrases with the same intent, such as "Nicely done", "Well done", "Good work" etc, but these are clearly not single words.


texts: Why is "happyness" spelled with a Y in the movie title "The Pursuit of Happyness"?

texts: I just noticed that the word in the movie title The Pursuit of Happyness is spelled with a y instead of an i. But my spell checker highlights "happyness" as a mistake. Why is it spelled differently here? Shouldn't it be happiness?


texts: Ignoring me the whole day or for the whole day

texts: Is “ignoring me the whole day” grammatically correct?


texts: Is it okay using "The thing is" as filler?

texts:
I often use expression "The thing is" as filler a lot like this:

  See, the thing is, they did not want to watch the movie that is why went there.

I might as well say it without it, since it does not really change the meaning, but sometimes I just say it instinctively to give my self some more to time to think.

My question is, is it normal for people to do this? And if the answer is yes, what are the other expression like this?


texts: Can a person be described as "meandrous"?

texts:
Meander and meandering can be used to describe a person who is wandering. However, I have yet to come across an example of a person who likes to wander being described as "meandrous". The only examples of meandrous I've found is when used to describe a winding path.
Can a person be meandrous?


texts: Why do we use "benign" instead of "benignant" in medicine?

texts:
While driving to work one day, I was pondering Greek and Latin roots (as you do), and I was going through the list of words beginning with bene- and mal-:

benevolent vs malevolent
benediction vs malediction
beneficent vs maleficent
benign vs malign

etc., and then I started to wonder - we use malignant to describe a cancerous tumor (or other dangerous disease), but benign to describe a non-cancerous one.

I find this lack of symmetry disturbing.

I understand the difference in usage between malign and malignant (the former implies intent, while the latter just means "harmful").  Why do we use benign instead of benignant in the opposite case?

I know that looking for logic and regularity in English is typically a fool's errand, but I'm genuinely curious in this case.  Is it just because "benignant" doesn't roll off the tongue as well?


texts: Difference between facilities and installations

texts:
If we are talking about electrical installations, when would you use "installations" vs "facilities".

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines facilities as "something (such as a building or large piece of equipment) that is built for a specific purpose", but then mentions "installations" as a synonym.

For installation, the Merriam Webster has "the act or process of making a machine, a service, etc., ready to be used in a certain place: the act of installing something" but also "something (such as a piece of equipment) that is put together and made ready for use". This last definition looks pretty similar to the one for facilities.


texts: In Differential Geometry (a branch of mathematics) there exists the notion of an umbilical point. Is there a noun corresponding to the adjective umbilical? Could I write something like "It follows by umbilicality that […]"?


texts: "Politifact was unable to find that report, and neither were we."

texts:
Politifact was unable to find that report, and neither were we.

Is this correct? Shouldn't "were" be "could"?


texts: Name for the bumper at the end of a parking spot - is it a "turtarrier"? If so, why?

texts:
I was trying to find out if there was a single word to mean the bumper at the end of a parking spot.

 [Sunny Brook Pressed Concrete]

"Parking bumper" is a little unwieldy, and "wheel chock" seems to be more about airplanes or trailers than general parking spaces.

A bit of googling got me the word "turtarrier", but I can't find it referenced in any credible source, nor any etymological justification as to where it came from.

Is this the correct term, or should I use something else? Is it just someone making up a word about parking infrastructure on the spot (what possible reason would there be for someone to lie about this term)? If it is a real word, where did it come from and when?


texts: Is "I managed to locate the... Drugstore, was it? despite the lack of guidance" correct?

texts:
"I managed to locate the... Drugstore, was it? despite the lack of guidance"

In this sentence, a rich, sheltered person is going to buy some common medicine from a 'drugstore', a term to which he is new and so is questioning the word.

Should I capitalize after the ellipsis, or after "was it?" since the sentence hasn't ended yet?


texts: A shorter, more formal word for "as you go" or "along the way"

texts:
We have common phrasing such as “pay as you go” or “invent along the way”.

Is there a more formal and specific word for this concept of a verb’s action continuing or repeating over time?


texts: Is there a word for depth-based like spatial is for space?

texts:
I am trying to describe types of trends that we see in my research of a lake. I am doing a study that combines spatial (across the lake) and depth-discrete samples (multiple depths in the lake). I would like to distinguish between the two:

I will look for spatial and _____ trends in the lake.

Space --> spatial
Time --> temporal
Depth --> ???

I want to use "deptual" but unfortunately that is not a word...
Thank you to this post for getting close to the question I'm trying to ask:
Is there a word for event-based like spatial is for space?


texts: What is generic name for devices like this?

texts:
Well, problem is programming-related, but main problem is a naming, so I guess it's a correct place to ask.

I have various type of devices designed to affect environment conditions. Typical examples would be heater (affects temperature) or sprinkler (affects humidity). It should turn on/off if measured value are above or below specified limit. So I save a sensor to measure conditions and ... to try to affect these conditions.

Can you think of any generic name (...) which would describe this kind of device?


texts: Is there a specific term for the association of certain verb(s) with certain nouns (as direct objects)?

texts:
Or vice versa. Or perhaps a name for the pair itself?

For example:

hold an opinion
make a complaint
offer an apology

Also, where might I find a list of such pairs?

EDIT: I chose my title wording randomly. I have no idea whether 'cognate verb' is the correct term for these things. However, I've just found out that 'cognate objects' are a defined class in linguistics, so perhaps my choice of words was inappropriate. I'm going to leave the title as it is, anyway.


texts: Single word meaning 'to put to sleep' (best translation of 'endormir' from French)

texts:
I'm looking for a very particular word meaning 'to put to sleep'.

There is a verb in French, 'endormir', which is the meaning I'm trying to capture. It functions similarly to 'invigorate' in that it means 'to give vigor to', endormir is a bit like 'to give sleep to' or perhaps 'to render sleeping'.

The closest I found was 'sedate' but that implies a use of sedatives, I think.

I am nearly certain that there is a single word in English that captures this. Something like if 'soporific' was a verb.

Example sentence in French: Ses devoirs l'ont endormi.

Translation: His homework (put him to sleep).
(Looking to replace 'put him to sleep' with a single word, something like 'his homework sedated him'.)

Just a single word meaning 'to render sleeping' or 'to put to sleep' is best.

Thanks in advance for your help (:


texts: "Currently the environment is so contaminated" vs. "the environment is currently so contaminated"

texts:
Currently the environment is so contaminated that urgent measures should be taken.
  The environment is currently so contaminated that urgent measures should be taken.

Are both sentences grammatical? Do they convey different meanings depending on where currently is used?


texts: "As such,he helped saved 6 lives..." What grammar category

texts:
I need help in identifying the grammar category. Why is Past Participle used after the word "helped" and what grammar category to refer to understand?
"In August 2017, Elijah Mayhew, 15, of Florida died of a gunshot wound there.Weeks earlier, he had told his mom that he wanted to be an organ donor. As such, he helped saved six lives, including one chronicled in the Journal Star, part of the USA TODAY Network"


texts: Is the practice of calling others by initials acceptable?

texts:
The answers and comments on my question about English alternatives to “Senpai” reminded me of the odd feeling I used to have almost 25 years ago when I observed my client’s staffs were referring to each other or others by initial (e.g., T.H, K.A) in conversation in the meeting.

I wasn’t sure of whether it is common American practice to call or refer to others, even their seniors by initials. I wondered then if it’s special corporate culture of the client (which happened to be a renowned American financial service company), or just in jest.

Though this was an internal matter, and may be special case I witnessed, I’ve seen several cases of a person(s) being mentioned by the initials in public.
 For instance, Maureen Dowd always refers to the former President by G.W., or W. in public.

Time magazine features disagreement of Saudi Arabia and U.S. under the headline, "The King and O (King Abdullah and Barack Obama)" in its April 7 2014 issue.

Tina Fey calls her old boy friend like “I met HRW (note: representing for a handsome Robert Wuhl) the next morning at his off-campus apartment,”“HRW motioned for me to sit down near him,” “It was surprise by the time HRW dropped me off,” (P.56-59), and even abbreviatesstrong YMCA as “The Y had a preschool attached to it,” (P.66) in her million-seller book, “Tina Fay Bossypants.

Is it accepted, or very uncommon practice to refer to other person by the initial in English speaking countries? Isn't it rude to call others by the initials like "Hey, K.A. What's your opinion," and "I don't agree J.K's idea."?


texts: What is the spelt-out form of Mike Huckabee’s message, “(He) would not have received [permission] had they."

texts:
Time magazine’s (Jan 27) article titled, “Huck: “I didn’t approve that message,” begins with the following sentence:

“On Fox News' "Your World" Friday, ex-AR Guv says Gingrich's campaign did not ask to use his sound bite and "would not have received [permission] had they." Adds he would "love" for the Georgian's team to take down the ad.”

To a non-native English speaker who learned English mostly from “bookish” English readers, it is difficult to understand the phrase "would not have received [permission] had they," particularly the meaning of ‘had they.’

Is this grammatically perfect expression?
If not, what word is omitted before ‘had they’? How can the phrase be spelt out in easier-to understand format?


texts: An alternative for 'conceited' concerning merely wealth

texts:
What would one call a person that is not conceited, meaning he or she is not concerned about her reputation, but teaches his or her children that wealth and security are the primary objectives of life and quite likes to talk about this wealth he or she possesses?

Furthermore, they may be quite patronising, yet never "peacocky".


texts: Why do people seem to get so triggered at the word "plebeians"?

texts:
While having online conversations people seem to get triggered when the word plebeian is used to describe the commoners or common people. They seem to think its bad or something.

What's wrong in saying that you are a common dude or a common member of the society instead of some elite or celebrity?


texts: What is the term used to remind someone to submit something that is in a rush and important in a business term?

texts:
as the topic stated, I'm currently in a situation where the term "notification" is kind of over used, so I'm trying to find alternatives to emphasize the importance of the notification.

Here's the scenario - You are supposed to submit three documents at the end of the week, and it is now 2 days before deadline meets.

My first thought was something like a "Submission Reminder", but reminder felt a bit too soft. So I then think of "Overdue notification", however, it's not really overdue yet.

I'd want something that would let the user feel the sense of urgency and importance. Is there a better term for it?


texts:
I'm working on a project set in the Late Middle Ages. For the most part, I'm using modern language, but I'm staying away from present-day terminology in sciences of all types. Consider the following:

Fifteen hundred troops joined the [multinational] force.

The peoples in question are Turks, Persians, and Arabs.

I like neither multinational nor combined for this use. Thanks for your help!

Edit I don't like combined because it would beg to include the explanation "combined forces [of Turks, Persians, and Arabs]." Instead of making the sentence more concise, I made it longer.

I'm choosing Coalition because I can present the term earlier and keep the sentence in question short. Actually, this answer led me to the more nefarious Consortium, but I never would have gotten there without Coalition.


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "I'm game"

texts:
I'm trying to understand the origins of the phrase "I'm game".

I understand how the phrase is used in everyday English, but what are the origins of this phrase? How did it come to imply a willingness to an action? Can someone please point me to a source that explains the origins of this phrase?


texts: How to describe a person in a situation in which he does not completely know what he is doing?

texts:
How can we describe a person doing or communicating something without (really) knowing what he is doing or talking about? This could be either because of some indisposition like for example intoxication or person's knowledge or mental incompetency.

In colloquial Czech we have a phrase "být (úplně) mimo" which literally translated means: "to be (completely) out/outside/away". The extended meaning of the phrase is in the sense that the mind of the person is away from the real world or that his thoughts are moving in areas different to ones where they are supposed to be.

The Czech phrase is pejorative when it describes a person who obviously overestimated his capabilities. E.g. someone wrote an article about certain subject while knowing too little about it.

Is there something similar in colloquial or formal English?


texts: The answer of question 37 is C, but why not B? It "emerged" during 18th century, so obviously, it started developing during that time.


texts: I wanted to indicate that 2 people really livened up the party so I said, "They were the lifes of the party."  It seemed natural. Someone immediately suggested it should be, "lives of the party." This struck me as taking the word "life" too literally. Is there a (more) correct plural?


texts:
What is the meaning of "long way out" and "long way yet"?

Like in a sentence ::

We are all aware that our country has achieved self sufficiency in food but we have to go a long way _____ in order to achieve sufficiency in the field of energy.

Thanks in advance.


texts:
Where can I find a list of verbs like 'to want', which must be followed by an infinitive (other verbs by a gerund), but cannot be followed by a that-clause? I got from your website that there are Exceptional Case Marking verbs and Object (can't remember what…) verbs. Are there others? They are of importance to learners of English, as, in French, for instance, you must say 'I want that he does sth' and you cannot say 'I want him to do'.
Thank you


texts:
Let's suppose I have two simple sentences:

  1. I could run faster than Bob.
  2. I could have run faster than Bob.

The first sentence can have the following meaning:

[1a] I was able to run faster than Bob yesterday but I can't today.
[1b] I could run faster than Bob now or in the future.

Whereas the second example means:

[2a] I didn't run faster than Bob, but I would have probably run faster under certain circumstances.
[2b] [Is there any other meaning?]


texts: What does “still informant” mean in the following context?

texts: With his ideas still informant, Albert Einstein was 22 years old when he sat out alone on foot across the Alps.


texts: Is there a word or phrase for someone who asks for help, but wants you to do everything?

texts:
Maybe my definition of help is skewed, but to me it means cooperation to meet a goal, or some element of teamwork.
But is there a word or phrase for the action of (or the person) asking for help, but in reality wanting you to do the whole thing for them?


texts:
I came across this line when reading Owen's Strange Meeting:

  It seemed that out of the battle I escaped

  Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped

  Through granites which Titanic wars had groined.

What does the last line really mean? Going by the dictionary, groin as a verb stands for 'to form the line of intersection of two vaults', but with this I am unable to bring Titanic wars into the picture.


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?

  He doesn't only like football but also likes tennis.

and if it's wrong, why so?

Specifically, is there any problem with omitting the subject in the second clause?

Also, is there any problem with the verb form likes?


texts: Is “Yelp review” a phrase that's current, or just one-off?

texts:
I was drawn to the phrase, “Yelp review” appearing in the New Yorker (March 17) article, titled “New SAT Practice Questions.” It reads:

  “Write a controlled yet scathing Yelp review that conveys just how
  profoundly wrong your waiter was to refer to you and your friends as
  an “especially large” party, causing this waiter deep moral shame and
  personal fear.”

  http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2014/03/17/140317sh_shouts_frazier

I surmise “yelp review” means negative review or customer’s criticism on services at the service establishments, but I’m not sure.

None of online CED, OED, and Merriam-Webster Dictionary shows “yelps review,” though they carry “peers review.”

Is “Yelp review” a coinage of the New Yorker writer?


texts: Why is the apostrophe spelling of 'Doh!' so common?

texts:
This really grinds my gears- It seems to be common to spell 'Doh!' (the exclamation made popular by Homer Simpson) with an apostrophe, i.e. "D'oh!" yet clearly no apostrophe is required here.

Given there is no pluralisation or ownership involved, the areas where apostrophe misuses seem to occur most often, it would seem to have sprung fully-formed, probably around the time The Simpsons arrived on the world stage.

Is this just another apostrophe usage error or is there a deeper meaning or provenance?


texts: What is the meaning of "chewing the carpet"?

texts:
I was digging about Load-Balancers (computer networking stuff) and came across this expression:
Sometimes it (Load-Balancer) sits down chewing the carpet while backends go idle ...

I guess "chewing the carpet" means wasting time here. Am I right?
What exactly does it mean?


texts: Difference between "my whole life" and "all my life"?

texts:
Is there any difference between both expressions? I'd say that my whole life is better suited for use it in the middle or at the end of a sentence, whilst all my life is better for start a sentence.

Is that correct? Or are there any other differences?


texts: Restate a question... in short responses?

texts:
Can someone please help me understand the meaning of this phrase?

  to restate a question in short responses

How can a question (if it's something asked) be restated (paraphrased or repeated or rewritten) through one or more "responses"/answers?

This should refer to some kind of exercise done in reading classes, but honestly I can't figure out an example of it.


texts: I've just realised that CC is "carbon-copy" and BCC is "blind-carbon-copy". Basically I'm wondering, where did these terms come from?


texts: A more concise way to express "willing to try without fearing failure"

texts:
I wish to talk about the attitude of being willing to try at something no matter whether you fail. The context is talking about students learning a second language:

  Overcoming the psychological barriers to learning English requires the student to develop a willingness to try even if they fail or make a mistake.

Is there a more concise way to express this, if not one word?


texts:
Often I want to establish that I am using a term "loosely", and so I will use quotes ("scare quotes"?) to indicate this.

Sometimes, though, I wonder if I need to continue this pattern with that term, or if a single use is good enough.

If I introduce such a "loose" word in the first sentence of a paragraph, for example, can I proceed to use the word from then on without quotes without taking the word as literally as if I hadn't used quotes in the first place? Or should an entire paragraph/work contain that word in quotes if I want to avoid using it literally?

One specific example that led me to asking this question was the Wikipedia page for Dark Matter:

  At present, its indirect detection and study is limited to observations by its gravitational interaction with "ordinary" matter. Its effects on ordinary matter allow us to infer its presence and some of its properties.

Notice the use of "ordinary", followed almost immediately by its use again without quotes.

Imagine if you wanted to write 4 pages of text referring to "ordinary" matter. Would it be necessary to use quotes every single time you use the term, or is doing it once enough to establish that the term is used loosely, and then further usage of the term is understood not to be taken too literally?

I suspect the answer might depend on what you're actually writing. For my purposes, it would just be for the case of informal online writing. It might be a lot different when writing an actual book or paper.


texts: Should the Present Perfect be used instead of the Simple Past in the sentence "I was with my sister"?

texts: Somebody (not a native speaker) told me that "I was with my sister" is grammatically incorrect and the present perfect tense should be used instead ("I have been with my sister"). Is this true?


texts: Does "tapall" or "tappies" mean "mail" in English?

texts:
I had been wondering about a non-native word in Tamil: Thabal, meaning post. This word has origins from elsewhere, and I had not been able to figure out the etymology. Searches in Internet had also proved futile.

Meanwhile I came across this article in the newspaper yesterday, which talks about the story of the General Post Office in Chennai. It seems a certain English gentleman by name John Burlton wrote to the government seeking establishment of Tapall facility in Chennai (called Madras back then).

  In a letter that Burlton sent to the Government, he said, “The proposal which I some time delivered to Lord Macartney which I now have the honour to send to you is to establish a regular Tapall (mail), upon a plan similar to that at Bengal which will exclude the company’s servants from the privilege of receiving their letters free of postage.”

Another sentence also employs tappies:

  The government replied, “Having taken into consideration the establishing of a regular P.O. we directed our accountant to prepare a statement of monthly charges of the ‘Tappies’ (Tapal) in Carnatic and Nothern Circars.”

Was there any similar word for post/letter in the 18th century English, which has fallen out of usage since? Or has this word been borrowed from neighbouring states (the French or Dutch provinces)?


texts: Word for numbers with special meaning (particularly Bible)

texts: Numbers in the Biblical text often have archetypal meanings. For instance, 40 is a cycle (40 days of the Flood to wipe out the world, 40 years traveling in the desert to wipe out the prior generation of Israelites, etc.). There is a word for these representative, archetypal numbers in the Bible but it is currently alluding me.


texts: Difference between /ʌ/ and /ə/ in English IPA

texts:
If someone who is a linguistics expert could explain this to me in a way I can understand, I'd really appreciate it. I get that /ʌ/ is used on stressed vowels and /ə/ on reduced vowels, but they sound exactly the same to me.

'Strut' (/strʌt/) is given as an example word for the former, and 'comma' (/ˈkɒmə/) for the latter, but I pronounce both of those words the same. I'm confused as to how these differ from a sound perspective.


texts: Word to describe someone picking up on accent/dialect quickly and easily. And without trying?

texts:
I have recently moved down to Alabama with my fiance. And I have, without even my noticing, heavily picked up on the drawl down here without any sort of trying involved. A good phrase or word would be appreciated.

However, I understand this is a moderately loaded concept. I would love any help, direction, or advice on how to say this better, if not an appropriate word or phrase.


texts: What does " a humorist of no small parts" mean in this sentence please?

texts: It was in this letter that he mentions how More, himself a humorist of no small parts, had given him the original idea for his "Praise of Folly" and very likely it was the good-natured horse-play of the More establishment which had inspired him to write that delightful piece of nonsense with which his name is forever associated.


texts: Analogue to appending "s" to the end of an acronym when plural does not have an "s"

texts:
Some acronyms can be naturally pluralized. For example, consider the acronym RTP which stands for regional tax policy -- the plural is regional tax policies and thus the acronym can be written as RTPs.
What about for words whose plural does not use an "s"? For example, consider the acronym NE which stands for Nash equilibrium -- the plural is Nash equilibria, so writing NEs doesn't make any sense. Should one accept the ambiguity and write NE for both Nash equilibrium and Nash equilibria?


texts: Why do they call it a "movement" in music? Is this a metaphor?

texts: I can't understand this. In symphony you hear the word "movement" to refer to independent sections. But it seems that it's not really that relevant. Movement almost everywhere has something to do with motion. Is this nomenclature a kind of metaphor for something in music, like moving from one section to another?


texts:
Dog seems a strange word to choose for this concept.  Does anyone know anything more than Dictionary.com can tell me?

  Origin: 1875–80, Americanism; under- + dog

Etymonline has a similar take, but it also makes reference to top dog, another incomprehensibly endowed noun with an even less gratifying origin entry:

  Origin: 1885–1900

Where can I find the etymology of these words?


texts: What does "bespoke" mean in this context?

texts:
The synthetic CDOs that caused the trouble were expensive bespoke instruments that were very profitable for the banks involved – JPMorgan was paid $19m to structure and market the Squared CDO alone before it got stuck with $880m in unanticipated losses

I know the definition is to be or give a sign of; indicate. See synonyms of indicate.

But it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Context.


texts: "Parent" is to "child" as "source" is to what?

texts:
I have a work question. In our attempt to give names to fields on a repair card we are now using the phrase "Source card" and "Child card".
My opinion is that it would be more logical to use "Parent card" and "Child card", but if I want to keep using the term "Source card" how would I now name the child card???

  "Parent is related to child"
  as
  "source is related to _____"


texts:
I read this sentence in a book on writing. "The wooden dock was crowded, everyone excited for the show to start." Isn't this incorrect? If your combining to clauses don't you need to use and? Also why omit the was?

So, it should be "The wooden dock was crowded and everyone was excited for the show to start." I have doubts because I read this in a book dealing with writing.

The full excerpt is:

  On a warm August evening on a pier in Cherry Grove, New York, I watched a display of fireworks. The wooden dock was crowded, everyone excited for the show to start. Police boats and fire boats whizzed around on the water.