texts: What's the "textbook" way to write a passive sentence with a phrasal verb?

texts:
So, I understand that the prohibition against ending a sentence with a preposition was only ever a myth, and isn't a rule we need to follow.

Still, it was a rule I was taught in school, so presumably people who follow this rule have some way of dealing with it.

But I cannot imagine how to rewrite a sentence like,

  If you do that, you might get yelled at.

Because

  If you do that, at you might get yelled.

is nonsensical ("at you" isn't a noun, so can't "get" anything).

Can it be done?


texts: "10 lines LESS than the screen height" or "10 lines FEWER than the screen height"

texts:
When we measure the screen height by number of lines, should we say

  10 lines less than the screen height

or

  10 lines fewer than the screen height

?

The second sentence seems correct for me, but the first reads better.

I'm  specially ask about the usage of "less" and "fewer" in this context, not in a general context.


texts: "What they are is x" — is singular "is" correct, and why?

texts:
Is the following sentence correct?

  Such splendid isolation is the privilege of the giants of a discipline, and giants in the world of scholarship is definitely what the authors of this volume are.

I found it disconcerting, but I do not feel confident evaluating its correctness. The question is particularly interesting because it appears in the description of a book related to linguistics! http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-North-American-English-Phonetics/dp/3110167468/

There seem to be a number of issues here. The clause "what the authors of this volume are" rather than a simpler noun phrase, the atypical arrangement of the sentence for emphasis (as in "The winner is you." instead of "You are the winner."), etc.

The above issues make it far trickier than "The authors of this volume are definitely giants in their discipline."

PS - In addition to the question itself, please feel free to correct/edit any of the terms I describe clumsily (the title, the parenthetical statement in the first paragraph, etc).


texts: "An Universal Etymological English Dictionary". Why "An Universal"?

texts:
My question is not about the general usage of a/an, so, I believe, it is not a duplicate one.  It is specifically about the title of the dictionary An Universal Etymological English Dictionary compiled by Nathan Bailey.

Nathan Biley's dictionary is said to be first published in London in 1721. The etymology of the word universal (as per the etymonline.com) shows that the word has been in use centuries before the publication of the dictionary.

Now, the questions are:

  Why is an used before the word universal /juːnɪˈvəːs(ə)l/ which begins with a consonant sound?
  Has the word universal ever been pronounced with an initial vowel sound as /uːnɪˈvəːs(ə)l/?


texts: Passive form of "Dogs like to chase Cats"

texts:
I am unable to find the solution.  A friend asked me this question
What will be the passive of the sentence?
    "Dogs like to chase Cats"


texts:
Is the correct to say

  A pack of wolves run through the woods

or is the correct English

  A pack of wolves runs through the woods

The former sounds right. However, I think the subject is a pack and of wolves adds a description to the subject. In this case the subject is singular, so therefore the verb must be singular.

Am I correct? It just doesn't feel right.


texts: Why isn't any punctuation required here?

texts:
Cities like Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. all owe a debt to
  Haussmann.

This line is from a passage in Khan Academy SAT Practice. Why don't we need any punctuation between 'D.C.' and 'all'?


texts: Why Nationalism and Patriotism seem like it swap meaning?

texts:
When I try to distinguish these two words I found many people link something like intolerance and illogical with Nationalism while Patriotism seem more progressive. But from etymology the word Patriot felt more militaristic and require obedient than Nation
What happen to these words and why we have these mismatch meaning?


texts: In "Some statement. This!", what does the "This!" mean?

texts:
I have seen a expression or phrase of the following form:

Some statement. This!

The "This!" seems to be something like an acknowledgement.

Is there a more verbose explanation or translation of it?


texts: When did "consumption" become "tuberculosis"?

texts:
Tuberculosis was commonly called "consumption" for many years. When did "tuberculosis" or "TB" overtake "consumption" as the common term, in English, for the disease?

This Ngram isn't much use; it compares the use of the terms "consumption" and "tuberculosis" in American English from 1800 to 2000. Of course the problem is that "consumption" means many other things. The Ngram does show "tuberculosis" peaking between 1900 and 1920, but what I am interested in is roughly when a typical English speaker might have shifted from referring to the disease as "consumption," to "tuberculosis."

The dictionaries to which I have access simply state that "consumption" is an archaic term for the disease.


texts: What kind of connotation does "make the most of it" have?

texts:
I am recieving a small scholarship for university, and I have been asked to write a couple sentences (presumably for the founders of the scholarship to see) describing what this scholarship means to me. I would like my last sentence to end with something like

  "...and I will make the most out of it."

I am afraid that this might sound like "this is a small amount of money, but I will do with it what I can."

Is my fear founded?


texts:
I was interested in the following sentence which appeared in a news article titled “SCIENCE WATCH; PROGRESS IN AIDS DISPUTE” in The New York Times (March 10, 1987).

  Dr. Robert Gallo at the cancer institute later isolated the same virus and asserts that his laboratory first demonstrated unequivocably the role of the virus in causing AIDS.

After searching on Oxford Dictionaries, I have found no item for "unequivocably", but I got a lot of hits (139.000) from Google; so I am wondering if "unequivocably" is in common usage nowadays.

Can someone clarify this question? Or is "unequivocably" a common error?


texts:
If I am instructing someone to make a number negative, is there a verb I can use?

Negitivise? Negify?
Negate, for me, does not work as this is to cancel out, rather than turn a number into the negative equivalent.


texts: Does anyone know what "in which" means in this sentence?

texts:
The context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyNYkQvqK48&feature=youtu.be&t=11m42s

The sentence: "The door only seemed to be open during fire drills in which just about every door in the buildings opens. "

I think the "in which" means "where", can someone tell me if that's correct?


texts: Does the word "that" refer to "features" or "windows 9x"?

texts: Microsoft built a number of features into Windows 9x  that allow previous users of DOS and Windows 3.x  to capitalize on their investment and that allow technicians access to DOS-based troubleshooting.


texts: English equivalent to Dutch "Mopping while the tap is running"?

texts:
There is a great phrase in Dutch that translates roughly as "Mopping the floor while the tap is running".

I.e. working to fix a problem but having no impact and not even able to keep up.

Is there an English equivalent that conveys the same meaning?

I've found "Mopping while the tub overflows", but I've only found a single usage of that phrase. Is there a better one?

EDIT:

"Coals to Newcastle" et. al. suggest something that is pointless or even silly. While I agree there's some overlap, I feel the phrase "dweilen met de kraan open", suggests you are desperately trying to catch up with a problem.

Maybe something more along the lines of addressing the symptoms, not the cause?


texts:
This is a part from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

      There was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had sold it. But they went through this fiction every day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.
      “Eighty-five is a lucky number,” the old man said. “How would you like to see me bring one in that dressed out over a thousand pounds?”
      “I’ll get the cast net and go for sardines. Will you sit in the sun in the doorway?”

What does that dressed out exactly mean there?


texts: It's good to work and it's good that you work . What is the difference?

texts:
It's good to work and it's good that you work . What is the difference ?
I feel that the first one is more general but the second one might mean that the person already works and we praise that .


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

Thus, it was for freedom (legitimate moral and ceremonial freedom) that Christ set us free.

Definitions of "ceremonial":

1. relating to or used for formal events of a religious or public nature.
2. (of a position or role) involving only nominal authority or power.

From the book "Old Covenant, New Covenant: The Case Against Legalism" By Jesse Acuff

https://books.google.com/books?id=2zuHs1gkyEYC&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190&dq=%22ceremonial+freedom%22&source=bl&ots=_BBCyDPygC&sig=9KmObBczx874bENcuUFD-ntPDoA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NkfpVMTQD4HtggSqsYKwCQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22ceremonial%20freedom%22&f=false


texts: Confusion about when to use definite article when writing about "concepts"

texts:
Should the following sentences include a definite article?

(The) management of different implementations is realised using a factory design pattern.
There are two ways of measuring (the) availability: ...
(The) availability is an important attribute.

While I believe that the words used are mass nouns, and I cannot conceptualise a single instance of, e.g., availability, I feel like the context suggests a more specific usage.

In general, I therefore often struggle with the decision whether or not to use a definite article. Existing guidelines I've read don't seem to help. Any advice on the mentioned examples?


texts: "Death Panels" and "Job creators": Is there a word for these?

texts: Is there a word or expression that describes phrases like "Freedom fries" or "Death panels"? I'm thinking of phrases that seem intentionally designed to either re-frame a familiar concept or to be purposely evocative. The examples I can think of are mostly (US) political: "Job creators", "Death panels", "Death tax", "Freedom fries", etc.


texts: "... but not himself" or "... but not his"?

texts:
Hi there~ I'm not an English native-speaker.

I have a question while I'm writing an English composition.

"One should have confidence in himself, otherwise, he will boost the confidence of others but not himself."

I want to express the meaning that if one don't believe in himself, he will boost other people's confidence, and he will lost confidence. (Actually the weird sentence is translated from Chinese.)

My friend said, it should be

"One should have confidence in himself, otherwise, he will boost the confidence of others but not his."

What's the correct way to express?

Thanks!!


texts: Which of the phrases is correct and why? "This document assumes a general familiarity with ..." or "This document assumes general familiarity with ..." Google search gives me approximately equal distribution of occurrences, so I don't know which one is better. Would greatly appreciate your assistance.


texts: Meaning of “laughing string” in a Yeats poem

texts:
Does anyone know the meaning of ‘laughing string’ in these lines by Yeats?

  Bred to a harder thing
  Than Triumph, turn away
  And like a laughing string
  Whereon mad fingers play
  Amid a place of stone,

The lines are from “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing”


texts: What do you call a heterosexual who wonders what it would be like to have a relationship with a gay person?

texts:
In "Perfect Zen" by E. A. St. Amant it is written:

  “You're a breeder voyeur,” Paulo remarked. “She loves the explicit gay
  porno stuff, like at the Barn.”

I found that a breeder voyeur is  'A heterosexual person who attends a gay bar or event in order to observe gay life', so, I'm wondering what do you call a heterosexual who, not only observes gay life, but wonders what it would be like to live and to have a relationship with a gay person.

The first word that come to my mind is curious, but it seems too general and I'm looking for a word that fits more precisely that meaning.


texts: Insightful information, which is known to main users is called

texts:
I am looking for the word / terminology to describe “Insightful information, which is known to main users of the system“
I want to use better terminology. Any suggestions? Thanks


texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  John desires the audience to agree with the value-judgments in his statements.

I wanted to be able to change it to a passive form:

  These statements convey value-judgments which the audience is desired to agree with.

That's quite close to what I was trying to say, but I don't think that's proper English.

Another attempt I had was to write audience is expected to agree with. This kind of implies that someone wants the audience to agree with these statements, but someone can expect an audience to agree with statements without wanting them to agree to statements. I suppose that I could restructure the sentence, but I'd much rather a word or phrase that didn't require this.


texts:
Could anyone explain the differences between "thru" and "through"?
Is the difference only in spelling?
Is "thru" some sort of slang?


texts:
Which is the correct usage?
Example:

I was surprised that she participated at the performance held at LA.
I was surprised that she participated in the performance held at LA.


texts: Should I use the word "degree" or the symbol ° for expressing angles in a scientific text?

texts:
I hope this is the correct StackExchange to ask a question like this.

For a scientific text (in computer science), which is the correct way of expressing angles (e.g. the yaw, pitch and roll angle of an airplane or any 3D model) - Should I use the word "degree" or the symbol "°" (^\circ in latex)?

Also, would I use "degree" or "degrees" (plural)?

Example sentences would be:

The yaw angle ranges from -60 degree to +60 degree.
We show experimental results for the images with 10 and 20 degree pitch angle.
X works well for angles smaller than 10 degrees roll angle.


texts:
What is the best way to phrase and punctuate this type of "this = that" sentence?

No noise was detected, indicating that the room was empty.

No noise was detected, which indicated that the room was empty.

Thanks,
EM


texts:
Can you tell me meaning of this:

"They are so used to me that they know my schedule."

Which means that they know him or something else?


texts: Where to put the fast in and use fast or quick?

texts:
In my cover letter I have the following sentence:

  Furthermore I have excellent research skills and I can famililarize
  myself fast with new topics.

I am not sure where to put the fast in. Is this correct? Should I use fast or quick?


texts: What is a word that means "to railroad the conversation"?

texts:
For example:

Person A says "Stop  -------ing" because Person B person was intentionally trying to railroad the conversation.  The key here is "intentional".

If it helps, I think the word I'm looking for starts with a D and ends with "ing".


texts: What's a good antonym for the word serendipity?

texts: I 'm looking for an antonym that has all the subtleties that serendipity carries in it.


texts: What should I call someone who goes to medical school? A medical student?


texts: Jane Austen's use of a double negative in 'Pride & Prejudice' (Chapter 28)

texts:
Jane Austen once said:

  When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte.

Now readers of the book will know Mr Collins is pretty shameless and socially inept, yet if we remove the double negative it becomes

  When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was seldom, she involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte.

which is certainly not what the author intended (I assume). Does anybody have an explanation for this?


texts:
The word "thou" (and similar variations of the Latin tu in other languages) was used between people for informal speech, and talking to people of lower standing.

So why did people use it (most prominently, in the King James Version of the Bible) to address God? If anything, I'd think speaking in humble deference to one's deity would definitely require one to use "you".


texts: word "suggested" for already accepted proposal

texts:
Is it possible to say "suggested" about something that was suggested and got accepted/approved? Is it common?

For example,

  I suggested a tag synonym on this; the suggestion got a few votes and was accepted.
  Nobody can accept or reject it now because it is already decided.

Is it still possible to say "suggested synonym"?


texts: Referring to someone's country of ancestry in an informal way?

texts:
What is a good way to refer to a person's country of ancestry?

Im going pretty much everywhere in Europe this year and in Australia we have so many Australians of European ancestry.

For example a person born in Australia to parents who emigrated from Greece.

How could I express that I will be visiting the country of their ethnic background?


texts: Should the word "irresolute" be used to describe people only?

texts: Should the word "irresolute" be used to describe people only or it can be used for other things as well. For instance, can an outcome be irresolute?


texts:
I know it’s OK to start sentences with While, but is it OK to start a text with it? For example:

  While electron-electron correlations and interactions are crucial in the descriptions of atoms and molecules, studies of ionization in the strong-field régime have in general ignored their effects.

I’ve had a look in the corpora but I can’t quite see how to ask the question there.


texts:
Recently I read an article on Wired.com "Apple Hires Hacker Who Helped Save Windows From Security Hell", http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/12/apple-hires-hacker/

Here is a sentence I'm kind of confused:

  Back then, Paget was known as Chris. She switched genders last year.

Why it is switch "genders" instead of "gender"? Thanks


texts: Are "No more healthy than" and "No more big than" both OK?

texts:
I am Japanese and a teacher of English. Now I am at a loss at a topic on "Comparison."

This sentence should be considered grammatically OK:

  Oversleeping is no more healthy than overeating.

Whereas this sentence seems to be deemed wrong (including by AI-based grammar checkers):

  This camera is no more big than my hands.

However, it does not make sense to me as these sentences should be identical in terms of their syntax and grammar.

Are both sentences correct?


texts: What's the correct way to puncuate "Now, on with the show!"?

texts: Title says it all. When I say it, I often pause after now. Not sure if it's correct to have the comma there or not.


texts: They're good fun, and I absolutely enjoy to live with them."

texts:
I am taking a practice English test for immigration to Canada. I should note that I am a native English speaker from the United States.

During one of the "writing" practice tests, a section appeared asking to circle 10 incorrect words in a text.

One sentence had two incorrect words (the sentence in the title). I found "to live" immediately, but I'm having a hard time understanding why "absolutely" is wrong in this case.

"I absolutely enjoy living with them." sounds correct to me. I'm certain I am missing some grammatical rule that students of ESL would have picked up on, but I'm missing.

Thank you for your help.


texts: What does "up-front" mean in this sentence?

texts:
But he stressed that the Fund had made a big concession by agreeing debt relief would only be decided in 2018, rather than up-front.

source:http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/24/greece-hopes-to-get-new-loans-cleared-by-euro-zone-creditors.html


texts: Is there a word that means boring and fun at the same time?

texts: I’m a Junior in High School and I’m trying to answer a question for a discussion board and the question is “In ONE WORD, how would you describe this past week?” I’m trying to say that it was both boring and fun at the same time. Is there a word that describes both boring and fun?


texts:
I'm looking for a word that means to confess prior wrongdoing. "Confess" would work, but it's fairly unremarkable.

I'm particularly looking for a word which suggests someone is looking back on his/her behavior with intense regret and guilt. For example, Macbeth in some instances shows signs of great remorse for the murder of his king and friend.

For example, "He bowed his head in shame as he made invocations to God and _ed his sins."

Extra points for archaic/intricate words.


texts: What is the difference between "that's odd", "that's weird", and "that's strange"?

texts: What is the difference between that's odd, that's weird, and that's strange?


texts: Word or phrase for someone devoid of logical reasoning/employs irrational thought?

texts:
Is there a word or phrase, pejorative or otherwise, for someone who is not equipped with the tools of rationality?  E.g.

A: "Every time I wear my lucky shirt I get more green traffic lights."

B: "Maybe you just notice green lights more when you are wearing your lucky shirt because you believe it to be lucky?"

A: "No, I definitely hit more green lights.  I wore it to the Super Bowl and hit every green on the way out the city."

B: "Oh, interesting.  Did you consider the lights may be configured that way to get better through flow of traffic in busy periods?  In traffic management they call it a 'green wave'."

A: "How would you know?  You don't even drive."

Or in political argument:

A: "The Holocaust is a lie."

B: "What make you say that?"

A: "I just know it."

B: "How do you know it?"

A: "My uncle is German, he says so."

Etc. Etc.

Example sentence: "A is such a [...], trying to have a rational argument with him is like bashing your head against a brick wall."

I feel like "airhead" or "simpleton" would come close but I feel that those imply stupidity and, in society's eyes, stupidity doesn't infer irrationality.

Please note: I am not trying to infer madness or eccentricity.  More like "the opposite of someone you would find on a debate team."


texts: What does "fail to clear the legislature" mean?

texts: It runs in the text I'm translating in this way: "She encountered fierce opposition (...) and her bill twice failed to clear the legislature."


texts: A less morbid equivalent of the idiom "Giving someone enough rope to hang himself"

texts:
What may be a less morbid equivalent of the idiom "Giving someone enough rope to hang himself"?

In other words, an idiom for empowering someone with a capability that they might, through ignorance, misuse to self-detrimental effect.

The motivation for an alternative is the professional setting, where it's not appropriate to allude to suicide!


texts: Appropriate use of "reaching" when the subject gets smaller and not bigger

texts:
Is it OK to say that something reaches 1/5th of its original size? Like in the following sentence:

"Not only that, but the output images are also highly compressed, sometimes reaching (up?) to 1/5th of their original size..."


texts:
I've come across the following sentence where "its" is used, instead of using his/her:

  Unless a parent can keep up with its children, its fate is sealed." [example from Longman Dictionary of
  Contemporary English].

The question is: why do we use its here instead of his or her? Isn't a parent an animated object?


texts: What is the plural for magnetic moments/momenta?

texts:
I’m not sure what the origin of “moment” as in “moment of inertia” or “magnetic moment” is, or if they are even the same. Do they come from angular momentum?  If so, should the plural be “magnetic momenta”?
I often see “magnetic moments”, but I don’t have much reason to believe this is correct, as it is usually by people for whom English is not their area of expertise, and who make all sorts of other errors.
I’m curious, let me know?
Thanks


texts:
What's the difference between "to lie in" and "to sleep in"?

And could you correct the following sentence please:

"I wanted to turn off my mobile telefone not to be called next morning, but I forgot to do that and my friend called me so early, that my plan to sleep/lie in failed"

Thanks in advance


texts: Can I say, for example, "You aren't either pretty nor funny"? And if so, is it any different from saying "You aren't either pretty or funny"?


texts: Word or phrase that can mean something and its opposite

texts:
Is there such a thing in the English language as words or phrases that can mean a something or its opposite depending on the context in which they are employed, without the use of sarcasm?

If so, how are they named?


texts:
Can any one help me with the meaning of this paragraph:

"We have insights into reality, we continually reshape them, putting oppositions together, arguing, reconciling on different systems of knowledge simultaneously – art and science, science and art. Not the same, never likely to form any kind of universal epistemology, but equally important modes of enquiry."

What is "– art and science, science and art" saying there? can you put it another way in the sentence so that I understand its role?

Can you rewrite this sentence "Not the same, never likely to form..." in a more understandable form? What does it mean actually?

At the end I would be so grateful if any one can rewrite the whole paragraph in plain english :)


texts: What word would you use to describe the most interesting man in the world from the dos equis commercials?

texts:
I'm trying to think of a word that describes a person who's skillful, intelligent, capable, interesting, etc.  Think of the character in the most interesting man in the world commercials. What's one word that would describe him?

Some that I've thought of don't have quite the right tone:

  Champion, Badass, Baller

Is there one word that fits the bill?


texts: what are the meanings of these bolded phrases?

texts:
Jean Louise’s aunt often held up Cousin Joshua to her as a family example not lightly to be discountenanced: he was a splendid figure of a man, he was a poet, he was cut off in his prime, and Jean Louise would do well to remember that he was a credit to the family. His pictures did the family well—Cousin Joshua looked like a ratty Algernon Swinburne.
The train clacketed through pine forests and honked derisively at a gaily painted bell-funneled museum piece sidetracked in a clearing. It bore the sign of a lumber concern, and the Crescent Limited could have swallowed it whole with room to spare. Greenville, Evergreen, Maycomb Junction.

Thank you


texts: When do we use "sports arena" and when "sports hall"?

texts: What is the difference between "sports arena" and "sports hall"? It seems that both are sometimes used interchangeably.


texts: "spent a lot of money to buy a house" vs. "spent a lot of money buying a house"

texts:
He spent a lot of money to buy a house.
  He spent a lot of money buying a house.

In my head both of the sentences are correct.
What's the difference between these sentences?


texts: Is there a word whose meaning is "to dissociate from another or others for mutual benefit"?

texts:
I read that cooperate means "to associate with another or others for mutual benefit," but what is the verb, possibly a single word, that means "to dissociate from another or others for mutual benefit"?

The word that comes to mind immediately is divorce because there's a benefit at the bottom of it, but that benefit can hardly be considered mutual, and, aside its metaphorical sense, it can be applied to no more than two persons.

Thus, what is the word meaning "to dissociate from another or others for mutual benefit"?


texts: Does a person have two “masters’ degrees” or two “master’s degrees”?

texts:
When someone has more than one master’s degree, should these be described as have several masters’ degrees or several master’s degrees?

In other words, which of these two applies:

(singular) a master’s degree > (plural) several master’s degrees
(singular) a master’s degree > (plural) several masters’ degrees

Please note that this is a different question from "Is there an apostrophe in a master's degree?". That addresses the question for the singular. This question is about the plural case. There is definitely an apostrophe, but the question is where it should go.


texts:
At first I wanted to ask this question in "ell.stackexchange.com", but then I came across the next article and understood that using "for" with "to advocate" can cause disagreements even for the native speakers:

thefreedictionary.com:
The standard form of the verb "advocate" is transitive, meaning "endorse" or "argue for," as in "The teacher advocated a new educational technique", which was accepted by 85 percent of the Usage Panel in our 2014 survey. Many readers balk when the verb is used to express the same meaning in an intransitive form with the preposition "for": less than half (45 percent) of the Panel approved of "The teacher advocated for a new educational technique". The intransitive is more acceptable, however, when the object of "for" is the beneficiary of the advocacy rather than the idea or action being advocated: two-thirds of the Panel approved "The teacher advocated for her at-risk students". A careful writer will use transitive advocate in sentences indicating the idea or action, restricting the intransitive to sentences indicating the beneficiaries.

As I understood from the article:
— First, most people deem that "to advocate something" is correct and "to advocate for something" is not. Therefore, the next examples are better to say without "for" in spite of the fact that they are written with "for":

ldoceonline.com:
1. Those who advocate for doctor-assisted suicide say the terminally ill should not have to suffer.
cambridge.org:
2. The organization advocates for human rights.
macmillandictionary.com:
3. They advocate publicly for stricter immigration controls.

Am I right?

— Second, most people deem that "to advocate for somebody" is correct and "to advocate somebody" is not. Therefore, the next example is better to say with "for":

dictionary.com:
4. a father who advocates for his disabled child

Am I right?
Does "advocates for" in 4. mean "supports"?
Can I say:

5. People advocated for their president when he decided to dissolve Parliament.

Thanks!


texts:
I'd like to say the following and I'm wondering if I should keep the hyphen after "ground":

  Ground- or boat-based observations are difficult.

Since the individual pieces pieces of that sentence would be hyphenated (i.e. "ground-based" and "boat-based"), I'm wondering if the "or" in between the two makes a difference.  Thanks!


texts: What does “modest station of judges” mean?

texts:
The Washington Post (March 20) carries an article under the title, “
Supreme Court nominee promises to remember ‘modest station’ of judges in a democracy,” which follows:

Judge Neil Gorsuch promised to remember the “modest station we judges are meant to occupy in a democracy” if he is elevated to the nation’s highest court, as the hearing on his nomination to the Supreme Court began among Democratic doubts about his impartiality and whether he should be before them in the first place.

Oxford Advanced English Learners Dictionary provides the definition of ‘station‘ other than railway / bus stops and radio / TV stations as 5.(old-fashioned or formal) your social position.

What does “the modest station of judges” mean? Does it simply mean a post? What is the special implication of “station” here in quotes, if it has?


texts:
I'm editing an essay about the two founders of a software company, and there is a sentence that currently reads:

  They have made it their live's work..."

This looks and feels wrong, but I'm having a brain fart and need some help. Should it be:

Their life's work
Their live's work
Their lives work
Their lifes work

What's the correct way to write this?

Please reconsider opening this question, which was closed for being off topic. The "specific source of concern in the text" has indeed been identified, it's been highlighted clearly and several alternatives have been offered by the OP. And as FumbleFingers commented:

  ...it seems pretty obvious from the comments here that we're not dealing with a trivial issue that could have a single obvious answer.


texts:
I have a misunderstanding with one question. This phrase was said in the present moment, not about the past. That's why I'm confused.

"It's time we had a talk"
I suppose there is the Present Perfect tense. (like "It has time we had to talk")
but for me, if it's said in present it should be like "It is time have a talk"

Can someone explain that to me, please?


texts: What is a better word for "exponentially"?

texts:
I often hear news reports of rapidly increasing problems use the word "exponentially" for emphasis.  For example, tonight's BBC America World News included a segment on the growing Syrian refugee problem, saying the number of refugees was "increasing exponentially".

Now clearly this usage is not consistent with mathematically accurate usage and though I'm sure most understand the intent, it still bothers me.

For reference, the number of registered Syrian refugees increased from 471,808 on 2012-12-31 to 2,241,100 on 2013-12-13.  Neither "five-fold increase" nor "quintupling" seem to have the same impact.

Can anyone suggest an alternative word that is not so mathematical in nature to describe such an increase?  Of course, I'm looking for a word to describe future growth, not past.


texts:
What word would I use when describing two opposing sides in a war?

Assuming I want to refer to them in a manner similar to the following:

  Comparing/contrasting the ____'s of the war.

Using opposing sides lacks eloquence in my opinion. I'm also open to rewording the above so that opposing sides is  not needed.


texts: What's a word/phrase that can describe going from a detailed perspective to a more general one?

texts:
I had a few ideas but I'm not sure any of the words I thought of would get the point exactly right. Anyway, I thought of using the phrase "zoomed out" as in:

  He zooms out of a description on how drugs affect the human brain to a more general view  of their impact on society as a whole.

I'm not sure this works though.

Any ideas on whether this works or what I can replace it with?


texts: Difference between "simplify" and "facilitate"

texts:
Are simplify and facilitate interchangeable? The Oxford dictionary defines them as:

simplify: make (something) simpler or easier to do or understand
facilitate: make (an action or process) easy or easier


texts: How can you distinguish the meanings of "would"?

texts:
Below is the context at issue:

Interviewer: You would like to see a change in our whole approach to aging. You advocate equality – a society for all ages. What (1) would this look like?

Interviewee: This is easy enough to state but achieving it is quite another thing. Simply put, a society for all ages would mean no one (2) would be disadvantaged by their age. The lifelong aging process (3) would have a high public profile... In middle age, people (4) would update their skills, take preventative health measures and plan for the later years.

I know (1) would refers to the future, so does (2) and (3). But, how about (4)? Does that refer to a simple past or repetitive behaviors or both?

I would say it could be both; what would you say?


texts: What is the correct usage? "Ever so often" or "Every so often"

texts: A colleague asked to check in with me every couple of weeks. I would like to respond that it would be wonderful if they checked in ever so often. But, I don't believe that sounds correct. How should I phrase it?


texts: Was /ˈsoʊldyər/ (rather than /ˈsoʊldʒər/) still common pronunciation in England in the late 1960s?

texts:
In at least two Rolling Stones songs, "Salt of the Earth" and "Dandelion", Mick Jagger pronounces the word "soldier" the "old" way, where "d" and "i" are still distinct and not fused into dʒ (the term seems to be non-palatalized.)

So it's

  /ˈsoʊldyər/

instead of the now-common

  /ˈsoʊldʒər/

Was this still a common way to pronounce the word in everyday English in the late '60's, when these songs were released?

Or was the pronunciation already extinct in everyday English, and this a deliberate stylistic choice to sound more "posh" - given that English accents perceived as upper-class seem to have been very resistant to palatalization?


texts:
Do you think closing international borders would help prevent the spread of pandemics?

I have a question which relates to the question above. Could we insert 'to' after help and before prevent - would help to prevent?. The current question style would seem the way to go for me, but if anyone can provide a specific answer, I'd really appreciate it.


texts:
When I read a sentence, I can identify nouns. But now I need to give proof that they are indeed nouns, and that is where it goes wrong. I can think of one or two things sometimes (like combining it with an adjective), but that is not enough proof.

So my question is, how can I prove in multiple ways that the word is actually a noun?


texts: The sentence I won't be home for the next three hours means that I won't be staying at home for a period of time of three hours in a row (but I can be home, for example, for 2 hours, leave, and come back home after 5 minutes) , or that I will be outside my home for a period of time of three consecutive hours? Or can it mean both?


texts:
I keep re-reading this sentence and it just sounds so wrong to me. I am not quite sure which part is wrong but I am sure that there is something wrong with it. Am I supposed to use the word bigger or larger? and is moles supposed to be plural or singular?

"In the empirical formula, there would be a bigger number of moles of water per mole of anhydrous salt than if the compound had not spilled. "


texts:
What would it mean for writing to be "crenelated"? From this review:

Lisa Zeidner of The New York Times Book Review elaborated:
As usual, Gibson's prose is ... corpuscular, crenelated.

I thought crenelated just meant having ridges / being like the top of a castle wall.


texts:
I recently received a marked assessment from my teacher, and I think I might have been mismarked on a question.
The question asks : "Identify and analyse two examples of passive in the text". One of the examples I quoted was as follows: (transcript of radio)
"The Success isn't er fitted er with that type of capability."

I was marked wrong on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's passive, unless it could be interpreted as having "fitted" as an adjective referring to the state of being "fitted", in which case it would be active?

However, because of the predicate "with that capability", I have good reason to interpret "is [not] fitted" as the verb of the sentence, in which case it is passive.

Hence my post here to see if there would be any general consensus on its classification.

Thanks! :)


texts: "Nor" in combination with "never:" Usage and meaning

texts:
What is the meaning of this sentence?

  He never had taken nor will ever take such strong measures.

Can never and nor be used in the same sentence?


texts: Kinship question regarding 1st cousin family

texts: I just recently connected with a 1st cousin and his mother who the family lost track of due to circumstances. My uncle divorced and met a woman who he fathered a child with. The day before said child was born my uncle died in an accident. The mother and her son stayed with my grandmother for almost a years time before leaving and that was the last I saw of them for 25+ years. I just reconnected through the power of the internet. When I was little we wondered if this woman would be our aunt. Does her being the mother of my 1st cousin make her my aunt? She is family regardless but my curiosity demands getting an answer to technically what her title would be.


texts: Why modals use present perfect not simple past

texts: I teach ESL for a community college. We just did a unit on "modals of probability" (can't, couldn't, must, should, may, might, could). For the simple present tense, we use this formula "modal + base verb" (He must have at least enough money to get a soda.) However, for the past tense, the formula includes what looks like the present perfect: "modal + have + past participle". Is it the present perfect masquerading as the simple past? One website I saw called this formula the "past infinitive". I've never heard of that, have you? Thanks everyone, Jennifer Rueda (Clackamas Community College - Oregon)


texts: Use of “eclectic” when referencing objects in a set

texts:
I have often referred to my music tastes as being eclectic, until I recently encountered a possible aspect to the definition I had not previously considered. In referencing musical tastes, there are different bands and those bands fit into different genres. The bands would be the objects and the genres the set they are part of.

Is it valid for me to use the word eclectic when I am referring only to the number of objects (bands) within a single set (genre)? I have found the dictionary.com and wiktionary.com definitions, but cannot find anything that gives any further details.


texts: Question tag for "She thinks that he's on a diet, ______?"

texts:
She thinks that he's on a diet, ______?

Can anyone tell me which question tag best fills in the above blank? Should it be "doesn't she?", or "isn't he?"

I'd like to stick to the usual affirmative-negative form (or vice-versa) of tag for my middle school students, who just began to learn the basic rules of this grammar. Therefore, should the tag refer to the main (hence, doesn't she?) or subordinate clause (isn't he?).

I have a feeling that, in terms of question tags, the case of You/She/He thinks should differ from that of I think, because it doesn't seem to make sense to ask others if you think in a certain way. Am I also right about this?


texts: Would I use 'The FA' or 'the FA' in a sentence?

texts:
I'm writing a sentence that refers to The Football Association and want to shorten it to the FA, but I'm unsure whether I should capitalise the T in 'the' or not because its official name is The Football Association.

If I capitalise the T, it looks strange to me, however on their own website they do capitalise it (e.g. 'view the latest financial statements of The FA').

So if I were to write a sentence like 'please refer to the FA website', would the T be capitalised or not?


texts:
I read a comment written by Participant X who was asked to be more respectful in criticizing someone's question on SE.  X wrote

  I'm truly sorry but I can't blinker myself that far down.

What does that mean?  Where does the meaning you know (if any) come from?

I looked at thefreedictionary.com which covers multiple dictionaries, and I checked urbandictionary as well.  I didn't come up with the slightest clue.

If there is more research I should do and show, please let me know.

If this word means nothing to anybody, then I'll conclude he just made it up and it's part of his personal repertoire of coined words that no one beyond his immediate circle understands.


texts: "Took into consideration" or "Taken into consideration"

texts: Do I say "took into consideration" or "taken into consideration"? For example, do I say when looking at shoes, "The first thing "took/taken" into consideration is how fashionable they are."?


texts: Does the word ‘hard-boiled’ have a positive connotation?

texts:
Upon a quick google search 'hard-boiled' means tough and cynical even though it doesn't say that this is a disapproving term. One of the synonyms of this word is 'hardened' which means 'very experienced in a particular job or activity and therefore not easily upset by its more unpleasant aspects' which seems like an admirable quality to have for likes of a soldier, militant or an inspector. But such a person would be labelled callous or uncaring about other people's feelings which is confusing me as this is unlikable quality to possess. Or is it that two different words can mean the same but still have different connotation?

Two examples:

  That blood-shed would make even the most hard-boiled soldiers cry
  (Positive connotation)

  The American Heritage Thesaurus defines hard-boiled, completely lacking in compassion (Negative
  connotation).


texts:
How should you state the name of an important Japanese figure in English?

Currently, I am writing a paper, and in this paper, I have them listed as:
Mr. [Firstname] [Lastname]
My professor has said to change it, as the Japanese have a different set of nomenclature rules that should be followed in my paper.

It there a better way to formally write out these names in English?
How would names usually appear on a business card? Is it listed the same way as I can put down in my paper?


texts: "so, if you know any schools looking for a physics teacher, I'm down.", the meaning of "I'm down"

texts:
A Candian friend said this to me today:

  so, if you know any schools looking for a physics teacher, I'm down.

What does "I'm down" mean here? Apparently it doesn't mean "I am upset".

An English teacher told me that it means "I will join in".

Could anyone explain it and tell me which entry (a link is much appreicated) in dictionary fit this meaning? Because I tried Oxford dictionary, Collions and Merriam Webster, I couldn't find related entry. Thanks


texts: Gerund? Infinitive? Why, when we talk about jobs, do we say "I have a job taking people on tours" instead of "I have a job to take people on tours"?

texts:
I'm teaching English in China. I wanted middle school or younger, but I was put with some great high school kids and they sometimes ask me questions that I don't know how to answer yet. I'm a native speaker, but I'm learning how to teach the finer details about English grammar as I go.

So today, we had a question:
"Mandela gave him a job _______ visitors around the prison."
The answer is "taking". One of my students asked why "to take" is incorrect. All I wanted to tell him was that "it just is", but instead I asked him if it would be all right if I did some research and got back to him when I had a solid answer.

So my understanding of gerunds and infinitives is pretty basic, but to be honest, I feel like this particular instance warrants something else. Any thoughts? Can someone help me understand which grammar structure is giving us this rule?

I tried to use this variant to help explain it initially, but ended up just confusing myself more, because both sound right to my ears:
"My job is to drive people around the city."
"My job is driving people around the city."


texts: Word/phrase for over asking as a tactic to get what you really want

texts:
Here's the scenario.. Kid wants a stuffed toy, but in the past it has been refused. So he asks for a couple of things that he knows are too expensive, and will definitely get him a "no". Then he makes his move and asks for the stuffed toy, as though settling for it, and parents may buy it for him, not wanting to deny him everything or wanting to meet him "halfway".

Similar thing happens in an episode for "Modern family". 2 people are remodeling a house, and one guy keeps overasking, and later "settling" for what he really wanted.

This is slightly different from bargaining.. where what you ask for first isn't even really what you want. What's a suitable word or phrase for this tactic?


texts: "Vision" is to "visually", as "hearing" is to what?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Pertaining to the Senses

Hello. If I want to say my project has great graphics, I say it is visually stunning.

Now, what would I say, following a similar format to that, if my project had great "audio/sounds/"?


texts:
In the introduction to his 1956 paper A plea for excuses, John Austin writes

  The subject of this paper, Excuses, is one not to be treated, but only to be introduced, within such limits. It is, or might be, the name of a whole branch, even a ramiculated branch, of philosophy, or at least of one fashion of philosophy.

I have been unable to find the word "ramiculate" in any online dictionary. It does occur in other texts though: e.g. Metrical forms by Alan Prince (2014)

  We cannot hope to prune every branc and filament from the ramiculated tree of unrealized possibilites using just the tools of metrical theory...

Links: Austin, Prince


texts:
In some movies, when people want to describe a genius they say

  Are you one of those beautiful mind guys?

Does beautiful mind refer to the movie A Beautiful Mind, and does it mean genius?

Is it ok to use it in everyday conversations? What about academic settings?


texts: What is the difference between ‘On + ing ‘ and ‘ing ‘?

texts:
On having killed the guard he dragged him into the bushes.
Having killed the guard he dragged him into the bushes.

What is the difference between them?


texts: Is there a term for this (two words sound like one word)?

texts:
Example:

Tell her
and teller

Or cellar
and sell her


texts: What is my Nationality: United States of America or American?

texts:
Normally speaking, people use "American" as the answer to nationality. However, all US passports show "United States of America" under Nationality. After making a Google Search, I found that the passports of all other countries use "Nationality" in the natural way - for example, "Canadian" for Canadian Passports.

So, what should be the nationality for a person in USA: "United States of America" or "American"?


texts:
A procedure must be completed by B, but it can be done at any time between A and B.  Or a right can be claimed during such a period.

How can I explain B by using "within"?  Is it:

  within three weeks from A

or

  within three weeks after A

or

  within three weeks since A

or something else?

example:

The procedure must be completed within three weeks from A.
The right can be claimed within three weeks after A.


texts: Population(s) by State(s): Singular or Plural?

texts:
Suppose a table has many groups, each group of which has one certain number. Then, which of the following is grammatically correct as(?)/for(?) the table's title?

Certain Number by Group (US Census used population by state.)
Certain Number by Groups (US Code used population by states.)
Certain Numbers by Group (US BLS used unemployment rates by state.)
Certain Numbers by Groups (Oklahoma used unemployment rates by states.)


texts: Adverbs in comparative degree and anyone or everybody rules

texts:
1 question.
Can you please help to understand the use of adverb in this sentence structure and which one is correct!?
Open the brackets:
1. A turtle moves....  (slow)  than a rabbit.
Which one is correct "more slowly" or "slower "?

2 question.
Why do we use anybody instead of everyone in this sentence? As I know anyone/anybody generally are used in negative  sentences and questions.

  Anybody can do this. It's  so easy!

Thanks for you reply)


texts: Negative questions vs positive questions

texts:
I'd like to know if negative questions are used very often in English. For example, in Spanish, negative questions are used very often just to offer something, to ask about something you're not sure, to ask telling off somebody, etc.
For example:

Don't you want something to drink? (offer)
Isn't she going to come? (doubt)
Don't you have to go to school today? (ask and tell off)

Are negative questions used a lot or do you prefer positive questions? When are negative questions used more than positive ones?


texts: A word meaning to remember emotionally or sadly?

texts:
What is the word used for remembering something when the memory makes one emotional or sad? Like thinking of a beloved who is not there anymore or something that happened in the past.

I looked and found the word reminisce, but it's used for joyful recollection of past events. But I want the word for sadness or emotional thoughts associated with the past. Please include an example sentence.


texts: Is "gypped" really (historically) a racist term?

texts: It has only been recently that I have even been aware of the connection between "gypped" and "Gypsy". Perhaps because I've always seen it spelled with a "J", I had no idea that the word had racial undertones. Does it really? Was the word originally coined with Gypsies in mind?


texts: What does the phrase "Does the Pope sh** in the woods?" mean?

texts:
I heard this phrase in the GTA San Andreas game. Sounds pretty offensive, nonetheless I don't really get what he meant to say.
The context was something like:

"Hey do you wanna make some money?"
"Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

Here's the video with CJ saying this phrase.


texts: The peculiarities of using Type2/Type3 Conditionals with regard to the shifting of tenses

texts:
When making out sentences in narration of the past time events and implementing the Conditional Mood, shall the time shift principles be observed? For example:

[conveying the idea of unreal condition tallying with the author's time or the future from that point of vew] "Looking at him I knew that he would do the job well if he could have the opportunity of arriving next week". Or should it be the forms of Type3 Conditional in any case because the situation unwinds in the past as to the reader's time (i.e."Looking at him I knew that he would have done the job well if he could have had the opportunity of arriving next week"?
[conveying the idea of unreal condition situation unwinding before the author's time] "Looking at him I knew that he would have done the job well if he could have had the opportunity of arriving a week before".


texts:
Yeah! I love animals except cats .
Is it correct?


texts: What does "lend an added dimension" mean?

texts:
I encountered this expression in an article about sailing.

The complete sentence is as below:

    The floor of the vessel is so comfortable to walk in barefoot, lending an added dimension to the sailing mantra 'Spirit of Freedom'

I couldn't find the definition on internet. Please help me understand this.


texts: Can the words highly & unlikely be used together?

texts:
I was wonder if highly can be used before the word unlikely. Making the sentence look like,

  It's highly unlikely that this would happen.


texts:
Someone was talking over the Telephone :

I got a traffic ticket today doing a you-ee on Beverly Drive.

What does the you-ee represent in the  sentence above?


texts: 'Him or herself' v. 'himself or herself'?

texts:
I was reading this article on the New York Times. This sentence caused me some confusion:

  But what I’m teaching are topics such as 5th-century Indian theories of
  logical inference, or the concept of qualitative atomism
  in classical Buddhism: material that is sufficiently obscure that no
  student, of any background, should be expected at the outset to
  recognize him or herself in it.

Shouldn't the last part of this sentence be '…himself or herself in it'?


texts:
There's a conversation in an episode of Midsomer Murders (S06E04) that's been bugging me. In full context:
Back to normal, then?
Normal's a bit weird round here, isn't it, Mr. Wilson?
No, Darren. Weird's another place.

I could never make sense of that last sentence. It was dubbed in Czech as "It's weird everywhere else." Is that an obscure idiom? A mistranslation?


texts: Looking for a specific alternate word for proved

texts:
I am looking for a very specific word to be used in place of {word} in this sentence:

  He {word} himself well.

An alternate sentence that would have a similar meaning:

  He proved capable in the task.

The most I can remember of the word I'm looking for is that is has the prefix re-.

Edit:
Redeemed is close to what I'm looking for but I don't want the negative connotation around the word.

To give my specific use case example, I was given some new temporary responsibilities at work and I'm writing my quarterly goals. I'm looking to make one of these goals that I handled these new responsibilities well.

Edit:
So much for a good memory, the specific word does not use the prefix re-.


texts:
Using it in the example of:

  Can you log despatch and delivery of documents?

Three questions:

Is despatch a misspelling of dispatch that made its way into the dictionary? Could I use dispatch instead in the above example?
Do you pronounce both of them the same?
Are they a homophone of one another?


texts:
In this sentence, "How could we have fouled such a huge area?",

Does "how could" mean as "Why have we fouled..."?
(like "how could I have missed that?")
  OR
Does "how could" mean as "How did we foul..."?
(like "tell me how to swim")

a yacht racing captain sailed a rarelly traversed area of the North Pacific Ocean
through a sea of plastic considered to be about twice the size of Texas.Every time I came on deck,there was trash floating by. How could we have fouled such a huge area?


texts: What's it called when someone starts a well-known saying but doesn't finish it?

texts:
Often times in a TV show that I watch and love, Supernatural, the big bads use quotes and sayings to further their point. For example, Crowley, the current King of Hell at the time, replied to Dean, the protagonist, (in response to an insult)

  Sticks and stones...

It's implied that he was telling Dean that his words cannot hurt him, but I would like to know if this type of speech or writing has an actual name to it?

In another moment, also by Crowley to Dean, he says

  What's the line? Saving people, hunting things...

This is a saying directly related to the show, as their family motto is

  Saving people, hunting things, the family business

At first, I thought the reason for them not saying the full quote was due to copyright and legal issues, as it wasn't only Crowley that spoke like this. But now, I'm thinking that in the writers' heads, maybe it's just a speech technique centered around inference, and I could be overthinking this... I'm asking if it has a name because I'd like to research it a little and flawlessly incorporate this technique into my writing.


texts: pencil-sharpening (procrastination) link wanted

texts:
In spite of using the advanced search options of Google search, I cannot pin down a single instance of the ironic meaning of “pencil-sharpening” of “unnecessary preparation as a pretext for delaying getting down to work”. So, if someone could come up with such a reference, I would certainly appreciate it.

I saw the term used in this sense in some printed remarks by a novelist (female, and British, as I recall), the relevant novel, which I read, being, I think from the 1930’s.

Following up on ab2’s suggestion that it might be Dorothy Sayers, I googled for “Dorothy Sayers” together with “pencil sharpening” and found a website with a use of the term in the sense that I am seeking:

“Forget all the writerly delays, the websites to check out, the email to answer - how modern technology has expanded the pencil sharpening and paper straightening of yesteryear. But if I want the end of the story, I have to get to work.”

http://www.sleuthsayers.org/search/label/Janice%20Law?updated-max=2012-01-04T21:01:00-08:00&max-results=20&start=16&by-date=false


texts: Is "upon their only two encounters" grammatically correct?

texts:
I'm not sure if I could use "only" in this sentence:
"Upon their only two encounters, he managed to leave a good impression on her."
I'm trying to emphasize the point that they met only twice.
Also, I was wondering if "upon" fits in the context. The idea is that he performed well during both of the meetings, and she was impressed by his overall performance.
Thanks for your help :)


texts:
I'm a little confused. At work I often hear 'You can get in touch with ourselves' instead of 'Get in touch with us' and it triggers my inner toff.

Am I right in thinking that 'get in touch with ourselves' is an incorrect usage of a reflexive pronoun in this context?


texts: Noob question: I've been following a youtube channel called "Jerry rig everything" for a while now. I'm little confused as to why it's not "Jerry rigs everything" since jerry is his name and I think we always use s/es with a verb whenever we refer to a third person in a simple present tense. Can someone please explain me on this?


texts: Can anyone tell me the word or phrase that means 'someone who things are done to'?

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase for

someone who has things done to them and
someone who does things to people.

I.e. someone with no power and someone who has all the power.

Would be really great if you brainy people could help... to stop my brain from exploding!


texts:
I've been puzzled a lot on when to use a hyphen in compounds words such as cross-section, time-of-flight, state-of-the-art etc. I am writing scientific documents and I haven't found a definite rule on the use of a hyphen.

However, I came across a general rule according to which such words have to be hyphenated when they come before a noun, otherwise the hyphen is not necessary (or perhaps it's even wrong?). A few examples follow

Example 1

  Cross-section measurements of nuclear reactions.

  vs

  Measuring nuclear reaction cross sections.

Example 2

  The time-of-flight technique

  vs

  The particle has a small time-of-flight.

words have to be hyphenated when they come before a noun

Is there a rule that can be applied in such case or the use of a hyphen is interchangeable?


texts: Are there words other than "friend" where "ie" is pronounced as /ɛ/ ("short e")?

texts: Are there any words in English other than friend where the spelling "ie" corresponds to the "short e" sound /ɛ/?


texts: Alternative for "particularly interested"

texts:
What are other formal ways of saying "I'm particularly interested in..."?

In this case it's for use on cover letters for CVs. The synonyms for "interested" offered by the thesaurus don't seem appropriate.


texts: I know that this term in its comparative form would 'lovier-dovier', but somehow I can't decide whether it is "loviest-doviest" or "lovey-doviest" Which is the correct form?


texts:
Should I put a comma around an adverb when it describes the circumstance that the sentence is describing?

"I, unfortunately, did not have an older brother to protect me."
"I unfortunately did not have an older brother to protect me."


texts:
Today during preparing to PMI-ACP exam I bumped into phrase "buy in".

All dictionaries explain the meaning of this phrasal verb as "To buy something in large quantity". Is there any other meanings? Because in context that I have heard it, has no sense to me.

The whole sentence "Develop team rules and processes to foster buy in".


texts: Tense problems : present tense or past tense?

texts:
Tense problems. Can anyone help me with the following in the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 11: Qudditch, page 135:

  (1) That's where he was going when we saw him
  (2) he's after whatever
  it's guarding!
  (3) "No - he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not very
  nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping
  safe."

In the above context, can anyone tell me and explain to me:

  (1) "That's" actually means That is or That was?
  (2) "he's and it's
  " actually mean he is and it is or he was and it was?
   (3)
  "he's" actually means he is or he was?

Thanks a lot for your help!


texts: Is the repetition of a pronoun instead of stressing it possible?

texts:
In English it is usual to stress a personal pronoun or a noun so as to introduce a departure from the preceding spell of conversation in which  is mentioned another agent in relation to the same action. An example should make that clearer.

They enjoyed this song very much; did you enjoy it?

Is the repetition of the pronoun, instead of strong stress, ever used to obtain the same effect, as in the following rephrasing below?

They enjoyed this song very much; you, did you enjoy it?

To me that practice sounds totally foreign to English, but it is commonly used in French.

Is there any possibility of such repetitions in English,  whatever the end?


texts: Origin of “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”

texts:
According to the following source the adage The apple doesn't fall far from the tree originated in AmE in the first half of the 19th century:

  The first recorded use in the USA was by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1839, one of America's best known 19th century figures.

But they also add that:

  Versions of this proverb can also be found earlier in works written in German and Russian; with some sources saying the expression originates in Asia. (www.bookbrowse.com)

As for its possible German origin, I could find the the following test from 1842 The Exercises for writing German - Page 14 by Johann Gerhard Tiarks - where they state that:

  "The apple does not fall far from the stem," is a German proverb.

But what is more interesting, in A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Explained in English dated 1803 under the term Avall (apple) they quote:

  Ni fell zygwyz aval o avall;  the apple will not fall far from the tree, (adage).

The Welsh quote is the earliest I could find, but it just seems to make my research more complicated.

So, where does the above adage really come from? Is is ultimately of Asian origin as suggested in one cited source?

Was its earliest usage in AmE as suggested, or does the Welsh dictionary proves otherwise a possible BrE first usage before it crossed the pond?


texts: What's the difference between "along with" and "together with"?

texts:
I keep hearing this phrase in the end of news release on the radio:

  Thanks for listening. I am Mike Widword along with Lizz Cai

meaning that two anchors were involved in casting this news.
I wonder why not say "together with Lizz Cai"?


texts: Is there a word for the floating speed of an object?

texts: I realize that it is easy to find data regarding the amount of water that moves through a river at a given point but I was interested in finding out the likely rate at which an object would float at said point and was having difficulty tuning my search for information about that concept. Is there a word out there that encapsulates that idea?


texts: Less colloquial version of "(X), never mind (Y)"?

texts:
From Chapter 7, it was found that PV installers do not interact frequently with geographic data within their assessment, never mind 3D geographic data.

"Never mind" seems like a bit of a colloquialism. Do you have any suggestion for a better term or phrase to use?


texts: What is the meaning of "I believe you're up"?

texts:
My question is very simple. I just would like to know what do they mean by: "I believe you're up"

I've heard this expression in a movie and here is the script:

I already met your dad. He loves me.
Love is very strong word.
Well, he at least likes me, right? We're busy tomorrow night. Okay, and we're back. Amy, I believe you're up.
Oh, oh.
Okay, I got this.


texts: Is "to split up" or "to break up" colloquial?

texts:
Are "to split up" and "to break up" colloquial if I want to say that somebody ended a relationship?

If they are colloquial, could you give me non-colloquial synonyms except "to end" a relationship?


texts: A word for one who has the ability to sleep almost instantly

texts:
I am looking for a word to describe a person that can fall asleep 'as their head hits the pillow'.

To add context: my wife falls asleep seconds after she decides that she wants to sleep. Not just in bed, but on the sofa, on the train - almost anywhere where there is a relatively comfortable place to sleep. Even on a moving escalator. She is a person who I consider to be happy and at peace with herself. I mention this as I am not looking for a term to describe someone with a medical condition with no control over when they sleep.


texts: Is there an English equivalent to the Persian saying "Now that it's my turn, the sky fell down"?

texts:
Suppose there are many people standing in a line to receive an expensive item as a free gift, and everyone receives it except for the last person in the line. The last one is told, "Sorry, the gifts are finished!". This person complains of his bad luck and says (sarcastically):

  Oh, no! Now that it's my turn, all the gifts are finished. I don't believe it!

In situations like these, we Iranians have a saying:

  Now that it's my turn, the sky fell down.

That is, the worst possible thing happened, and I lost the opportunity. It implies that once I reached the stage of almost realising the opportunity, the situation/condition changed completely, all of a sudden and unbelievably, and this is only because of my bad luck!

Is there any idiom, expression or proverb that conveys a similar meaning to that Persian saying?

I am looking for something that is more general, something that can be used in any situation in which an (important) opportunity has been lost just because of bad luck. This Persian  saying places the blame on the bad luck of the given person—someone so unlucky that even the most impossible outcome (the sky falling!) happens just at the moment that they expect to achieve something and causes them to lose a good opportunity.

In my example, that person was very unlucky: if his turn was only one person ahead, or if there was just one extra gift, he would have received a gift. So, he says: "The worst thing happened only to me out of all those people! D**n this luck!"


texts: active voice and passive voice in the infinitive construction

texts:
Here are two sentences:

  That is an interesting question to answer.

  It is an easy sentence to translate.

I am very confused about why we should use the active voice rather than the passive voice. Why couldn't we say this instead?

  That is an interesting question to be answered.

  It is an easy sentence to be translated.


texts: What is a word for the thing or idea that something personifies?

texts:
For instance, I am writing a paper in which I am arguing that the Ancient Greek mythological Harpies originated as personifications of the Sirocco (dry wind from the Sahara). The Harpies are the personifications of the Sirocco; the Sirocco is the _______ of the Harpies.
The closest I can come up with is the term "signified" from semiotics, but this doesn't really work. I've even tried "counterpart," but ehhhhhh, so unspecific. Anyone have any better ideas?
Thanks!


texts:
If a wizard casts a fireball spell, a fireball is created. If a wizard casts a flight spell, the target gains the ability to fly. In both cases, a particular result has occurred due to the casting of the spell.

What is the word for this result (or in other words, what is a term that can be used to refer to both the fireball and flight ability and denotes that they are the result of a spell being cast)?


texts: What is meant by "so it says something that" in this sentence?

texts:
I read this in Word by Word by Kory Stamper:

  Don’t think that Gove was a windbag: he was a New Englander and valued sparse efficiency in all things (including lexicography). So it says something that the memos are so long.

Does the latter sentence's construction have some idiomatic significance because it in itself doesn't seem to make much sense? And what does "sparse efficiency" mean in this context? Does it have something to do with New England being sparsely populated? But I'm not getting the "efficiency" part.


texts:
Much as in the 1970s when clubby Keynesianism gave way to Milton Friedman’s austere monetarism, and in the 1990s when central banks were given their independence, so the pandemic marks the start of a new era.
Does "much as" mean "just as" here? If so, what does "much" mean here?
Is there a " much as...so...." structure？
Thank you!


texts: How do you use the phrase "as ... as can be"?

texts:
I know you can say " happy as can be," but can you us any adjective before "as can be"?

Can I say " I was as American as can be"? or " He was as excited as can be"?


texts: which word equals to this phrase: to keep away from sth one hates it

texts: I am looking up a formal word with this definition:' to keep away from something which one hates it.'


texts: A sentence for a person who is greatly tired

texts:
Occasionally, I meet someone who is working hard. He looks so tired and needs to hear some kind words and I don't know what to say. Some time ago, I asked this question of a native speaker and she replied:

  Tell him “What a great job!”

Maybe I couldn’t represent my question properly because I didn’t see that the above formula had decreased his exhaustion in doing the job.

What can we say to somebody who looks tired doing a job, in order to soothe his pain?


texts:
What I know is that adverbs are positioned between "be" verb and passive verb, but I can find many examples of both sentences:

  "will be finally deleted" OR "will finally be deleted"?
  "have finally been deleted" OR "have been finally deleted"?

Which one of these is right, and why?


texts: What does “extend a finger” mean exactly? Is it a commonly spoken phrase?

texts:
I came across the phrase “They’ve extended a finger” in the article that came under the headline “Mazie Hirono’s blunt style makes her a favorite of liberal looking for fighter” in Washington Post September 20 issue. It reads:

  “Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono’s voice dripped with disgust as she
  evaluated how republicans have treated the woman accusing Supreme
  Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they
  were in high school. ‘You know what? They’ve extended a finger,’ the
  senator from Hawaii said in an interview. ‘That how I looked it.’”

Though I think “extend a finger” is analogous to "give sb. the middle finder / flip off," I find this particular phrase neither in Oxford and Cambridge online dictionaries, nor on any google wording sources.

Google Ngram indicates that the usage of “extend a finger” started around 1810 and sustains its currency at a low 0.000000075 level up to 2000.

Is "extend a finger" as common as being used by a senator publicly? If not, why should she have deliberately rephrased it?


texts: Is there a word for 'a person who thinks or feels that they are younger than their age'?

texts: I am not talking about autism. My question is about a normal person.


texts: What is the origin of "the lay of the land?"

texts:
The meaning is quite well established and straightforward—from TheFreeDictionary:

(Lit.) The arrangement of features on an area of land. (Also with lie, especially British English.) "The surveyor mapped the lay of the land." "The geologist studied the lay of the land, trying to determine if there was oil below."
(Fig.) The arrangement or organization of something other than land. "As soon as I get the lay of the land in my new job, things will go better." "The company's corporate structure was complex, so understanding the lay of the land took time."

But what is the origin of its figurative meaning?  Does it predate frontier America?


texts:
When a person refers to two things/ideas that are plainly not the same
  and not equal and tries to make give them equal value, or honor
  (usually abstract ideas), they are "____________ing" the two ideas.

This is often done to avoid contention that the differences of the two ideas would cause. You might say they try and place equal value on two obviously unequal things/ideas.

The closest word that I can find is "equate," but it seems I have come across a much more accurate word to describe this idea.

Thanks for any help.


texts: Which is proper in this sentence: ‘assurance’ or ‘assurances’

texts:
Then suddenly, despite all their ______ (assurance/ assurances), they broke the agreement and signed a deal with a rival company.

I’m not sure which form of the word ‘assurance’ should be taken in this sentence. I think the word assurance itself means ‘promise’ here, but not ‘ confidence’ , and according to the dictionary it’s a countable noun. But our teacher provides us with the answer ‘assurance’ the single one. Is the answer wrong?


texts: Is there a word for a younger aunt or uncle?

texts: A maternal uncle is your mother's brother. What's the term for an uncle that is younger than you, or a niece/nephew that's older?


texts:
I'm reading Jennifer Haigh's short story Sublimation, and I came across a sentence that grabbed my attention.

  "Their son's habit isn't news to her, not really, though she always imagined he'd outgrow it. Children left everything behind, eventually. Her attic is full of board games and sports equipment and Boy Scout uniforms, a veritable zoo of stuffed animals she can't bear to throw away".

In this case, could the usage of the word "left" here in the simple past easily be substituted by:

  children always leave everything behind

or

  children always end up leaving everything behind

?

I've been trying to read between the lines as to why the author used the simple past in the sentence in bold. What is she trying to emphasize?


texts: Does ‘magnificent head’ sometimes mean ‘magnificent hair’?

texts:
While searching the Net, ‘magnificent head’ shows me a lot of lion’s heads, but I found ‘a woman with a magnificent head’ in a book.

“Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points.”
Applause from the stands.
”I deserved zero,” said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head. (Harry Potter 4 [US Version]: p.506)[Bold font is mine]

N.B.: The scene is after Triwizard Tournament. The judges are criticizing and giving points to performers. Fleur, whose hair is beautiful, isn’t satisfied with her own performance.
I tried looking for ‘magnificent hair’ on the Net, which showed me a lot of beautiful hairs. Why does the author write ‘magnificent head’ instead of ‘magnificent hair’? Does it have the same meaning?


texts: When is it appropriate to use "to receive someone"?

texts: In what cases we can use the verb receive to refer to a person and not to an object?


texts: Meaning of "barrer" (noun) in W. Henley's poem "'Liza"

texts:
I don't understand the meaning in which the count noun word "barrer" is used in William Henley's poem 'Liza (the italics are the author's):

  ’Liza’s old man’s perhaps a little shady,
  ’Liza’s old woman’s prone to booze and cringe;
  But ’Liza deems herself a perfect lady,
  And proves it in her feathers and her fringe.
  For ’Liza has a bloke her heart to cheer,
  With pearlies and a barrer and a jack,
  So all the vegetables of the year
  Are duly represented on her back.
  Her boots are sacrifices to her hats,
  Which knock you speechless—like a load of bricks!
  Her summer velvets dazzle Wanstead Flats,
  And cost, at times, a good eighteen-and-six.
     Withal, outside the gay and giddy whirl,
     ’Liza’s a stupid, straight, hard-working girl.

I understand pearlies to mean either pearly-white teeth or mother-of-pearl buttons. A jack is probably some mechanical part the bloke uses to bruise 'Liza's back with ("all the vegetables of the year").

But barrer is a mystery. Could it be the Cockney pronunciation of "barrow"?


texts: Is it wrong to use a comma after "in addition" at the beginning of a sentence?

texts:
As far as I know, "in addition" is a prepositional phrase, and you're not supposed to put a comma after a prepositional phrase with less than five words when it's at the start of a sentence. Is "in addition" an exception, or if I'm going by that rule, should I omit the comma after "in addition" as well?

The Purdue OWL says, among other things:

  Common introductory phrases that should be followed by a comma include participial and infinitive phrases, absolute phrases, nonessential appositive phrases, and long prepositional phrases (over four words).


texts:
When I'm given several adverbs of time how do I arrange them? For example, I need to insert these adverbs:

  in the morning / that Thursday / March 22, 2013

into this sentence:

  A tornado had been wreaking havoc.


texts: What does it mean to say "The greater of _ or _"

texts:
I am reading a document, and it is confusing me and want to be certain of the meaning of this sentence:

OUR COMPANY'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ACTUAL DAMAGES FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF $500 OR THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU FOR THE SOFTWARE THAT CAUSED SUCH DAMAGE.

If the amount paid for the software equals to $200, then the greater will be $500 ?

and If the amount paid for the software equals to $700, then the greater will be $700 ?

Or is it the opposite?

Question 2:

Lets say I want to reword the sentence to be:

... Limited to the greater of $500 or %25 of the amount paid by you for ...

Any thing grammatically wrong with that?


texts: We can say ‘fried fish’, ‘baked potato’ or ‘minced pork’ using past participles for modifiers.  However, ‘roast’ is different - either ‘roast duck’ or ‘roasted duck’ works, it seems to me.  How should we analyze this?  Is ‘roast’ a noun modifying a noun here, or is it a different form of the past participle?  (According to freedictionary.com, in Middle English the past participle was ‘roste’ – does that mean that this was once a strong verb?)


texts: That these skills are transferable (which/that/and) makes them especially beneficial

texts:
Why would "which","that", and "and" be omitted in the following sentence:

  That these skills are transferable across professions (which/that/and) makes them especially beneficial to twenty-first century students.


texts: Diameter comparison: larger, bigger, higher, greater?

texts:
Which adjective do I use with diameter to compare its size? Is there even one correct answer or is it a style choice?

The general diameter of veins is [larger|bigger|higher|greater] than that of arteries.

And how do I find such information by myself the next time?

I checked Wikipedia which has the following sentence

For a convex shape in the plane, the diameter is defined to be the largest distance that can be formed between two opposite parallel
lines tangent to its boundary …

I could deduce from this, that larger would be the correct one but
am not sure if this is logical and why it would be larger.

I then checked Wiktionary and unfortunately the article does not list such an example

Going by Google result hits

"larger diameter" 7'420'000 results
`"greater diameter" 1'020'000 results
"higher diameter" 852'000 results
"bigger diameter" 738'000 results

So after this I would go with larger but am not sure why and if this is the correct or best choice.
Edit: Added also greater as possiblity as per comment. Did not think of that.


texts:
I’m one semester away from completing my master’s studies of the
  applications of eye tracking in/to interactive media.

In this context, what is the difference between

  the applications of eye tracking in interactive media.

and

  the applications of eye tracking to interactive media.

Or is one of them completely wrong?


texts:
When I searched I found many usages of both "in step" and "at step". For example, Google returns:

"at each step" — about 55,000,000 results
"in each step" — about 45,000,000 results

But which one is better to use in scientific papers?


texts: How can you say “rule by gods” without a church involved?

texts: Somebody I know online has been writing a story where he’d like to name the system where gods rule, but a church isn’t involved. He used “deiocracy,” but we both agreed that’s one, made up, and two, a hircocervus monstrosity of Latin and Greek together. Are there any words that can be used for rule by gods, but not by their church?


texts:
The army of Charles XII is a hundred thousand strong
As he's marching through smoke
On his road so long

What does "as he's marching" mean? Does it mean that the army is marching with him (Charles XII) through smoke? I'm a little bit confused...


texts: What does "I can get behind that :)" mean when you suggest someone to compromise on an alternative option?

texts:
"How about we compromise and ... ? ;)"

Answer: "I can get behind that :)"


texts:
If we're talking about 8 hundred (an exact number of hundreds) we use the singular for the ordinal. But what if we use an unspecified quantity such as "more". Or, I just said it: "number of hundreds". So I reckon it's "more hundreds", "more thousands". Is this correct?

Exact context:

  If you have a larger budget, feel free to go for a few more hundreds of MHz more for your CPU.


texts: What writer meant by using "has" in the given sentences?

texts: I encountered with this form of causative. At first, it was not that peculiar. The part that underlined with an orange line,i thought, simply meant that Plato made Socrates to articulate the reproach. However, in the part where i lined it with green it wasn't the case. It seems as if plato made socrates recount how he had been enthusiastic about physics, but had come to be disillusioned by it even though it was made clear by the writer that it was Plato who talked about his disappointment. Could you tell me what the writer actually meant by using has in the given sentences?.


texts: Openings at the shores where rivers enter

texts: What do we call those points on the sea shores where rivers join the sea?


texts: Noun phrase involving "of", plural or singular

texts:
I feel that the singular form should be correct, but I'm not sure:

"The thickness of papers IS .."

"The thickness of papers ARE .."

By the way, will it change the result, if we use another noun instead of "thickness"?


texts:
In the process of making a design, what is the design called? (Specifically in regard to graphic design)

As in:

  Please see first design(??) of poster attached


texts: Use of the word "may" in a blessing or wish

texts:
I frequently write sermons. A common way to offer people a blessing is to start with the phrase "May you" as in "May you always have peace in your heart."

When I run the spell / grammar check in MS Word, this phrase almost always gets flagged as ungrammatical unless I use a question mark at the end. Clearly, I'm not using this phrase as a question.

Is such usage ungrammatical, or is MS Word being overly fussy?


texts: Proper context related substitution for "discuss"

texts: Say, you are on the phone and your conversation partner offers something you first need to discuss with somebody else before you can give an answer. I feel like it sounds unnatural to say "I first need to discuss about this and will couple our decision back to you". There must be other expressions to replace "discuss" and "couple back". My question is: what would be a more proper, natural sounding version  of what I just mentioned? And can there also be made a distinction between formal and informal?


texts: Need clarification on "print or type clearly in black ink"

texts:
I was recently filling my scholarship application where I got very confused by this sentence:

  The essay must be clearly typed or printed in black ink

Does that mean that I can fill the application on my computer and then print it with a printer? Or should I only use a black pen to fill this applcation? From the research that I did, some told me that type refers to typewriters which are obsolete nowadays while other told me that type also includes the computer. As a result, I became confused.


texts: How should I set off these questions within a phrase, if at all?

texts:
I would appreciate any suggestions about the grammar in the following phrases. Is what I have done grammatically correct?

  The question we should ask is not simply "Cui bono?" -- "Who
  benefits?" -- but "What is the benefit?" What are, in other words, the
  specific advantages enjoyed by the state as a result of this policy?


texts: Proper use of the verb "to need" when the subject is "bread"

texts:
If I have multiple loaves of bread on the table, and I'm referring to all of them, which usage of the verb "need" is correct?

The bread need to be put in the fridge.

The bread needs to be put in the fridge.


texts: "Would rather [infinitive1] than [infinitive2]" vs. "would rather that [subjunctive]""

texts:
I am aware of sentences like

  Beth would rather study at the library than go to parties.

There is another type of using rather that:

  She would rather that the plane leave early in the morning.
  My parents would rather that I drive slowly.

What does this indicate in above sentences in terms of meaning?


texts: A pronoun/possessive adjective in a complex construction

texts:
"I had been warned about Bill by Dave, and I'd seen his explosive temper in action."

Is the antecedent of the possessive adjective 'his' clear here? Or is there some ambiguity as to whether it refers to Bill or Dave?

Oh, and quick addition: If I made it "I had been warned by Dave about Bill, and I'd seen his explosive temper in action", would that make a difference?


texts:
What would be the phrase or proverb or idiom for "A robber is recognized or appreciated by a thief"?

For instance, a jailbird criminal is supported/helped/appreciated/awarded by a corrupt politician or vice versa etc.


texts: "I read the news on twitter that you asked me to" or "I read the news that you asked me to on twitter"

texts:
Is this sentence of mine grammatically correct?

  I read the news on twitter that you asked me to.

or is it supposed to be:

  I read the news that you asked me to on twitter.

I believe both are correct.


texts: Japan steps up cooling operation. This is from BBC.


texts: What is an "antonym" of "rummage?" I cannot seem to figure out a word which means "searching systematically and tidily through a mass or receptacle."


texts: A single word that describes the moment a person realizes they are dreaming?

texts: Lucid dreams is a phrase to describe the state of someone knowing that they are dreaming.  What I am looking for is a single word that describes that moment of realization.  A friend suggested lucidity, but its definition doesn't quite fit right for what I am seeking.


texts: Volume of clothes. Or volume in clothes?

texts:
I was just wondering which is correct out of these:

  The more boutiques, the more demand for volume of clothes.

Or

  The more boutiques, the more demand for volume in clothes.


texts: Is 'bologna' acceptable for 'baloney' in the sense of nonsense?

texts:
A recent NYTimes article about the state of antitrust cases against Google had the line:

  Most of this is bologna and distracts us from the only question that
  matters

Which seems like an over-correction. Does it make sense to back-form what we'd ordinarily call baloney into bologna?

I see other questions about baloney on this SE but none that go in this direction.


texts: Is "It's not fair on me" grammatically correct?

texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct:

  It's not fair on me.

I've just heard it in a Scottish movie and I thought it sounded quite odd.
I thought the proper way to say it is "It's not fair to me."


texts: While searching for words to substitute "godless" in Thesaurus, I stumbled across that word. After searching in google for a while, I could not find any clear definition other than synonyms to this word, nor can I find the origins of this word. So, does it just mean no god? I reckon searching for synonyms often comes up with words close, but not quite similar to the exact definition of my query.


texts: I'm creating a web application where there is a table with frequency filter. The options that you can choose within the filter are Monthly, Weekly, Daily, and No Frequency. Anyone know a term that describes No Frequency in a single word? When a user chooses a frequency option, it only displays reports related to that particular frequency. No frequency reports are those happen in an ad hoc manner. I could use the word Ad Hoc. But, I just don't like the word...


texts: Why some words ending in -ke become -cable (and/or -cative), while others become -kable (or -keable)

texts: Today I learnt that revoke + able would make revocable. What's the reasoning for this? Are there any other examples like this?


texts: Can "unbiased" be called as one of the synonyms of "apathy"?

texts: Consider the sentence: "He is apathetic of whoever wins the elections", can't we say that he is not biased towards any of the election parties?


texts: Is it correct to write "Awaiting to welcome you" in invitation?

texts:
I am preparing contents for a wedding card, I have little doubt in writing Awaiting to welcome you as the last line of the invitation. Is it okay to write it? or will you please tell me a good line for ending the invitation?

I've also seen some cards with following lines at the end:

  Awaiting to welcome you

Mr. Xyz, Relatives & Friends


texts: Does somebody's "lady" mean somebody's wife?

texts: I recently visited a historic Buddhist temple in Japan and a grave there was in honor of the wife of a feudal samurai lord. The woman was referred to as the lord's "lady" in English. Is it an appropriate expression? I thought a "lady" could also mean a lover.


texts: Descriptive word for someone who is ignorant

texts:
I'd really appreciate if someone could help me find a word to describe the following:

Someone who thinks they are versed in some subject but really only has a superficial grasp of it.

Thanks!


texts:
I am in a literary conundrum, I need to use the "make up for" idiom in past tense, however "make" translates to "made", which forms the "made up" idiom, which is fundamentally different from the "make up for".

Is "made up for" ambiguous? Should I leave it as it is or go for "compensated for"?

The actual sentence is "Stuff that cannot be made up for".


texts: "Your idea's sounding great" or "Your idea sounds great"

texts:
What is the difference in meaning between the following two sentences?

(1) Your idea's sounding great.
(2) Your idea sounds great.

To me, as a non-native speaker both sound grammatical, with the second one being more general. Am I right?


texts: Are "revisited" and "revisiting" temporally different?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
Using -ed vs. -ing in the “needs washed” construction

I used "revisited" in a sentence not unlike this:

In the past we decided policy X should be applied to certain types of users.
I wonder if this needs revisited?

The word revisited was corrected to revisiting:

I wonder if this needs revisiting?

I then did a search to find out what the difference in usage between the two words are and found these examples:
Revisited

Revisited at a future meeting.
Revisited regularly through out the school year.
Revisited in the future.

Revisiting

Revisiting the dream.
Revisiting the treaty at such length, but will instead give a useful overview of its contents.
Tired of constantly revisiting sites to check for new articles?

Is revisited used when it's something you do in the future, but revisiting is something you are doing at a current or past point of time?
I felt the original usage was fine because I didn't expect the "revisit" to happen immediately?
For clarity, I am a British English user (Scottish to be more precise).


texts: Connecting verbs without the preposition "to"

texts:
I came across this sentence:

  "Immersion programs provide precisely the type of environment that Krashen claims fosters acquisition"

in "The Teacher`s Grammar of English"- Ron Cowan, page 31.

I would like to know why these two verbs are used in such order - "claims fosters"?
Would not it be correct if it said "claims to foster acquisition"?
What are we dealing with in this case?


texts: Word Choice - "hope all is well, all things considered"

texts:
In email, and other written messaging is it appropriate (given the current state of the world) to open with something like "Hi XX, I hope you are doing well, all things considered."? I have noticed the urge to include the "all things considered" line more recently due to current world events and am not sure if that conveys the right sentiment I'm going for. In particular, is there a better way to express that I am not necessarily expecting someone to be in a good place, but instead that they are okay factoring in the current circumstances? Note that I am not asking the same as this question: Hope all is good and you are doing well.’- Is it an appropriate opening line in e-mails.
My experience with "I hope you are well" in email has mostly been a response along the lines of "I hope you are well also", but there have been occasions where the person replies that they have in fact not been well and then go on to converse about their troubles. I am concerned that continuing to use just this greeting without acknowledging the present troubles in the world could be perceived as me being unaware of current events, or make it sound like I am using this solely as the opener of an email and am not genuinely inquiring about the recipients well-being.


texts: How do you pronounce it would, it was, etc ( in American English) ? That is, how do you pronounce the "T" when it precedes a semi-vowel like w? Is it a stop T, or even no T at all when pronounced fast ? When followed by a vowel, it's a "flap T" ( ex: " it is") , and when followed by a consonant, it's a full T ( ex: "it looks"), as far as I can see, but this I can't nail down.


texts: Repeating starting and finishing letter words

texts:
I was able to find many words that start and end in same exact 2 or 3 letters.

For example

  Headache

  Entertainment

  Ingesting

I was not able to find any single word (more than 8 letters long) that had exact same four starting and ending letters.

Is there such a word?


texts:
Is there a single word which describes someone who is trying to hide from the truth?
For example, when my acquaintance's father died, she went on living and believing that her father was still alive and was on an overseas trip. What is the term for this condition?


texts: Can we use the superlative form adjective and another adjective at the same time?

texts:
I would like to ask about the usage of adjective.

Simply, is it OK to put another adjective with noun which has already had the superlative formed adjective.
For example, to make "the most beautiful thin flower", or to make "the most important fixed table."

Thank you for your cooperation.


texts: Origins of "You Got This" and "Wait For It"

texts:
What are the earliest reference quotes, using the cool modern senses below, for each phrase?

  ”You got this":
  Motivational encouragement to instill confidence to overcome some problem/foe.
                        (quoting "You've got this" or "I got this" or "I've got this" also counts)

  "Wait for it":
  Command to create suspense in anticipation of some beneficial/exciting occurrence
                        which the speaker is sure will occur within the next few seconds.