texts: Is “people with a bit of grit under their fingernail” an idiom, or just one-off phrase?

texts:
I was interested in the phrase, “people with a “little bit of grit under their fingernails” appearing in the New Yorker magazine’s (March 14) article titled, “American Ads, American Values.” It reads;

  “In an interview with Michael McCarthy, of Ad Age, Cadillac’s
  advertising director, Craig Bierley, said that “Poolside” was pitched
  at consumers who earn around two hundred thousand dollars a year,
  people with a “little bit of grit under their fingernails” who “pop in and out of luxury.” He also said, “These are people who
  haven’t been given anything. Every part of success they’ve achieved
  has been earned through hard work and hustle.”
  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/03/american-ads-american-values.html

I surmise ‘have grit” means “have courage / guts.” Though it sounds “catchy “as an ad director’s parlance, I wonder if “have a little bit of grit under one’s fingernails” is common phrase or not.

Is “under one’s fingernails” acknowledged suffix to “a bit of grit,” or just an optional use?


texts:
In the word mentality, how should the letter i be pronounced?

In Longman, it's a shwa.

In Oxford, it's a shwa.

In Cambridge, its American dictionary(at the middle of this page) says it's a short I.

In Collins, it's a short I.

I'm confused by these dictionaries.

Is there a distinction between AmE and BrE? One say short I while the other say shwa?

Or they are both okay in the USA and the UK?


texts:
I am writing a psychology paper describing an ASD (Autistic) client that acts like a cat, often meowing, nuzzling against objects, and walking around on all fours.

I was curious if there is a better word for "acting like an animal" than zoomorphism or zoomorphic behavior.

There are several threads on this site asking for "an antonym of anthropomorphic" and most of the responses bring up zoomorphism and or bestiality. However, I am hoping for one that best describes the action of, rather than the state or attribution of animal traits. Or is zoomorphism the best that can be done as the current English language stands?


texts: How is the "e" in "clerk" pronounced differently from "terse", "term" and "jerk"?

texts:
clerk, terse, term, jerk: every one of these words contains an "e" and it is pronounced as "e".

However, I have seen "clerk" being treated differently from the other three words: the "e" was underlined in a different way from that of the others. Can you explain why?


texts:
Consider the following phrases:

Example 1:

  CompanyX is the world's largest and leading authority for online dating.

Example 2:

  CompanyX is world's largest and leading authority for online dating.

As you can see, in the 2nd example the word "the" has been left out.
I am not sure if any of these sentences are wrong to say, or if there is a special exception or context when to leave out "the".

I have been looking on google for more information about this, but could not find clear anwsers about it.

I hope someone can clear this problem up for me, thank you in advance!


texts: Can "fluvial" be applied to man-made flooding?

texts:
I was taught in my first year geology class that fluvial meant meant "relating to water", but OED defines it as such:

  Geology:

  Of or found in a river.

Could I use "fluvial" to describe water originating from a man-made source, e.g.:

"There was a significant fluvial deposit left on the road from the flooding caused by the burst pipe."

If it is not valid, what would be?


texts: Noun and verb without an auxiliary verb?

texts:
I have zero idea what this construction is called. Here are a few examples that I've just whipped up:

He was fired, and his friend punished.

He was robbed, and his brother kidnapped.

The idea is that the second part of the sentence takes the same verb as the first. Kind of like continuity of the sentence.


texts: What general rules govern the usage of "by" versus "through"?

texts:
What general rules govern the usage of by versus through?  For example, which is correct in each of these cases:

  My house is heated by/through gas.
  I'll send it to you by/through mail.
  I'll pay you by/through check.
  I learned that by/through a lot of practice.
  Success only happens by/through hard work.
  The tickets are available by/through the Internet.
  Through/by including a warning prompt prior to asking a SA related question, SPAM probes have been thought to isolate workload from the assessment of SA.

I found the majority of these by/through a Google search, but the answer there was equivocal.


texts:
In the English translation of an essay by Leon Trotsky that came out in Foreign Affairs, I read [emphasis added]:

  Now it turns out that the world exchange is the source of all
  misfortunes and all dangers. Homeward ho! Back to the national
  hearth!

While its meaning is perfectly clear to me (“let’s go home!”), I cannot determine its origin. Has it something to do with a command to a horse?


texts:
I just asked about the phrase "Eastern Seaboard" in another question. I used the sentence:

  Is "seaboard" used in other contexts?

I thought this didn't sound very good, so I changed it to:

  Is "seaboard" used in other context?

Should context ever be pluralized? Or is it a mass noun?


texts: Correct form of saying of what will be left?

texts:
Imagine a hypothetical situation that someone is left to do home duties and you are writing a note to him.

Which is the correct form?
1) "Turn on the robot cleaner. After it finishes all that will be left for you to do is to ..."
2) "Turn on the robot cleaner. After it finishes all that you will have been left to do is to ..."

I personally feel that both are all right but since I'm far from native speaker I would appreciate your advice stackexchangers.


texts: I don't understand the connection in the following sentence

texts:
I have a sentence like this:

  But every now and then, I longed to search for a tender stalk of arrowroot, to feel the tease of a mango, just out of reach.

Is the mango out of reach or are the two things (to search for a tender stalk of arrowroot, and to feel the tease of a mango) out of reach?

The sentence is from a book which is about a gorilla captured by humans when he was a baby and living a human-like life. The preceding sentence is "I liked having sips of soda poured into my mouth like bubbling waterfall." And there is no sentence after it. Maybe it's the two things out of reach because the gorilla misses his life in jungle but cannot go back again.


texts: Why do people keep mispronouncing my name, Divine?

texts:
My name is Divine--like the English word, "divine". There are no tildes, no accent marks, no umlauts, or funky letters like æ...nothing shady going on here. Yet every time someone reads my name, i always hear:

  "Now, excuse me if i mispronounce this...is it {'Divon', 'Devin', 'Div-in', 'Div-EE-nae' (yes, this one actually happened), etc.}...?"

I know my name isn't the most common name in the world, but it's an English word! I can understand if you have a "regular-looking" name that has an abnormal pronunciation. I imagine the protocol there would be that you sound it out as best as you can first, then go for the funny pronunciations. But why do people reverse that order with my name?

To make matters worse, after learning how my name is pronounced, and its place in the dictionary, a large percentage of those people go on to misspell my name as Devine!

Is there something about dialects, or the history of this word, or something, that makes people's brains start working when they read my name?


texts: What do novelists mean when they say someone hissed something? Not made a hissing sound, but just hissed some words. I have never heard anyone do this. it is used all the time. befuddled.


texts: Can a dependent clause refer to a word other than last word of independent clause?

texts:
For the sentence construction: "(independent clause), which (dependent clause)" could the dependent clause be referring to a word other than the last word (or phrase) of the independent clause?

So for instance, the sentence:
"I released many novels through a publishing company, which received rave reviews".

Would that be incorrect because does the construction necessitate that "which received rave reviews" would be referring to "a publishing company" instead of "novels"? To be clear, I want it to refer to "novels".

Would it be correct if I removed the comma after "company"?

Any help is much appreciated!


texts: What's the word for something that's shaped through a hole?

texts:
Scenario: I am pushing clay through a hole, and on the other side it is coming out as a cylinder.

What is the correct term to describe it coming out of that hole?


texts:
What's the difference and what's more appropriate in following cases:

  We had a romantic dinner at the lake yesterday.
  We had a romantic dinner by the lake yesterday.

  (On a plane)
  I'd like to sit at the window.
  I'd like to sit by the window.

Thank you in advance!


texts:
Is there a name for dialect/variant of English that is commonly used in titles? The one that intentionally omits auxiliary verbs, articles and other words for shortness:

Normal English: The new album is now available, and it contains exclusive booklet inside.
“Title” English: New album available, exclusive booklet inside


texts: Was the blue screen of death ever just a blue screen?

texts:
Etymologically speaking, at least according to Wikipedia, the term Blue Screen of Death:

  originated during OS/2 pre-release development activities at Lattice
  Inc, the makers of an early Windows and OS/2 C compiler. During
  porting of Lattice's other tools, developers encountered the stop
  screen when null pointers were dereferenced either in application code
  or when unexpectedly passed into system API calls. During reviews of
  progress and feedback to IBM Austin, the developers described the stop
  screen as the Blue Screen of Death to denote the screen and the
  finality of the experience.

However, the Wikipedia article cited lacks a source, so I've been wondering about the term itself.  Did the term exist as just "blue screen" before "of death" was appended to it?   Or did it start out as a "blue screen"? Was there a word that Windows developers called it before the "Blue Screen of Death" rose to popularity?


texts: What does the phrase "blast your way" mean in this context?

texts:
Here is the sentence:

  Blast your way through 90's nostalgia and into the 21st century
  with Mr. X, who is the latest hero to join the list of our game's celebrities.

None of the following meanings given on the Free Dictionary fits the context here:

  v.tr.
  1. To knock down or shatter by explosion; smash.
  2. To play or sound loudly: The amplifiers blasted the music.
  3. a. To cause to move with great force; hurl: The volcanic eruption blasted rock far and wide. b. To make or open by explosion: blast a
  tunnel through the mountains.
  4. a. To shoot or destroy by shooting: fighter jets trying to blast each other out of the sky. b. Sports To hit, kick, or shoot (a ball or
  puck) with great force.
  5. To have a harmful or destructive effect on: a loss that blasted our hopes of making the playoffs.
  6. To criticize or attack vigorously: blasted the mayor for hypocrisy.
  7. To cause to shrivel, wither, or mature imperfectly by blast or blight: crops that were blasted by frost.

  v.intr.
  1. To use or detonate explosives.
  2. To emit a loud, intense sound; blare: speakers blasting at full volume.
  3. To discharge a weapon. especially repeatedly; shoot: blasted away at the target.
  4. To attack someone or something verbally; criticize.
  5. To move with great speed or power: a motorcycle blasting down the road.
  6. Electronics To distort sound recording or transmission by overloading a microphone or loudspeaker.
  7. To wither or shrivel or mature imperfectly.

I am wondering if the above-mentioned phrase refers to the gameplay of the app in which the player drives fast and fearlessly on roads while shooting on enemies and drones. However, I am confused as to how would it relate to nostalgia and the 21st century.


texts: When does /tjʊ/ (Ex: Nice to meet you /miːt jʊ/) turn to /tʃʊ/ & /ʔjʊ/?

texts:
In this Wiki link, it said /tj/ could be pronounced as /tʃ/

So, Nice to meet you /... miːt jʊ/ will be /... miːtʃʊ/

But sometimes, I heard it as /... miːʔjʊ/

Watch this short youtube video, Freddie & Bob seem to stick with /... miːʔjʊ/ (ʔ stands for glottal stop) & somehow they got a very powerful /iː/.

However, Lisa & Sally seem to stick with /... miːtʃʊ/ & somehow their /iː/ is softer and is not as powerful as Freddie & Bob's.

So, When does /tjʊ/ (Ex: Nice to meet you /... miːt jʊ/) turn to /tʃʊ/ & /ʔjʊ/?


texts:
I am using the word solicitude in a sentence. I am wondering if I can say

"For the girl, she started by expressing caring solicitudes of empathy."

The definition of solicitude is:

/səˈlisəˌt(y)o͞od/
noun
noun: solicitude
care or concern for someone or something.: "I was touched by his solicitude".

Would writing "caring solicitudes of empathy" be redundant? If it is, should I make it "empathetic solicitudes with care"?


texts:
Taken from an android game "Arknights".
The whole phrase: "our colleagues in the Human Resources Department have to manage a deluge of information each and every day, but they always manage to dig out Rhodes Island's diamonds from the rough".
Can this from the rough part of the phrase be understood as "from the dirty soil"?


texts:
Do you find the use of 'fit' natural in the following?

John needs a car that can fit six people.

My question is more of a grammatical or lexical nature; can 'fit' take
as its subject a noun phrase that refers to a space? It can have a
particular number of people or items as its subject:

E.g. Six passengers can fit in this car.

Or it can have a sentient agent as the subject:

E.g. We can fit one more person in this car.

But can it take a space as its subject?
Can we say 'the car can fit six passengers'?

I'd appreciate your help.


texts:
Let's say there is problem X, and I have in mind some methods, each is a workaround for X.

For a single workaround, it seems fine to say: "I am suggesting a workaround X", but I feel the following do not sound right, or at least there are better ways to phrase them:

I am suggesting workarounds for X
I am suggestions workarounds, each of them address X

What's the best way to connect "workarounds" and "X" ?


texts: Changing usage of past-perfect constructions in American and British usage

texts:
I notice a great many American speakers using the construction had loved as a preterite, that is, a simple past tense. I also hear the simple past tense used in instances in which I was taught to use the past perfect tense.

Is this a widespread trend, to use the past perfect construction as a past tense construction, and to use the past tense instead of the past perfect tense to indicate action that precedes the past action that has just been mentioned?

Examples are

  Before I met her I heard about her

instead of

  Before I met her I had heard about her

and

  I had heard about her yesterday for the first time."

Neither Microsoft Word nor WordPerfect likes it when I use the string had had. For example,

  By the time he got to Phoenix, he had had enough to drink to make him stagger."

Is the past perfect disappearing from American usage? Is it also disappearing from British usage? And is the past perfect construction being widely used as a simple past?


texts:
Uh oh is defined as something you say when you made a mistake, or when something is going wrong or a bad thing is about to happen.

  An example of a time when you would say "uh oh" is when you dropped      and spilled your juice.
  An example of a time when you would say "uh oh" is when you know you     are about to get caught doing something wrong because you hear
  foot      steps coming down the hall

. - YourDictionary.com

Why do we say 'Uh Oh' to mean 'Here's trouble? Even babies learn to say it and in the right context as well.

It's commonly known and said by all but where did it start? Is it just a natural sound that an English speaker subconsciously makes in a certain situation or did someone say it first and it caught on?

I've Googled the fun out of it now and I still can't find any information on the origin of the phrase;

'Uh Oh'


texts: Plural in constructions like A's and B's theory/theories

texts:
I have gone through several threads here but haven't found an answer to my question.

In my paper, there are two theorists and each has a theory. Theorist A has theory 1 and theorist B has theory 2.

Can I use both example 1 and example 2 and express this fact?

  1) A's and B's theory are worthwhile considering.
  2) A's and B's theories are worthwhile considering.

I reckon that 1) is a form of ellipsis standing for A's (theory) and B's theory... Does 2) imply that both A and B have EACH devised more than one theory or that I include A's theory and B's theory to form the plural "theories"?

And on a similar note, Bohr has written one book on a subject and Gitman has written one book:

  3) The Bohr and the Gitman volume are worthwhile considering.
  4) The Bohr and the Gitman volumes are worthwhile considering.

Which one is correct?


texts: Correct way to use "who" in an introductory sentence about a movie

texts:
Today I wrote the following introductory sentence about the movie “Outsourced”:

  The movie “Outsourced” produced in the year 2006 and directed by John Jeffcoat deals with a part of a company being outsourced and Todd - the supervisor - is supposed to go to India to train the new employees.

But I was told that this was partially wrong as there was a word missing, and it should be like this:

  The movie “Outsourced” produced in the year 2006 and directed by John Jeffcoat deals with a part of a company being outsourced and Todd - the supervisor - who is supposed to go to India to train the new employees.

My question is which of the both is the correct one?


texts: What is the right word for a company which takes photographs and videos for its clients?

texts:
I'm looking for the right word to describe a company which takes photographs and captures videos and edits them for its clients [in exchange for money].

I first came up with "Advertising Company" which is too much general for this purpose, and then "Multimedia Company" or "Media Company" which I'm not sure if that's the right word or not.


texts: Is there an analogy for 'pangs of hunger' when it comes to thirst?

texts:
Does this sentence make sense?

He was struck with pangs of thirst.

Or is there a different word (specifically a noun that replaces pangs) that makes more sense in this context?


texts: Keeping Up with the Joneses, Vocative Edition

texts:
TLDR: This question is about vocatives.  Is there a rule to explain
how to know whether you can drop a person’s name when addessing someone
just by their title alone, or whether that form is expressly forbidden by some mystery grammar?  I’m looking for some veiled grammatical explanation if there is one.

Consider how this group:

Senator Smith
Governor Smith
Minister Smith
Doctor Smith
Vicar Smith
Father Smith
Sheriff Smith
Judge Smith
Nurse Smith
Professor Smith

Contrasts with this group:

King Jones
President Jones
Pope Jones
Lord Jones
Chief Justice Jones
Speaker Jones

When it comes to how they’re directly addressed, with the Smiths
you can drop the Smith part when you address them and it still sounds
alright, albeit somewhat familiar of course:

  Doctor Smith, the patient will see you now.
  Doctor, the patient will see you now.

or

  Senator Smith, your vote today is critical.
  Senator, your vote today is critical.

But with the Joneses, you can’t seem to get away with that at all:

  President Smith, the Republic will not long survive such good fortune.
  *President, the Republic will not long survive such good fortune.
  Mister President, the Republic will not long survive such good fortune.

or

  King Smith, the peasants are revolting.
  *King, the peasants are revolting.
  Your Majesty, the peasants are revolting.

For whatever reason, the Joneses seem to demand more “little empty words” in direct address than the Smiths do: Why is that?

Some of the Joneses get a Mister/Madame like Mister Chief Justice
or Madame Speaker, while others get fanciful indirect forms from days
of old like My Lord or Your Majesty or Your Holiness,
and all the rest.

In some cases, it feels like you can only drop the name if the remaining
title still applies for you.  So Tommy Smith can call his Uncle Smith just plain
Uncle, but it doesn’t feel right for someone who isn’t his uncle to do so;
he’s Tommy’s uncle, not your own.

Why does the grammar differ here?

What’s the rule for knowing whether can just drop the name and keep the title in vocative use?
Alternately phrased, what’s the rule for knowing whether you have to either add more words like Mister if you drop the name?

Are these all actually in the same word-class?

References consulted

English Honorifics from Wikipedia
Manner of Address from Wikipedia
Kinship Terminology from Wikipedia
Protocol for the Modern Diplomat, from the US State Department
Debrett’s Courtesy Titles from the UK firm


texts: What is a word for the opposite party in a trade?

texts: For example the person that starts the trade is the initiator of the trade, so what is the other person known as? Is there a word like initiator for the opposite party?


texts: What is the name of this figure of speech?

texts:
I've been reading Nevil Shute books recently, and they are set in late-1940s Britain. As a consequence, the characters are always using expressions such as "frightfully good", "terribly good" and "awfully nice". In the negative this becomes "perfectly awful" or "perfectly frightful".

I feel sure that this figure of speech must have a name. Could anyone tell me what it is?


texts: What do you call a student who studies extra at home to become proficient?

texts: What is the British English term for someone (a student) who goes home after classes and practices the lesson learned that day, or becomes proficient in the lesson taught?  It is not a positive reference but a negative name-calling term.


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "wind your neck in!"?

texts: I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on the origin of the phrase in title.


texts: I'm looking for a particular element for a project and I'm not sure what to google. What's the name of that large brace that is used to group items together? A crude Paint rendition:


texts: Etymology of “dude” and progression in language

texts:
On this one, etymonline really let me down. It says:

  dude
  1883, "fastidious man," New York City slang of unknown origin. The vogue word of 1883, originally used in reference to the devotees of the "aesthetic" craze, later applied to city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West

However, Google Books research shows prior use in a few cases, including Wit and humor of the age (1880): “There are three kinds of dudes in New York”.

So, knowing not whom to turn to, I ask you: what more can be said of the origin of dude? Why was it first introduced to refer to “devotees of the ‘aesthetic’ craze”? And, how did it later progress in the language?


texts: Titular phrase serves the meaning well enough, just that I've got the nagging feeling of forgetting a more common, less conspicuous one. Intellectual deprivation could ring derogatory. Intellectual starvation... a bit strong.


texts:
I came across this phrase in an legal case relating to an ante-nuptial agreement, and was wondering what it meant exactly. The sentence is:

  Agreement concluded prior to and in contemplation of marriage
  providing that neither party to derive any interest in or benefit from
  property of other either during marriage or on its termination

Is it synonymous with "in consideration of"/"in expectation of"?

Thanks


texts: On Wiktionary we read that 'hereafter' has as plural 'hereafters', but OALD says that this plural form doesn't exist. Which is wrong: Wiktionary or OALD?


texts: What does the expression 'Do the fish' mean?

texts:
I just recently heard this expression and couldn't quite figure out its meaning from the context, unless it means something like "take the bait."

Is this a common expression? Is it perhaps an abbreviation of another expression? Most importantly, if it is a common phrase, what does it mean?

Edit: The basic context in which I heard this expression used was this: one person asked a technical question of a group, to which a member of the group responded, beginning with "I'll do the fish" and then proceeding to the technical explanation.


texts: What's the difference between "burn up" and "burn down"? Or is there a difference at all?


texts: An alternative to "endearing," used to mean "make more expensive"

texts:
I love the concept of the word 'endearing' meaning 'to make more dear/expensive', but it is apparently obsolete. Is there any word or short phrase that can replace it?

Sample sentence: "Transport is the 'endearing' factor of the vacation"


texts:
I’m afraid that I couldn’t distinguish with clarity whether to apply the noun optimist or the adjective optimistic.
Possessing a Brazilian Portuguese background language, in which we don’t differentiate those specific words, there is not a single time that I don’t stop and think about which word would be better.
What’s the difference between the following sentences?

I am an optimist.
I am optimistic...


texts: Is the term 'affectation status' generally accepted?

texts:
The word affectation is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

  a :speech or conduct not natural to oneself :an unnatural form of
  behavior meant especially to impress others

  His French accent is just an affectation.

  b :the act of taking on or displaying an attitude or mode of behavior
  not natural to oneself or not genuinely felt

  speaking honestly without affectation

  mocked his piety as affectation

Yet the phrase 'affectation status' is often used in a scientific context, eg

  Affectation status and genotypes for the c.1190G>T mutation are indicated [in the pedigree].

(source)

Is this incorrect? I haven't found any indication of affectation having this meaning, despite the common use of 'affectation status' in human genetics.


texts:
I'm a non-native speaker and was looking for a single word which has the same (or close to the same) meaning as 'decays into' – where something becomes less than it was by losing (little) parts of itself which turn into something else.

Does such a word exist?

Update:
Some more info on the context in which this word would be used. For a fictional/fantasy-ish story, we have a diagram where four 'elements' and 3 'principles' (earth, fire, sulpher, etc) are (inter-)connected with each other. The interaction between each of these elements and principles are all described by a single words, such as for example: 'strengthens' and 'conquers' and 'absorbs'. All these interactions are single words (a fact that is also embedded into the backstory) one of these interactions could best be described as 'decays into', but since this is not a single word, it has to be either reworded by a synonym (the preferred option) or replaced by something else.

Hope this clarifies the question enough.


texts: What does the expression "a media splash" mean? Is it something like a reference or mention appearing in the media?


texts: “every couple months” vs. “every couple of months"

texts:
Consider this sentence:

  For most patients, he will monitor you once every couple (of) months

Which is correct: "couple" or "couple of"?


texts: Concucsion? A mash-up, combination of ingredients

texts: There is a word I heard somewhere on tv but I cannot find a correct spelling for it. It sounds something like concucsion and means a mash-up, random combination of ingredients.


texts:
I know that "myself" is a reflexive pronoun and can also be used for emphasis.  When writing something to the tune of "I myself would love to go hiking."  Wouldn't it be proper to use it as an interjection "I, myself, would like to go hiking." An interjection of this sort would typically clarify to whom the pronoun is referring, however "I" is already a clear indicator of who I am, without the "myself" attached.

TL;DR:  Shouldn't I be using interjection commas for the phrase "I, myself, ..."?


texts: Need a word to represent the opposite of busy

texts: Today I came across the Japanese word which conveys the meaning of having a lot of free time, and is the opposite of busy. The closest word which I can think of is idle, but that word seems to mean more of a laziness rather than actually lacking something to do. Are there any other words that would convey this kind of meaning?


texts: A word that's between 'recommended' and 'awarded'?

texts:
Is there a word that is between 'recommended' and 'awarded', take for example:
The boss recommended the Prize to Jill.
and
The boss awarded the Prize to Jill.
I don't want it to be emphasized that the boss is the only one gave it to her, but the truth is, the boss is the only one who gave it to her.
I wish for a sense that it was agreed upon to give Jill the award without saying 'the department'.
Any comments?


texts:
What is the correct usage of 'taste for' and 'taste in'?

  You have a good taste for music
  You have a good taste in music.
  Your taste for books is pathetic


texts: A term for a "visual guide", "example guide", tutorial without words, follow by my example to get the results

texts:
https://english.stackexchange.com/a/48400/193880

None of these seem to convey what my You Tube video is for. It is not written instructions, it is a kind of step by step guide.

Basically it is a music creation video. I create a complex rhythm part using only a basic modular synthesizer in a mobile app. Showing how it can be utilized for things other than simple synth notes. The video is simply a screen and audio recording showing me creating the part from start to finish. You can then adjust my version to your liking.

The terms "Guide", "Tutorial" and "How-to" don't feel right to me.

Could you suggest a better term?


texts: My best guess is that genethlical is related to the stars and their study and has some connection with astrology. Even Google can't give a proper definition.


texts: Phrase for jokingly pretending that someone's good point is a flaw?

texts:
Is there a phrase for complimenting someone by jokingly pretending that their good point is a flaw? Let me give an example, précised from a recent WhatsApp conversation:
A: That bike ride was way too windy.
B: Well your problem is that you're too light. You're at risk of being blown away in anything more than a gentle breeze.
C: Yes, you should eat more pies.
Of course B and C are really complimenting A's lack of weight relative to their own.
It's something like the opposite of a backhanded compliment (in which an insult is disguised as a compliment), so I wondered about backhanded insult, but (a) that phrase doesn't seem to be widely used; (b) it doesn't seem to be used consistently, sometimes being a synonym for backhanded compliment (perhaps by people who are confused about the meaning of the latter?); and (c) such examples as there are seem to be more insulting than my example. (Refs: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Backhanded%20Insult, https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-backhanded-compliment-and-a-backhanded-insult).
I also wondered about something derived from damned with faint praise, as in this question: Opposite of 'damned with faint praise'?. Again it's not quite right though: "praised with faint damnation" would mean that you're finding a genuine but tiny flaw, with the implication that that's the worst you can find to say; in my example the flaw is not genuine, it's exactly their good point that is being humourously presented as a flaw.
So does anyone have a better way to describe this device?


texts: Is there a phrase/proverb/idiom to describe selecting the right set of tools and methods to solve a problem

texts:
or you have to select the right set of tools and method in order to solve the problem optimally.

or you have the insight/ability to identify/select the right set of tools and method to solve a problem.


texts: When refering to 2 people, do you use "have" or "has"?

texts:
Example -

  If you or Theresa has time, let me know.
  If you or Theresa have time, let me know.

Which one is correct?


texts: What is the difference between 'clever' and 'cunning'?

texts: It is common that these two words mean similar to each other, what is the difference?


texts:
I'm having a brain fart.

  Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

Can you remind me what "Just when" is?

It changes "You thought it was safe to go back in the water" from an independent clause to a dependent clause, but I can't remember the name of its function.

UPDATE: Is it just an adverbial phrase? Or does it have a different name? Does the type of "sentence" have a name when someone uses it independently or is it just a fragment?


texts: Is “European Peninsula” a common name for Europe?

texts:
In this article, Europe was called the “European Peninsula”. Is that a common name for Europe?

Here is the whole sentence from the article:

  We have seen that Ukraine’s fate is not yet settled, and with that, neither is Russia’s relationship with the European Peninsula.


texts:
I am wondering if the sentence below is correct to use in (informal) speaking.

  "I don't like to be famous, the bigger you are."

I have purposefully omitted the second part of the phrase to seem more native.

Of course the full proverb is "The bigger they are, the harder they fall".

I know that one can use "the bigger they are." but here to fit this phrase to my sentence, I think I need to change "they" to "you". Am I correct? Can you drop the second half of the proverb like I did in my sentence?


texts:
Now I observe you staring upward and puzzling your wits to guess what great bird it is you see wheeling aloft over our heads. That, Sir, is the type, symbol, and adopted emblem of our nation, the BALD EAGLE, who, by the way, is not bald, any more than that stout and sturdy youth, the thriving republic, whose character he represents; only his head and neck are white; so is his tail; the rest of his body is brown. — New England Magazine, Vol 1, 1831

  [emphasis in bold mine]

The Latin name for this iconic raptor is Haliaeetus leucocephalus, which means white-headed sea eagle. The  Hali is Greek for “sea” and Aiētēs is “eagle”. Meanwhile, its species name is derived from leucos, “white” and cephalus which means “head”.

In 1782 the bald eagle was designated by Congress to represent the, then fledgling, United States. It is a fine and majestic-looking predatory bird but its head is amply covered with snow-white feathers: to put it bluntly, it is not bald. On the other hand, the immature bald eagle has a mixture of brown and white feathers until its fourth or fifth year of life when the distinctive solid-white head and white tail fully appear.

Etymonline says bald, meaning the lack of hair, is from the 14th century but its origin is uncertain, it suggests that it could have been derived from Celtic bal meaning “white patch, blaze”.
A Middle English Dictionary (Oxford, 1891) suggests that bald comes from the Old English for ball:  beal, beall, dating  back to c. 1200.

Etymonline also notes the following:

  Bald eagle first attested 1680s; so called for its white head.

I also read that the raptor's name was taken from piebald (source), a word that first appeared in 1590 according to Merriam-Webster and means patches of black and white. Oxford Dictionaries states that  pie recalls the magpie's black-and-white plumage, and bald (in the obsolete sense ‘streaked with white’).

So now I am quite confused. What do I tell my 12-year-old Italian student on Monday when he comes back for his lesson and point-blank refuses to believe that the bald eagle is bald? Can't say I blame him.

Question

Why was the white-headed eagle named “bald”?
Is it because

its white head resembles a smooth spherical ball?
bald used to mean “streaked with white”?
bald used to mean “a white patch, blaze”?
because in flight it looks bald?
OR because its feathers are dark brown and white, and bald was/is a back-formation or clipping  of the 16th-century term piebald.


texts: Is there an adjective meaning "someone who is asking for too much in an arrogant way"?

texts:
I've been looking for this word for so long, maybe years. In Bulgarian we use the word нахален (nakhalen) or нагъл (nagŭl) very often to describe someone who is asking for too much, disregarding people's feelings or objective facts.

For instance, you would use it in the following situations:

Your senile grandma can barely walk, but you ask her to carry your groceries home.
You tell your friend to give you a ride home without asking them if they have any other plans.
When negotiating a salary, you ask for a very high figure for the specific job (e.g. $100,000 for working at KFC).
You cut in line, or you don't wait for your turn in general.

Google Translate offers the following translations, but I haven't heard people use them a lot, so I'm not sure which one is suitable for everyday speech:

insolent, impudent, impertinent, glib, sassy, perky


texts: "Adjacent" is to "adjacency" as "contains" is to what?

texts:
An adjacency relation is one which denotes whether two objects are adjacent.

  The two neighbors are adjacent, and hence have an adjacency relation.

What is the equivalent for a "contains" relation, for example:

  The box contains oranges, and hence they have a ??? relationship.

I am not sure whether "containment" is appropriate given its connotations.

Note that the word may not necessarily be based on "contains", perhaps on a synonym.


texts: What word was used with the meaning of "suicide" pre-1650s?

texts:
Online Etymology Dictionary puts the origin as such:

"deliberate killing of oneself," 1650s, from Modern Latin suicidium

Wiktiobary here puts:

Suicide, 1651, New Latin coinage (probably originating in English) suīcīdium, from Latin suī (from suus (“one’s own”)) + -cīdium (“killing”). Compare self-slaughter, self-blood. Equivalent to -cide.

It quite stupified me to realize that from all the -cide words, quite a few originating from the later 16th century or early 17th century, the most famous of them all, at least in our collective modern vocabulary, "suicide", did not exist until the 1650s, and I cannot seem to find an older word which would have been used prior to "suicide's" coinage.
I am currently writing a period-piece set in the 1620s, and am looking for a word that existed during this period or prior, that would have been used in the self-same meaning as "suicide".
Shakespeare does use "self-kill" in Sonnet 71, which if all goes to the dogs, might be adequate, and I did find "felo-de-se", which is old enough, but I would rather not use Latin.
Edit: I found this on here

Evidence recounted here suggests that suicide was devised by Sir Thomas Browne and first published in his book Religio Medici in 1643.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


texts:
When talking about multiple assignments, what's a good way to describe the next task that is due? For example, say I sort a list of assignments in the order they are due. How can I describe the task on the top of the list?

"The task with the closest due date." ?
"The task with the next due date." ?
"The next task due." ?

The tasks aren't necessarily related to each other; that is why I'm not sure if the last option will work.


texts:
I went to the market and then I went to the Cafe.
  I went to a market and then I went a cafe

In the above sentences, what is the difference in nuance between them a market/a Cafe, and the market/the cafe?

My friend said "the market" has two meanings. One meaning is "shopping" and the other is the market building. Is it correct?

The other,  "a market" is just a market building. It means I went there for shopping or to meet someone etc. So, I just go to a building. Is it correct?

Is it the same with "I went to the Cafe or I went to a Cafe"?

Generally when you speak a stranger using words like "a market/cafe" or "the market/cafe" for the first time, from who's point of view do you speak, you or the stranger? Which article is appropriate, "a" or "the"?


texts:
In a piece of writing, I mention two terms, say A and B.  Traditionally they are interchangeable although the term A is favored.  The novelty of my writing is that they will eventually be distinguished.  In particular, the term B will be used in place of the term A and the term A will be used in a different sense than it currently is.  But before I reach that point, I intend to keep using the term A as usual, in order to ....  The purpose is definitely for contrast, for emphasis.  But I just can not express it precisely.

Now I want to give a remark on my intention in a footnote to inform the user beforehand.  So far I have only come up with something like:

  Until ..., these two terms are not distinguished though the term A is used till then to ....

The problem is that I do not know how to describe my purpose very precisely.  Could you help me fill in the gap at the end?  Thanks.


texts: Why is using the definite article “the” before a plural countable noun correct in this case when I have not mentioned the plural noun before?

texts:
Nuclear membrane/nuclear envelope: the double membrane of the nucleus, encasing the chromosomes and nucleolus.
I know you can put the article "the" before a singular countable noun to create a generic reference, such as the whale is the largest organism in the world. However, it's right to say "the chromosomes" in the vocabulary list entry above. It's correct, but why?
I have searched through numerous websites, but I am still unclear. Any help is appreciated, thanks.


texts: Why is the pronunciation of French loanwords with the ending é botched?

texts:
Take these French words that exist as well in English:

résumé
protégé
sauté
exposé
café

The French pronunciation for the é is simply /e/, which exists in English.

So why is the widely accepted English pronunciation /eɪ/, rather than /e/?


texts: Is "mate" in the word "roommate" a root or a suffix?

texts: I'm doing my term paper about wordbuilding. And I'm interested what is "mate" in the word "roommate"? Is it a second root so the word "roommate" is a compound, or is it a suffix?


texts: When to insert a comma when there are several ands in the sentence

texts:
I apologize if this has already been answered somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

When there is a series of items or events in a sentence and they are connected by ands, do you need to insert a comma before each of the ands?

E.g. He went biking and sleighing and skating.

Additionally, what if the words are connected by or?

E.g. second or third or fourth.


texts: Word for describing when you're doing a price quotation

texts:
Yes, the system does literally a "price quotation", but "quotation", without "price" means something like "quoting" (as you see the quote, please) when it is individually used, I mean, also when it is pluralized it sounds like I'm quoting a lot of phrases of famous people.

Well, is there something more specific for this sort of stuff? I mean, the proposal of the system is of choosing the cheapest bids for the products that I want buy, so, basically, dealers put their price for a respective product and we always choose who has the cheapest bid for that product.


texts:
I am writing an essay about (among other things) Gutenberg's printing press and Project Gutenberg. I want to say something along the lines of "Gutenberg's press was so popular that current things are named after him." I tried the following. Am I using namesake correctly?

  As evidenced ahead, Gutenberg’s invention was so popular that he is still a popular namesake.

I want to keep namesake in there because I think it sounds cool.


texts: How does a dash end the sentence? Is the sentence supposed to be loose?

texts:
How does a dash end this sentence correctly?

  It did seem to me that life was just too lovely to—

From A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain


texts: Word for sharing an old experience with someone new

texts: Jamais vu is when an experience that is old to you suddenly seems new.  But I'm looking for something even more specific.  Is there a word for that feeling you get when an old experience is refreshed by sharing it with someone new?  For example, watching a favorite movie with someone who's never seen it, and enjoying it vicariously through their reactions.


texts: Can you refer to public venues as rooms?

texts:
For example can I say something like: "We were at the restaurant. Then Bill came with the birthday cake. Applause filled the room."

If not, what's a better word to use?


texts:
Please, can somebody explain which one is correct in this case:

  Subjects' performance was analysed in the terms of accuracy and stability...

or

  Subjects' performance was analysed in terms of accuracy and stability...


texts: Should I use past tense when I'm asked to describe a picture?

texts: If you are being asked to describe a picture, what tense would you use?


texts: at our side / on our side / from our side

texts:
I'm developing a web form wich communicates with an external service and they are validating the data that I send to them from the web form. But, I would like to manage the validation by my self.

I'm a bit of confused about these options, they are very similar:

I would like to manage the form validation on our side
I would like to manage the form validation at our side
I would like to manage the form validation from our side

Do they express the same?


texts:
I came across this phrase in yet another novel-is-dead kind of article, where the author refers to literary critics as the "possessors of Gutenberg minds". I was wondering if anyone else has heard this phrase, and what it may mean?

The author references Marshall McLuhan as its source, so it seems to come from that man's philosophy, which deals with the effects of mass media and communications in the 50's and 60's.


texts:
Which one is better in the following sentence? I think I can use both.

[Even though/Even if] we wear fashionable clothes, we can't be truly beautiful without good manners.


texts: Using a semicolon between elements in a list

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is it proper usage to replace a comma in a list with a semi-colon in this situation (see details)?

Is it ever appropriate to use semicolons to separate elements in a list that follows a colon?

For example:  I packed several items for my trip to Europe: shoes; shirts; boots; hats; and gloves.

I realize that S&W (4th edition, page 7) advises writers to use commas between a list's elements, but I'm seeing semicolons in a published academic journal, and I'm wondering whether usage has changed since S&W's release.


texts: "available (availability)" vs. "valid (validity)" for "having sufficient power or efficacy" in AmEng vernacular

texts:
Per Random House Webster's College Dictionary, Ed. 1991,

available

  suitable or ready for use; of use or service; at hand:
  I used whatever tools were available.
  readily obtainable; accessible:
  available resources.
  Having sufficient power or efficacy; valid.

valid

  sound; just; well-founded: a valid reason.
  producing the desired result; effective:
  a valid antidote for gloom.
  having force, weight, or cogency; authoritative.
  legally sound, effective, or binding; having legal force:
  a valid contract.

Per Collins-Robert English-French Ditionary, Ed. 1985,

availability

  n

  (a) [material, people] disponibilité f

  (b) (US: validity) validité f

available

  adj

  (a) personnel disponible; thing disponible, utilisable

  (b) (US: valid) valable, valide (for pour)

My question is, what's the difference between "available" and "valid" in the sense "having sufficient power or efficacy"?

In addition, absent clear context, "can't the word "available" sound sort of ambiguous as to whether it's "obtainable/accessible" or "having sufficient power or efficacy" that actually is meant?

Please, consider the following example:

  The period for which these tickets are available is 3 months

  The period of availability for these tickets is 3 months

could be understood as meaning,

  The period for which these tickets are obtainable/accessible is 3 months

But also,

  The period for which these tickets are valid (=effective) is 3 months


texts: A word for one who loves only one girl throughout his life

texts:
Just like one wife man is called : monogamous.

Is there any word for one who loves just one girl throughout his life time. For him one life, one girl matters.

History has seen such people. Are such people's action(of loving just one)  also described in words ?


texts: English equivalent for "matrimonial bed"

texts:
I just heard that some romance languages (e.g., Spanish and Italian) use a word that translates directly as "matrimonial bed" and basically means a queen- or king- sized, as far as I can tell.

Does English have a parallel word? Was "matrimonial bed" ever used in English?


texts: Difference in meaning between: “his son will return” and “his son would return”

texts:
The hope is that his son will/would return.

What’s the difference in meaning of the sentence when will and would are used one at a time?

Should we use only would inasmuch as hope is only hypothetical??


texts: 'much better' spoken rather than written English?

texts: Is it grammatically correct to use in a publication, that something is (a) 'much better' way of doing something?


texts: Word for an apprentice who outperforms their master?

texts:
This has been puzzling me for years and my research so far hasn't turned up anything conclusive.

So is there a word which communicates the concept of an apprentice outperforming their teacher? I suspect the answer is most likely no—but if anyone knows differently and can tell me what that word is, that would be great.


texts:
Is it right to say "The service is secured under numbers of protocols"
or it is better to say "The service is secured under number of protocols"?


texts: Idiom meaning diverting somebody's attention from a topic which you don't want to talk on

texts:
Is there an idiom or expression which means diverting somebody's attention  with profuse talk about irrelevant things and trying to change a topic which is unpleasant to you or which you just don't want to discuss? Like this:

“Why did you lie?”
”Uh, such nice weather, isn't it? You  know, last weekend when we were on vacation on the lake....”

I have heard of to talk one's head off, but as far as I understand it means just talking a lot and being boring, doesn't it?


texts: Strunk and White says "Charles's" is correct -- is this still the case?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?
  When did it become correct to add an 's' to a singular possessive already ending in 's'?

I just bought The Elements of Style, an awesome little book. However, in the first section, the authors promote the use of 's, no matter what the last letter of a word is, to show possessiveness.

Some examples they use:

  Charles's friend
  Burns's poems

Are these grammatically correct?


texts: I know the meaning of friendly fire, but I never thought about it too much, if you are shooting someone who is your brother in arms, it's not like I'm not going to shoot someone just referring mostly to FPS as you probably guessed already, how can the fire be 'friendly', any idea about the origin of the word?


texts:
When I say "train station" I am corrected to say "railway station", but I don't understand why.
Examples...

Buses are stationed at a bus station.
Trains are stationed at a train station.

Why in this respect is "train station" incorrect?


texts: What does "spinning upon the shoals" mean?

texts:
What does the verb spin mean in this poem of Emily Dickinson? The stanza with the line in question is:

  Ring—for the Scant Salvation—
  Toll—for the bonnie Souls—
  Neighbor—and friend—and Bridegroom—
  Spinning upon the Shoals—

The research I did suggests that the word shoal means a school of fish, but I am not convinced to such opinion. I think that the words the shoals describe shallow waters in this poem and the verb spin describes people either moving swiftly or floating in these waters.

What do shoals and spinning mean in this poem?


texts: Singular or Plural in conjunction with OR condition that could include one or more objects

texts:
Which one is accurate?

...when one or two individuals do not have [an ID] or [IDs]

another example:

...this is the case when one or two students [are] or [is] missing

Theoretically, if one individual is missing, then it's an ID (first eg), and it should be "are" (second eg). We don't know, so which one should we choose?


texts:
Many a times I used the word "unaccept". But everytime our system shows redline (spellcheck). I believe it is the opposite of "accept", correct?

If its a mistake, what should I use?


texts:
I read this article and now I'm confused when got can be omitted when using have.

Could this be explained in plain English without technical terms?

Is there a different usage in past tense?


texts:
What's the difference between "What color is this?" and "What's this color?".
If someone is asking a kid, which one is more appropriate? Should he use "Which" instead of "What"?


texts:
What are these characteristics which are common, subject to a difference in degree, to all modern capitalism and to Fascism?

Could you please explain to me the exact meaning of the phrase in parenthesis ("subject to a difference in degree"). Given the context I assume that the author asserts that modern capitalism and Fascism, despite some particular differences, are the same systems but the exact semantic structure I am not able to decipher.


texts: ... moral conscience about those in the new cities

texts:
Does "a moral conscience about those in the new cities" mean:

To feel guilty about the workers in new cities
To make the workers in new cities feel guilty
To feel responsible about the workers in new cities
To make the workers in new cities feel responsible

Context:

There was an unresolved tension between a reverence for wild nature and the desire to colonise it. This led to a lyrical nostalgia for an untainted countryside and a revulsion at its increasing industrialisation, to the view
that rural people possessed a natural nobility and to a moral conscience
about those in the new cities whose labours were necessary to keep the profitable new industries flourishing.

(Art and Science by Sian Ede)


texts: "Ask me anything" and "Ask anything to me"

texts:
There are some sentences I hear regularly:

  Ask me anything
  Ask anything to me.
  If you ask me whether he was right, I would tell you "No".
  If you ask me about whether he was right, ....
  If you ask to me whether he was right, I would tell you "No".
  If you ask to me about whether he was right, ...

So I hear the construction between ask + me + something but I like to know which sentences are  correct above?

And also could you please explain the grammatical rule of these sentences?

And more quick thing, I told my native english speaker friend this "Do you know whether Eric asked me today". And his reply was "I don't know what Eric asked you about." However I meant to ask whether Eric ever looked for me or not. Was my question wrong?


texts: Noun that means "something that contrasts favorably with the rest"?

texts:
For example, when you want to emphasize the contrast of a laid-back person living in a hectic city.
I figure we can say something like "His laid-back personality is a [word] against/to the bustle of the city." but I have yet to find the right word for it

I also want the word to have a positive meaning, so it doesn't simply contrast with the rest but does so favorably.

Update: I thought of a word that is very close to this: A breath of fresh air. So it would help if the words you suggest also have a similar connotation.


texts: What is the word for a person who does different jobs?

texts:
I'm asking about someone who's employed by a company and does different jobs (both a qualified and unqualified person). Who knows; maybe in English those two are two different words? What are they called in English?

All I know is a navvy but that usually means physical work.

Let me just try a few things here. These are just wild guesses, nothing more.

odd job man/worker
shiftman
(unskilled) labourer


texts: What's the term for the opposite of a "trick film" (animated or computer-generated film), i.e. a "real" film shot on a real location with real objects and people?


texts: Word that describes shortening of a single “string”

texts:
In programming, the word “concatenation” is often used for combining multiple individual strings into one. Is there a reverse of this? For dropping a piece of a string, or number?

For example, in some weather contexts, you’ll still see numbers like 1012.5, but it becomes 125. What is a word that means this “trim” of numbers/characters?


texts:
Is there a word like "nonversation"?

Do people use this word in daily life? Where can it be used?


texts: Word or phrase for when someone opens their arms wide proposing a hug

texts:
What's the correct way to refer to the action of one opening their arms wide to offer a hug?

I've been thinking about "hug request", "hug proposal" and "hug offer" but none of these seem quite correct.

Context: I believe I've misunderstood a person's physical expression, thinking it was more of a shrug than a (the word/phrase I'm looking for), and I'd like to apologize for that.


texts:
I'm writing a code of conduct for a small government department. It is going to be chock full of punchy, actionable phrases (no real complete sentences) that seek to convey an air of positivity.

Example:

  Maintain a positive attitude toward our work; foster this attitude department wide.

I feel that I understand what I am attempting to convey, but I am curious whether anyone else is reading this statement in the same way that I am. The department in question is having an issue with the negativity of a few individuals impacting the broader climate. My hope is to convey the idea that an individual's own attitude is part of a bigger picture—and not in a punitive way i.e., "Shape up or ship out."

My main quandary, then: do the verbs "maintain" and "foster" accomplish these goals of tone and meaning?

Positivity
A cause and effect relationship (individual attitude affecting everyone's work environment)
Clarity of meaning
Implying an action to be taken by the reader
Is a semicolon appropriate here?

Any alternative word choices, rewrites, or reorganizations are welcome.


texts:
Studies show a substantial profitability roll-off.

What does "roll-off" mean? Is it another word for "decrease"?


texts:
I'm currently writing the introduction of my Ph.D. thesis, which is about theoretical computer science. I stumbled upon the phrase

  To put it in a nutshell, X is a hot topic

where X refers to some topic, which is not important here.

I would like to use this phrase in myintroduction, but I'm not sure whether it is too colloquial. Does anyone has experience in this matter? Is there a more formal way of expressing something similar?

Thank you!


texts: Single word that combines the meaning of fascination and hate?

texts:
The story I am writing involves a character that is simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by the ways of a certain race. Is there a single word that can convey this feeling?

EDIT: It's not racism. I'm writing a pokemon fanfiction, and my character (a pokemon creature) feels disgust towards humans, due to their inability to function as one, among other things. I didn't think this would be an issue...


texts: Using pray instead of please in a sentence - Why? When?

texts:
I hear (mostly from people in the Humanities department) sentences that use pray instead of the word please:

"Pray tell me, when will you be back?"

Assuming that I haven't made any mistakes in the above, I find this formulation very beautiful, also respectful.

However, I am unaware of when to use such a formulation.

Am I correct to understand that pray can generally replace the word please in sentences similar to the one above?

Why, or in which situations is such a formulation favoured, or  disfavoured?

Has such a formulation become archaic now?

Many thanks.


texts: What does "as in" mean? and how do you use this?

texts:
I don't understand what 'as in' means or how to use it. For example"

  "savory  as in"Which do you prefer, sweet foods or savory foods?"

In this context, what does  "as in " mean  and where does it modify savory foods?


texts:
This passage is adapted from Saki, "The Schartz-Metterklume Method", originally published in 1911.

She wired a vague non-committal message to her destination to say that she was coming on "by another train." Before she had time to think what her next move might be she was confronted by an imposingly attired lady, who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.
"You must be Miss Hope, the governess I've come to meet," said the apparition, in a tone that admitted of very little argument.

This phrase perplexed me:

who seemed to be taking a prolonged mental inventory of her clothes and looks.

What does "prolonged mental inventory" mean?
I believe that mental inventory literally refers to places, names, information, memories, anything that is inside the mind. And taking means-- I can't say--maybe memorize or something?


texts: A question about the phrase "What it actually is"

texts:
I was writing something on Reddit, and I was casually checking my writing when I realized I had forced myself into a particularly strange situation.

I was making an argument where I first established a term of art, and then defined what that term of art did not mean as a way to establish what the term of art actually meant.

However, when I went to finish the argument, I got the phrase:

  "What X actually is is..."

where X is the subject.

Is this actually correct? Is the word "is" repeated after the phrase? The phrase

  "What X actually is..."

doesn't seem correct. It seems like it is missing a verb.

Related-to, but not answered-by, this question. (The answers provide a name, but contradict each other on whether the usage is grammatically-correct, which is the premise of my question.)


texts: Past participle after noun: "proposed cost" vs. "cost proposed"

texts:
I have the following two examples:

  Our proposed cost is expensive.
  Our cost proposed is expensive.

Is there any difference between them? Or is the second sentence wrong?


texts:
Example: I punched the man's nose, who cried in pain.

I just feel like it's refering to the nose instead of the man, even though the meaning is clear.


texts: Pronoun Dilemma - "The winners of the contest were Morgan and me / Morgan and I

texts: In the sentence 'The winners of the contest were Morgan and I', is 'I' or 'me' correct? I think it should be 'I', because 'Morgan and I were the winners of the contest.'


texts: Word for something that is very likely but not a fact

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe something that seems overwhelmingly likely to be true but that we aren't sure whether it is or not. For example "everyone will die". It seems very unlikely that there will ever be anyone who will never die since life is so fragile, but we don't know that with 100% certainty, so I would not feel well saying "The fact that  everyone will die someday concerns me". Alternatively if there is no word for it, how could I phrase it differetly?

I'm on my phone and the comment button doesn't work, but to answer the first comment at time of this edit: I have no proof that everyone will die. Only statistical evidence in favour of it. And I'd rather not use the word "certain" when there's a chance of it not happening, since people might interpret it wrong. I'd rather have a clearer and less ambiguous wording.


texts:
Many non-native English speakers, especially from Asia, often say "There is no electricity at home".

But seem that the native English speakers will say "There is no power at home".

so, When to use "electricity" and when to use "power"?


texts: "A person who not only consumes" or "a person who doesn't only consume"? which one is right?

texts:
I don't know if the question I am going to ask sounds stupid to some of you. I just looked up for the difference between a vegetarian and a vegan. And I was about to write the definition of "vegan" in my own words but I think there is something I need to ask before I finally write it. Let's just read my own definition of the word "vegan" first and then I'll move on elaborating a little more on my question.

Vegan A person who not only consumes meat, fish and poultry items but also other animal products like milk, egg, yogurt, cheese, etc.

Now normally when we are using Present Indefinite Tense, we use "don't" and "doesn't" to make a negative statement. But what in this particular case? Is it okay to use "not only" or "doesn't only" in this particular case?

A person who not only consumes meat, fish and poultry....

or

A person who doesn't only consume meat, fish and poultry...

The first one sounds natural to me but looks grammatically incorrect.
The second one looks grammatically correct but doesn't sound natural to me.

I am not a native speaker, so I have no idea which one of them should be picked. Kindly guide me in this regard.

Regards,

Aamir the Global Citizen


texts: Past perfect/simple past in reported speech

texts:
Sentences:

We told her that we had given her the money that had been saved from her husband's business. It was a pious fraud; she would have been distressed had she known we had collected it among ourselves.

We told her that we had given her the money that was saved from her husband's business. It was a pious fraud; she would have been distressed had she known we had collected it among ourselves.

Question:
The sequence of events is as follows:

The money in question was saved from her husband's business.
We gave her that money.
We told her about it.

Do the bolded tenses work in sentences #1 and #2 given the sequence of events? Thanks.


texts: Using an en dash to separate a page and line range

texts:
When writing a range of pages and line numbers, would I use an en dash to separate the range, or is it more appropriate to use "through" in this situation?
Refer to page 12, line 3–page 13, line 15.
Refer to page 12, line 3, through page 13, line 15.


texts: Why king and queen rather than king and kingess?

texts:
Dukes have duchesses, counts countesses, princes princesses, mayors mayoresses, and even emperors empresses. Yet kings have queens rather than say, kingesses. Why is this so? If this was due to some historical quirk of fate, was there ever a word similar to kingess which was superseded by queen?

How about lords, ladies, and ... lordesses?


texts:
What is 'that' in 'is that you?'

The options given are:

adverb
adjective
noun
none

I'm pretty sure adverb is not the answer but I'm confused whether it's 'adjective' or 'noun'. It is referring to 'YOU' but not used in the form 'that shop', so perhaps it's noun?


texts: What is the opposite to being "consumed"?

texts:
What is the opposite to being "consumed" in a sense of being soon to be "consumed" but not yet happened to be. Or, to put it in a different way, is there a nicer way (synonym?) to say "unconsumed"?

Background & context:
The subject of "consumption" here is a character (a symbol/letter from a long line of text).

I am working on a parser, so for each given rule the outcome of feeding a character to the parser can be either consumed (we can move on to the next character) or unconsumed meaning we should try to apply another rule if any, for either outcome there must be a type that represents it, the type needs a name, hence the question, I know I can go with unconsumed but it sounds a bit awkward.


texts: What is the difference in using 'rises' and 'rising'?

texts:
I get stuck about using a vert after an object. More specifically, can I use 'rises' instead of 'rising' in the following sentence:
"There are 130 of them altogether, each one 'rising' between 20 and 25 meters from the ground to support a frame of iron bars on which the roof originally rested". If it's accepted, please anyone can help me explain the difference when using it. And what are the contexts we should use the verb + ing like about sentences? Thanks in advance.


texts: Is there a word for the totality of existence?

texts: "Universe" doesn't mean everything in existence, because there might be multiple. "Multiverse" doesn't either, because different dimensions could have different multiverses. Is there a word that describes the totality of literally everything that exists?


texts: What is the emotion for being glad of someone getting their just deserts

texts:
Is there a word for the feeling of satisfaction when someone 'bad' gets punished? For example, when watching a movie and seeing the villain finally get defeated, the audience feels a sense of... what?

I thought I've heard of this word before but I can't find anything. Schadenfreude is a bit off and doesn't cover the "good, that guy finally got what he deserved" feeling (there's also a sense of moral superiority involved, I suppose?). I also found vindictive, but that doesn't convey the sense of satisfaction.


texts: Word for the inability to explain something to someone due to their complete lack of understanding

texts:
Is there a word for the situation one is in when, for example, trying to explain something or provide a rebuttal to someone who attempts to make a point about a topic they know nothing about?

This is probably best described by an example:

  Object Oriented Programming allows the data objects to just be moved to another platform to be tested on.

Object oriented programming, for example, just doesn't work like that. There is no adequate response to such a statement - the statement itself is nonsense, though the word "nonsense" seems too broad since the statement tries to make a point and has a structure.

It's a point confidently made by someone with a clear lack of any understanding of the topic at hand.

It's not wrong in the sense that it's a misunderstanding. It's incoherent and more equivalent to comparing apples to oranges. It just doesn't make any sense in the first place.

Is there a word for such statements? I find myself trying to explain this sensation of being unable to respond in such instances to no avail, simply because there is no word for such a thing.


texts: Idiom meaning 'a shambles' sounds like /pass potch/?

texts: I'm looking for an idiom that means 'a shambles' or 'a whole mess of various things', and any other reverse definitions of 'a whole mess of various things'.  Perhaps "a mare's nest", which I've gathered from google:'shambles', is one of them?


texts:
My understanding of the whipsaw term is that can, according to Wiktionary, be used rhetorically as in these examples:

verb (transitive) To defeat someone in two different ways at once.
2014 November 1, Peter Baker & Michael D. Shear, “Braced for a shift
in Congress, Obama is setting a new agenda [print version: Obama plots
a route for compromise after election, International New York Times, 3
November 2014, p. 1]”, in The New York Times1:
Whipsawed by events and facing another midterm electoral defeat,
President Obama has directed his team to forge a policy agenda to
regain momentum for his final two years in office even as some
advisers urge that he rethink the way he governs.

So that, informally, an argument might be classified as a "whipsaw" using the above definition.
Is this correct understanding?
As events can cause whipsaw action might not rhetoric similarly cause a whipsaw as defined above?

(None of the linked articles are exactly on-point, those are just along the lines of the unusual usage.)


texts:
In "A Song of Ice And Fire: A Game of Thrones," it says :

  "Stories wait, my little lord, and when you come back to them, why,
  there they are."

I don't really understand the meaning of 'why' in this sentence.


texts: What are some slang words for "police" in countries besides the US?

texts:
In the US we have a number of slang terms that are commonly used to refer to the police:

cops
pigs
five-O
fuzz
buzzkill (referring to their presence messing up the enjoyment of drugs)

I am curious as to what they are called in other countries (or more terms used in the US).
Etymology greatly appreciated


texts: Is there a term for two or more words within a word?

texts:
As the title says, I was wondering if there was a term for two or more words within a word, for example:

'Beyond' is 'yo' enclosed in 'bend'.


texts: What does "they" refer to in this sentence?

texts:
I don't understand the pronoun "they" and the subject of "are" in the following sentence.

Silver prices yesterday jumped 13% to an eight-year high after some online investors suggested dumping money into silver would hurt big banks they believe are artificially suppressing prices.

Can I interpret "big banks ~" to the following?
big banks (that) online investors believe (that) bankers are artificially suppressing prices.


texts: Punctuation of two complete quotations introduced by a colon and separated by coordinating conjunction

texts:
How would I punctuate between the two quoted sentences when they are introduced by a colon and separated by a coordinating conjunction?  Here is the example sentence:
The advertisement shall include the following statements: "These items are not available for individual sale" and "This item will be available in all the colors after September 30, 2020."
Should there be a semicolon after the first quotation and before "and"?


texts:
I am finalising my personal statement for applying to uni, and I have this sentence:

  I enjoy following geopolitical issues in the news as these issues have
  a significant impact on our livelihoods, and I firmly believe that
  being ‘in the know’ is one of the key aspects of being a Geographer.

I cannot decide whether I should capitalize 'Geographer' or not.

Should I be using 'Geographer' or 'geographer'?


texts: Using these or those to refer to a previous sentence

texts:
In the question
What's the difference between "these" and "those"? it's said that the choice between "those" or "these" is distance (physical or perceived) from the object. But, which one would I use to refer to the subject of a previous sentence, as in the following example:

  As discussed previously, there may be apples that emit light of longer wavelength. Those red apples can’t be used in grandma's apple pie, as the recipe specifically demands green apples.


texts: What is the etymology of the word "howwa", meaning "that thing"?

texts:
In the North-East of England, where I live, the word "howwa" is used to mean "that thing".

It is pronounced like "shower" and could be used in the following contexts:

  Can't you get it to work?  Pass the howwa here.

or

  I was trying to find the pub but it was an hour before I found the howwa!

or even about a person:

  He's the howwa who sold me the car.

Although I hear it regularly, I have no idea where it comes from.  Any ideas?


texts: How to make that elegant and succinct: "Live for the moments that make life worth living"

texts:
My friend wants to get a tattoo in English. He's very specific about what he wants it to express, but for both of us English is a foreign language and we're not quite sure how to say that using a short but aesthetic phrase. The closest I can get as far as the meaning is concerned is this:

  Live for the moments that make life worth living

but that's too long and I guess not very elegant. Is there a good succinct way to express something like that in English?


texts: A phrase to describe when a person is faced with 'a tough decision'?

texts:
I am translating a novel, and have reached a point where I am in doubt of how to translate it.
The main character stands in a situation, where she has to make a tough decision. Which phrases could be used in English to express this? If, rather than a figure of speech, it could be a physical action, that would be preferred, but anything will do.


texts: I can run faster than _____. (1) him (2) he?

texts:
Consider the sentence "I can run faster than 15 miles per hour." Its meaning is clear and to my eyes obviously grammatically correct. Now let me present some variations that have given me trouble for a long time.

I am faster than 15 miles per hour. – To me this is clearly incorrect. Directly comparing me to a speed doesn't seem right. We need to compare my speed to a speed, or me to another person.

I can run faster than him. – Compared to the base sentence, there is a distinct shift in meaning of the comparison. While before I named a speed faster than which I can run, now I am naming a person. It doesn't seem quite right. I realize the parts of speech can change, but my initial objection is that "him" is not a speed.

I can run faster than he. – This seems most correct to me, but still somehow feels objectionable. Is this in fact the correct way to say it? And if so, is it proper as is or need I say "... faster than he can" or even "... faster than he can run?"

I am faster than him. – With "am" instead of "can run" it now seems slightly more correct. But is it?

I am faster than he. – I'm in doubt here. It doesn't seem wrong to me to say, "I am faster than he is" or even "I am faster than he is fast." (Though I suppose that is a given since I could hardly properly compare to some other category as in "I am faster than he is smart.")

My speed is faster than his. – Hmm. This seems more proper as "my speed is greater than his."

So which of these constructions is correct and which is incorrect? Is there a general rule that I can follow?
UPDATE
The scholarly article Syntactic isomorphism and non-isomorphism under ellipsis may be of great interest to some readers!

Once we accept that the elided constituent and its antecedent can differ in form, it becomes reasonable to ask how large this difference can be. The answer in Rooth (1992), Fiengo and May (1994), Chung et al. (1995) and subsequent work is that the wiggle room is actually quite small: the elided constituent and its antecedent are allowed to differ only in the realization of inﬂectional morphology. Other than that, both constituents have to be syntactically and lexically isomorphic.


texts: What do you call the phenomenon in English in which your twitter or blog is inundated with comments against your post?

texts:
Sometime you are attacked with a barrel of criticism and oppositions by the third party internet users on your post almost to the extent your computer being crashed.
We call this phenomenon “炎上,” meaning “flame up” in Japanese.

I checked how it is described in English on google, and found three local language specialist sources (juken.oicon.co.jp / cancam jp / eikaiwa.dmm.com) gave the same verbatim translation of the Japanese words, “flame /flaming / flame up” and some examples:

Did you hear that the actress got her blog flaming again! – cancam jp
He got flamed for making a racist comment on his blog. –eikaiwa.dmm.com

I’m not yet  convinced. Are “flame /flaming / flame up” really a proper and received English word or phrase to express rush of attacks and criticism on blogs and twitter from your objectors ? What else, if you have?

-


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “have basically been doing something” or “have been basically doing something”

  I'm searching basically for conversation classes"

or

  I'm basically searching for conversation classes

The second one sounds better to me, but is the first one actually wrong or are they both possible? If they are, why? Is "basically" considered as an adverb of manner? Is there some sort of rule on the position of this adverb?


texts:
What is a good synonym for "sememe" that sounds less like academia jargon?
We're using this term to mean, a "unit of meaning" that a UI element of an iOS app should try to communicate.
For example, when the border of a text field is red, and when there is a red (!) symbol next to it, then the color and icon are trying to communicate that there is an error associated with that text field. Thus "error" is a sememe that the UI is trying to communicate.
This doesn't mean "error" is the only sememe being communicated however. In addition, the lack of a blinking insertion point inside the field communicates the field is inactive. Hence, "inactive" is another sememe being communicated by some aspect of the visual appearance of the UI.
We call the cumulative set of all sememes being communicated by some component made up of UI subcomponents (like border, icon, text field, etc.), the "semantic context" of that component. I.e., a set of "sememes" define the "semantic context".
However some of our developers have argued we should not use the term, "sememe", because they say it's an unfamiliar term. Admittedly, unless you have a background in linguistics or semiotics, you're very unlikely to know this word.
So we've begun a bit of a quest to find a synonym of "sememe" that also means "unit of meaning." Please help, thanks.
Suggestions that have already been ruled out:
- "token"
So far the only suggestion that's been made has been "token", however I don't feel "token" is really a synonym of "sememe."
"Token" typically refers to the actual thing that a sememe is associated with. For example the icon (!), is a token, but tokens don't inherently have any meaning, as meaning tends to be imbued to a token differently depending on the culture.
We track meaning separately from tokens in case we need to use a different token depending on the language and region of the user. The process of "localization" in iOS software means, translating tokens in such a way that they can accurately communicate your intended message for the user based on their locale preferences.
In linguistics terms, "token" is a synonym of "morpheme," not of "sememe." Right?
- "definition"
Someone might say, "definition," however, I would typically say that a "sememe" has a definition, not that it is a definition. All of the current sememes in our codebase are represented as single words, for which we provide strict definitions in documentation comments.


texts:
I was confused about which of the following 2 sentences are valid, does anyone know which is proper?

We have a special machine, like no other.

We have a special machine, unlike no other.


texts: What is the word for nouns with gender-specific forms?

texts:
Thought I would try a question with visual aid.*

The image below shows Claire Danes, "Actor", in a kiosk poster for the Met.  The variation in usage between actor and actress for female thespians is ably handled here: Female Actor or Actress

My question is: more generally, what is the term for nouns that have gender-specific forms (master / mistress, emperor / empress, bachelor / bachelorette, hero / heroine) and those that don't (swimmer, dancer, announcer, etc.)?

[Separately, it would be interesting to see any cross-language / cross-region statistics on prevalence or frequency of gender-variant noun forms.]

* Victor Mair on Language Log has been illustrating contemporary Chinese usage brilliantly with photos from real life ( http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?author=13 ), so I thought I would try it out here on English Usage.  If you like experiments, let me know how you like this one...


texts: What's the difference between have/has been and was?

texts:
English is my second language and I have always been confused with 'have been/has been' and the idea that it could be replaced with 'was' in some contexts.

For instance, this is a part of an urgent email about a bomb threat:

  An unconfirmed bomb threat has been received. The halls are being evacuated. More info to follow.

My doubt is: why couldn't it be 'was received' and what that would change?

Another example:

  The thumbnails base has been updated.

Many times, I see 'have/has been' in something that could be 'was' from my understanding.

This is a question I have been asking myself for a long time.

I would appreciate if someone could help me.

Thank you!


texts: Idiomatic expression for "absorbed in prayer"

texts:
I'm trying to convey an Italian expression  the best I can in English which roughly goes absorbed in prayer  but I guess it really sounds odd.

Can anyone suggest anything better?

Thank you.


texts: Is 'add insult to injury' a harsh expression?

texts:
I work at a hotel. I sent a cheaper booking quote to a lady and she paid the amount specified.

Afterwards, upon contacting her, she refused to pay the original correct amount and demanded a stay. To add insult to injury, she has cancer and needd to stay in a bigger room.

Is this a harsh idiomatic expression?

English is my second language and my boss is a native Australian (he's living here in Brazil), I suppose by explaining this to him in this way might look very harsh.


texts: I had breakfast before I do exercise? Correct to say?

texts:
Is this sentence correct?
If not...
I guess 'did' instead of 'do' will  be the better choice, but I just wonder if that sentence above can be used in the following situation.

It's 8 a.m right now. I haven't started doing exercise yet and  am about to do exercise in 10 min.  I had breakfast 30 minutes ago.

In that case, I don't think I can use the past tense 'did' cause I am not done any exercise yet .
Can you help me with the sentence? Thank you so much in advance..


texts: A conversation between 2 persons in two different languages

texts:
If you've seen the first Star Wars trilogy (meaning Episodes 4 - 6), in the original Star Wars movie, Han Solo is in the cantina talking with Greedo (and yes, darnit, Han shot first! no shame in that, Greedo posed a mortal danger to him).  But each is speaking in his own language, Han in English (Empirish?) and Greedo in his native language.  Yet the conversation proceeded normally -- for a little while, at least.

I have a personal experience with this phenomenon, having once been in the US Army in the Netherlands attending a NATO class on how to maintain a particular kind of microwave radio, and for the lab portion of the class I was paired with a German soldier. It happened that we were both bilingual in English and German, and so rather than both of us using one or the other language, I proposed that we speak our native languages, and see how that would work -- both of us understood each other's language better than we spoke it.  So we did and it worked out really well.  I imagine that it sounded darned funny to some of the other US soldiers in the room who overheard our conversation (the class was taught in English, so non-US and -Brit soldiers had to have English as an additional language to attend).

Designating one's native language as A, and a second language as B, is there a word for this kind of conversation where the two participants speak their own language A while understanding in their language B?


texts: Do you capitalize (A/a)mazon the company?

texts: "amazon" starts with a lower case letter, but usually when I see the name of a company mentioned, it starts with a capital letter like "Google," so do I capitalize it or not?


texts:
From Bruce Hayes' Introductory Phonology, I am presented with the following phonological rule called tapping:

/t/ -> [ɾ] / [+vowel] ___ [+vowel -stress]

That is, /t/ has an allophonic realization as [ɾ] (Alveolar tap) when followed by a vowel and preceded by a stressless vowel. If this is correct, then a word like city should be pronounced as /'sɪɾi/ rather than /'sɪti/.

Would failing to realize /t/ as [ɾ] in such environments sound wrong to a speaker of General American? And secondly, are there any dialects of English where tapping is known not to occur?


texts: Is this phrase correct? "I see this program as a cornerstone in my process to become an excellent software engineer"

texts:
English is not my native language and somehow this phrase doesn't feel right. What do you guys think?

  I see this program as a cornerstone in my process to become an excellent software engineer.


texts: I don't understand this meme. What does "boi" mean in this context?


texts: Do we say "… is greater or equal to…" or "… is greater or equal than…"?

texts:
We do say "… is equal to…", but we say "… is greater than…".

What happens when we mix those? What should we say:

"… is greater or equal to…" (297,000,000 hits on Google), or
"… is greater or equal than…" (286,000,000 hits)?

… or maybe even "… is equal or greater than…"?


texts: How multiple quantifiers in a sentence are interpreted

texts:
Someone sleeps everyday.

Does this mean that there is someone who sleeps everyday or that everyday someone sleeps?


texts: "You could never tell me the odds" as an idiom of improbability

texts:
I'm currently writing a small essay for my English class and I'd like to know if this sentence would work as an idiom of improbability

  You could never tell me the odds when I noticed that this small coffee shop had a "Now Hiring" sign just outside their window.

I'm trying to find an idiom to express the astonishment I had when I realised a very improbable event. (For context I was looking for a job, I went in a small coffee shop to look for offers on my phone when I realised that said coffee shop was currently hiring, and subsequently got hired.)

I tried to look up if "never tell me the odds" was a common saying, but it doesn't seem like anyone outside of the Star Wars and Reddit universe uses it regularly.


texts: A phrase to describe on someone who foolishly convinces you he’s intelligent?

texts:
A person came to another holding an apple in his hand, and reaching it to the person facing him. “I know what’s on your mind, because using the method of Psychology I made you think ‘why you are giving an apple to me?’”confidently flattered himself, the guy thought he impressed someone for another day.

Any good phrase to ridicule such person?


texts: What does “Somebody just can’t bake the cake,” mean? Is it a popular phrase?

texts:
I found the phrase “I don’t care how you cut it, the brother just can’t bake the cake,” in the Maureen Dowd’s article in New York Times (December 10), titled “Fire and Ice,” that compares the character of GOP Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich and President Obama.

In this article, there was the following line referring to the skirmish between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in the recent presidential debate:

  “Nutty Newt is dancing a fandango on Mitt Romney’s head even though not a single hair has gone askew. As Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chief eloquently summed up the Romney free fall on MSNBC, “I don’t care how you cut it; the brother just can’t bake the cake.”

I don’t understand what this ending line means. I guess Steele said “It’s up to Romney how to respond to Newt’ charge (or cook Newt) in the debate, but he didn’t know how to finish Newt off,” but I’m not sure.

What does “I don’t care how you cut it, the brother just can’t bake the cake,” exactly mean? Is “(Somebody) bake the cake” an idiom or a popular set of words?


texts:
I received some promotional email this morning.  It began:

Hi customer, It's Bernard Martin here.  Wouldn't you love to be able to..."

I thought the standard opening was "This is Bernard Martin."

I understand the "it" is a dummy subject but to me it seems weird to refer to a person as "it."

Are things changing?  Is "It's X, here." becoming acceptable or has it always been acceptable and in wide-spread use, and I just never leave my cave?


texts:
In this article, I don't quite understand the following sentence:

  Instead of bothering to sort out that little difficulty, let's see why it is in fact enough to let B be the set of all bilinear functions to R, otherwise known as bilinear forms.

I looked up into the dictionary, but none of the entries can resolve my confusion:

  What does "otherwise" mean in this context?


texts:
When using the construction "all of us" as a subject in a sentence, the pronoun stays an object pronoun, as such:

  All of us are in the same boat.

The alternate construction just sounds weird (to my ears, at least), even though it "follows" the subject-verb agreement:

  All of we are in the same boat.

and in order to make sense, would have to be rephrased like this:

  We are all in the same boat.

Why is this? I know "all of us" is the correct version of the two above, but everything people say about subject-verb agreement would seem to imply otherwise.


texts: Simple sentence that I'm not sure is right

texts:
I just want to know if this sentence is right:

"It contributed to the decision of start respecting people"

If it's not. How can I fix it? I've no idea if I should use contributed for or start to instead.

Thanks a lot!


texts: "This helps us how?" vs. "How does this help us?"

texts:
In the sci-fi movie Inception by Christopher Nolan, in the first level of dreaming, they kidnap Cilian Murphy and Tom Hardy tries to get some information from him, by impersonating Browning, his uncle.

Then they sedate him in a car. Tom Hardy removes the bag from his head, gets down from the car, and says to Di Caprio's character:

  That boy's relationship with his father is even worse than we imagined.

To which Joseph Gordon Levitt's character replies,

  This helps us how?

Is this a correct sentence? Why didn't he say

  How does this help us?


texts:
I found the phrase "walk the walk" in President Obama's remark on budget cuts in the Washington Post's Today's Quote (Feb. 15). As I was unfamiliar with this phrase, I checked an online dictionary (www.phrase.org), that told me walk the walk means a lot of things are easier to talk about than to do, and is almost always said in combination with talk the talk (for example, if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk).

However, President used walk the walk alone, not accompanied by talk the talk.

Is www.phrase.org’s walk the walk definition that the phrase is almost always accompanied by talk the talk wrong?
How can I interpret walk the walk in the specific context of the following President Obama’s remark? And what is the origin of walk the walk? Is this a well-worn idiom?

  It would mean cutting things that I care deeply about. But if we're going to walk the walk when it comes to fiscal discipline, these kinds of cuts will be necessary.


texts: What is the difference between "suffer for" and "suffer from"?

texts: I have a question about "I've suffered for my sins." why is used "suffered for", not "suffered from"?


texts: What is the proper name for the corkscrew at the top of a soda bottle?

texts:
At the top of a bottle of pop, there is a corkscrew pattern into which the plastic cap is twisted, tightened and sealed.

What is the name of this feature of the bottle?


texts: What is the term for representing whole numbers with integers instead of English words?

texts: For example, "I am giving you the ___ form". Where I am using numeric characters e.g., 1 instead of one. I don't think canonical exactly fits here because the English version is seems to be unique as well.


texts:
I'm wondering if the following sentence is correct?

  Please let me know your thoughts on these issues, I welcome your feedback.


texts:
I have just heard Australian-English actor Rob Inglis repeatedly pronounce the word "door" so that it rhymes with "poor".

In what dialect is that pronunciation found? Is it Australian?

Edit - clarification

My "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary" gives the pronunciation [dɔ:(r)] for "door" and [pʊǝ(r)] for "poor"

Mr Inglis' pronunciation is [dʊǝ], not [dɔ:].


texts: "What score are we playing until?" or how to ask it?

texts:
Every day Jack and Ted have about 5–15 minutes to go outside and play table tennis in the afternoon. As their free time varies each time (sometimes it's 5 minutes, sometimes 10, sometimes 15), they always agree before the game about how long their game is going to be. Though it's the time that is really limiting them, they still prefer to take their scoring in the game as their limiting factor (it's not a big problem for them if they finish one or two minutes before or after their free time is over). So, each time before the game Jack usually asks Ted,

"What score are we playing until?"
"Until what score are we playing?"
"What score are we playing till?"
"Till what score are we playing?"
"What score will we play until?"
"Until what score will we play?"
"What score will we play till?"
"Till what score will we play?"
or... What question would you ask in this situation?


texts: What is the difference between "into" and "in" when cutting something

texts: How can I explain the logical meaning of the difference between into and in when cutting something.  For example, 'Cut the peach into 3 pieces' vs 'Cut the peach in half'  Thank you!


texts: Orchestral sheet music is called a 'score'. Is there an equivalent for sheet music for solo piano?

texts:
Let's say someone has a box full of sheet music for solo piano to give away, and they invite you to rummage through it and take what you like. if you wanted to let them know how many pieces you took, how would you express that? "I took 25 pieces" doesn't quite hit the mark, since 'piece' in music is, I think, subtly more equivalent to 'opus' than to printed music.

'Manuscript' isn't right, since that refers to an original, not one of several reprinted copies.

If I were rummaging through a box of orchestral music I could say, "I look 25 scores," and the person would know exactly what I meant.

Is there a better word than 'piece' here?


texts: How often "fat" is used as an abbreviation for fat cattle?

texts:
I'm interested to know how often (if at all) "fat" is used as a shortening for Fat Cattle.
I think I've found one source that suggests this kind of usage:

At fat auctions in the north, though, prices were higher.
Slaughter steers and heifers sold fully $1 higher at Sioux Falls
Regional in South Dakota: $115.35/cwt. for Ch 2-3 steers at an average
of 1,400 lbs.
At the fat auction in Tama, Iowa Ch 2-4 steers sold $3.50-$4.00 higher
at $118.50 and an average weight of 1,338 lbs. Choice heifers sold $3
higher.
source

It would also be nice to know if such usage can be found both in American and British English.


texts:
Considering:

  I am angry with him.
  I hate him.

Is the second just a stronger feeling than the first?

I am tempted to say "no"—one may hate another because he is jealous of him (or whatever). If the second has other connotations other than being a stronger version of the first, is there a word that would convey "anger" and "hatred" combined?