texts: This baby-walking device is called a ([prefix]-)[name] by people from [location]

texts:
It shouldn't be hard to agree that people around the world have babies, and people with babies like to take walks with their babies.  So we invented various wheeled devices to securely hold baby during the walk, allowing parent and baby to get fresh air, experience new sights and sounds, and for parent at least to get exercise.  What we can't seem to agree on is what to call the silly things, even among people who speak English.

In the title, I am wondering about the following possible substitutions:

name: stroller, pram (perambulator), buggy, carriage, cart, etc.
optional prefix: baby-, jogging-, etc.
location: US, UK, Australia, India, or any country/culture/region where English is the dominant language.

As in the images, some key differences seem to be:

Whether baby is seated, or lying down
Whether baby faces the direction of walking, or backward toward parent

For purposes of this question, let's ignore that several newer higher-end models are modular/convertible between these options.

Some less important differences might be:

Number of (sets of) wheels, three or four
Size and type of wheels, smaller hard-plastic casters versus larger bicycle-style  (Which I think may just be the difference in adding a "jogging-" prefix or not)

My prior reading has turned up only articles that focus on one specific term, or one specific location.  My hope is someone here can pool all this into one comprehensive discussion.  With that in mind, I would prefer not to get one answer of "American here, and we call them..." and another of "I'm an Aussie, and they are called..." but rather one answer by a well-traveled or well-researched user.  If this isn't possible, then maybe let's start a Community-Wiki answer and have each region edit in its versions of these terms.


texts: Should I use dash in a port name, e.g. http-port, ftp-port, or it's more correct to omit the dash, like "http port", "ftp port"?


texts: Why "themselves" instead of "himself" when referring to third-person singular?

texts:
I've read today a comment from a UK user that sounded weird to me:

  so the OP is shooting themselves in the foot here with the tone then.

I would have said instead:

  so the OP is shooting himself in the foot here with the tone then.

I've taken a look at this but it's way out of my league, and appearently doesn't even answer this question.

Why did he use the third person plural while referring to a third person singular ?


texts: 'Would/do you mind' + whether (polite indirect questions)

texts:
Swan's 'Practical English Grammar' says: "Yes/no questions are reported with if or whether... whether and if can both introduce indirect questions."
e.g:

She asked me if/whether she could sit next to me.

But consider the question itself as a polite request:

Do you mind if I sit next to you?
Would you mind if I sat next to you?

These are clearly two indirect questions with yes/no answers, but 'whether' sounds incorrect in both cases. (Is it?) e.g.:

Would you mind whether I sat next to you?

Can anybody explain grammatically what the procedure is here? It's not clear to me how it should differ from other polite indirect questions which use 'whether', e.g:

Could you tell me whether the train has left?


texts:
In the King James version, Luke 23:15 says

  No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.

It is clear from the context that Pilate is here telling Christ's accusers that Herod found no reason to put Jesus to death. So this may be understood to say

  No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done by him.

Is there an archaic definition of "unto" that equates it to "by?"


texts: Why is it 'speaking'/'speech' instead of 'speeking'/'speech' or 'speaking'/'speach'?

texts: Why is it speaking/speech instead of speeking/speech or speaking/speach?


texts: What is the difference between a raffle and a lottery?

texts: I think that a lottery requires money from the seekers while raffle doesn't. Right?


texts:
I had to saw off the lower limbs of the tree to keep my young kids
from climbing it.

or

I had to saw off the lower limbs of the tree to keep my young kids
from climbing them.

Does the pronoun relate with the tree or limbs?


texts: Why and how did "Shinto shrine" largely replace "Shinto temple"?

texts:
According to ngrams, "Shinto shrine" and "Shinto temple" were roughly equal in popularity until the 1930s, but nowadays, "Shinto shrine" is roughly 9 or 10 times more common than "Shinto temple", while by means of comparison, "Buddhist temple" is still much more common than "Buddhist shrine", so it isn't that the word "shrine" became wildly more popular.

Wiktionary describes a shrine (in this context) as "A holy or sacred place dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, or similar figure of awe and respect, at which said figure is venerated or worshipped.", and a temple as "A house of worship". The two terms "temple" and "shrine" have been around for centuries, though the terms "Buddhism" and "Shinto" are comparatively recent.

Looking through the Wikipedia article on Shinto shrine, I didn't notice any changes in architecture around that time that "Shinto temple" fell out of favour, suggesting that it wasn't the structure of Shinto shrines had changed from something resembling a "temple" to that resembling a "shrine".

However, the Wikipedia article did give an explanation, although without any citations:

  Today, the term "Shinto shrine" in English is used in opposition to
  "Buddhist temple" to mirror in English the distinction made in
  Japanese between Shinto and Buddhist religious structures.

Did English-speakers decide to use different words for different religions, and allocate "temple" for Buddhism, and "shrine" for Shinto? Was a memo passed around to that effect, telling people to stop using "Shinto temple"?


texts:
Yet another question from Salinger's Ocean Full of Bowling Balls. Holden writes to his brother from a camp:

  Ask him if he ever read corinthans. Corinthans is in the bible and is very good and pretty and Web tailer read me some of it.

What does "Web tailer" here refer to? Is this a cultural reference, a typo, or a religious concept/post?

Full context can be found here

Google didn't give much due to the popularity of words "web" and "e-tailer". Google Books search wasn't fruitful either.


texts:
I was listening to my teacher and got confused when she said "I tried to join in on an activity about kids" .

What does ON function in that sentence ?


texts: The usage of 'know' with object and object complement

texts:
Designers draw on their experience of design when approaching
a new project.
This includes the use of previous designs that they
know work ― both designs that they have created themselves and
those that others have created.
Is this something like know A B (like "I know him(A) a doctor(B)" ?


texts: What are some adjectives that mean 'subordinate alternative'?

texts:
Sentence for Context: Please contact Ann preferably via email, or ___ by telephone.

'alternatively' and 'secondarily' are ambiguous, because it can just mean that telephone is a coequal, without revealing Ann's aversion to it.

'subordinately'  does impart Ann's dislike, but is this a right word?


texts: Using English naming customs for foreign names

texts:
In the English-speaking world, many Russians are known primarily by their first and last name: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy.  However, from what I've read, the usual practice in Russian is to include the patronymic when the first name is used: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, etc.

Similar issues occur in languages where the family name is ordinarily written first (e.g. Japanese), or where a person may have multiple family names (e.g. Spanish).

Is it stylistically acceptable to use English conventions for foreign names such as these?  What do major style guides recommend?


texts:
What does the phrase "smiling to beat the band" mean?

In Vera Farmiga's new film Higher Ground, a character describes her uneasiness with door-to-door religious solicitors in this way: "Really nice, but in a creepy way. Too nice. It's like they're smilin' to beat the band."

What does that phrase mean?


texts: How to discuss my unexpected experimental results?

texts:
In my research, I found that my proposed scheme does not provide very "high performance" gains as compared to the conventional scheme I was testing against.

Still, my results are better and I am submitting them to a conference. How can I rephrase the following in an apt manner?

  Here, we would like to mention that this increase is lower than our
  initial expectation.


texts: Is there a term for speech that gradually accelerates?

texts:
I was having a conversation with a friend about typing text crammedtogetherlikeso, to emulate a very quick speaking pattern. He mentioned cadence in regards to this, but I was thinking that cadence was more for rhythm in speech.

I was wondering if there existed a specific term for a gradual or sudden acceleration or deceleration in speech to convey excitment or apathy or the like. (Primarily while talking, not so much in text; though if there were a word for that it would be good to know as well.)


texts: I have been wondering what type of adjective long is, quantity or quality?


texts: What is another, specific word for being full from food?

texts: I'm not really satisfied with what the thesaurus is giving me. Full, stuffed, and satiated don't quite taste right in the context I'm using. Any suggestions?


texts: What is the current state of the pronunciation of the name of the letter H in England?

texts:
The standard pronunciation of the name of the letter H is something like “aitch”. There is a variant pronunciation as “haitch”, which I have mostly seen described as originally a result of hyper-correction (because one shouldn’t drop one’s haitches). Just from watching Youtube videos (in the things that I watch this may come up for example in terms like HDMI or HDR), it seems to me that the form starting with an h-sound is actually prevalent among young speakers from England (and maybe Ireland, Wales, Scotland). As to the meaning of “young” in that statement, the instance that prompted me to finally write this question was a thirty year old astrophysicist.
Now I am sure that my own observation is prone to all kinds of biases. Is there any actual data or some kind of general consensus on the state of the pronunciation of the name of the letter H among young speakers in England? I am actually interested in all of British English, but if it helps to concentrate on England or some regions thereof, then that is fine. I have heard that the phenomenon also exists in Australia, but it is probably better to keep this question focussed on British English.
Remark: I am aware that this topic has come up here before, but questions often asked for the correct pronunciation, which mine does not. Also, I think that the phenomenon is sufficiently recent so that a 10 year old answer may not describe the current state.


texts: How can I rewrite these two sentences to make them compact and cohesive?

texts:
Our monetisation strategy focuses on feeds advertisement, the effect of which has been recognised by advertisers. We are optimistic about attaining our 6 billion revenue goal for this year.

I feel the clause " the effect of which has been recognised by advertisers" is a bit weird, though it is grammatically correct. How can I reorganise these two sentences and improve their structure?


texts: In the sentence, "I want an air-freshener because I can't stand bad smells", why is the because-clause a subordinate clause?

texts:
I want an air-freshener because I can't stand bad smells.

Here, isn't 'I can't stand bad smells' a coordinate clause? It is complete in itself, right? It's only after adding 'because' that the sentence becomes subordinate.
But 'because' is a conjunction. So, if we want to check if a clause is coordinate or subordinate, shouldn't we exclude the conjunction ('because') here?
Edit: Thanks to the people who have answered this question! Below, I am writing what I have inferred/concluded from all the answers. I request everyone, to inform if what I understood is correct or not.

subordinate clauses are necessary in the sentence to convey its full
meaning, and that coordinate clauses are of greater value/importance than
subordinate ones.

Coordinate and subordinate clauses can exist without the help of each
other, and will make complete sense, but in order to convey the whole
meaning of the original sentence, it is important to use them both.

Let's say in this sentence, both are making complete sense on its
own, but coordinate clauses are more important. "I want a freshener"
is more important than telling its reason. "I can't stand bad
smells", which is the subordinate clause in this sentence, can
stand alone, but it is of lesser importance in the original sentence.


texts: What does "tell you love your honey" mean?

texts:
It says "You have no tomorrow promised. So, tell you love your honey."
Shouldn't be "...tell your love to your honey"?

https://twitter.com/eikaiwa_tw/status/685382110304010240


texts: Are there any differences between "of itself" and "by itself"?

texts:
I take both phrases (in the sense I'm addressing) to indicate that there is no outside agency involved. But I wonder if the sentences below, for example, illustrate slight differences in meaning:

The door opened of itself.
The machine will start by itself in few seconds.

Can the phrases be interchanged here?


texts: On using a plural for an action to be performed multiple times

texts:
I've always wondered which of the following is correct:

"I would like to give a speech on the 12th and the 17th"
"I would like to give speeches on the 12th and the 17th"

In this scenario, I'm giving one speech on the 12th and another on the 17th.


texts:
What does self-deliverance mean?

What I don't get is, self-deliverance means different depending on a context used.
I mainly hear the word in music but not sure what it means.


texts: Why do we say "There is a benefit to..." not "There is a benefit of"?

texts:
At least in my dialect of english (so-called American Standard) the latter would sound strange. Does anyone experience it this way? Of course, "The benefit of..." is acceptable. The same is true of (dis)advantage. Are there any other examples like this?

[update] a closely related question is mentioned in the comments. The degree of relatedness is discussed in the comments below. Some answers to this question might not serve as an answer to that one. Some answers given to that one have relevance here. The question specifically came up because I was asked to proofread something containing the specific latter construction, which I was inclined to argue was not valid. "There is a benefit of eating rice," for example, does not seem "correct" to me.

Also, my title has been validly criticized. "Why do we" might better be phrased as "In what way do these mean different things? What meanings do they share and not share?" I hope that is more acceptable.


texts: How did the term "worthless" come by its current definition?

texts:
If I were to define the term "worthless," I would define it as "worth LESS" or "worth not a lot."

But the actual dictionary definition is something like "worth zero." That's even less than "worth less" or "worth-not-a-lot."

How did the term come by its actual connotation. Could "less" in this context be a play or derivative of the German "los?" (The German Wertlos has the same meaning as the English worthless.)


texts: "Help somebody with" vs "Help somebody in"

texts:
In examples like the following, what is the difference between "with" and "in". Although, this is only one example, it would be interesting if someone can explain it in more detail.

I will help you with cooking.
I will help you in cooking.

I searched it online and Google came up with both forms used in different websites.


texts: quote/phrase for "more likely to use something if it is right there"

texts:
I am looking for a saying/quote/phrase that says that people are more likely to use something if it is right there and ready for use than if they need to put in effort to do so.

A simple example would be that if seat belts had to be majorly installed every time they were used, then people would not use them as much as they do now (when they're relatively easy to use).


texts: What is it called when you "expose" someone for being irritating or infuriating?

texts:
Every day and everywhere with my brother, it's always me who gets irritated by his attitude but nobody else who encounters him is saying anything about that (literally nobody it's unbelievable) and yet his behavior is obviously maddening and I'm surprised no one is telling him to shut up or pointing out his cringeworthy and exasperating actions (maybe for not being rude (other people) but my family lives with him and they never say anything about his pesky attitude).
Of course, I never stay silent, I always "expose" him every time he makes my blood boil (I'm always the only one who does that) and all his comebacks are the same as always like "shut up who talked to you" or "what" or even just saying nothing because he knows that I'm always right.
So what's the word for pointing out every trait from someone who makes you enraged when nobody is doing it?


texts:
I hope to understand the use of the preposition to gerunds and the overall structure of the following sentence. Normally the use of to is to specify a destination or a purpose but here the way it is used is unfamiliar to me.

The report was relentlessly hostile to the scientist,
interpreting one complex event after
another to his discredit.

I await your answers.


texts: About Lovecraft's style to start a sentence with 'For'

texts:
I'm reading my first ever novel in English (French is my mother tongue): Tales of Horror by H.P Lovecraft.
Surprisingly, reading this book is fine for me, however there's a sentence construction I don't fully understand.  This is when Lovecraft is starting a sentence with For. He's using this style so often that I arrived at a point I really want to understand this way of writing.
Random examples:
From The Shunned House:

For on my ears rang the reverberations of that shocking scream, while my nostrils revolted at the stench which filled the place.

From Herbert West - Reanimator:

For that visitor was neither Italien nor policeman.

Could you please explain to me the purpose of adding For at the beginning of sentences like in these examples?
Does this way of constructing a sentence has a particular name?
I'm a bit confused by this style so I want to know more about it.
Thanks for your answers


texts:
Do 'inq' and 'ink' sound similar?

I want to register a domain name which is related to data (writing stuff). Is it okay to use 'inq' rather than 'ink'?


texts:
In passive sentences with reporting verbs, how do we know whether to use

To Vbare

or

To Have Vpastpasticiple?

For example,

People believed she worked very hard → She was believed to work very hard

Or

→ She was believed to have worked very hard.


texts:
I have a sentence where I want to say that X is one of several things in a category, i.e.

"...where X is an A, B, C, or D, etc."  The elements A, B, C, or D are not exhaustive, so I want to include etc. to indicate that, but I don't know where to place etc.


texts: Comma in "more than $6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit, in a pact that also permits"

texts:
Visa Inc.,  MasterCard Inc. and some large banks agreed to pay scores of retailers—from giant Publix Supermarkets Inc. to an interior-design store in Minnesota—more than $6 billion to settle a long-running lawsuit, in a pact that also permits merchants to charge more to customers who pay with credit cards. — WSJ

How would the meaning change if that comma between "lawsuit" and "in a pact" is removed?

Another example:

  The two sides have agreed to stop fighting in a pact that allows further peace talks.
  The two sides have agreed to stop fighting, in a pact that allows further peace talks.


texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct? Is the verb "sleep" transitive or intransitive? Thanks.
"Babies sleep eighteen hours."


texts:
I've been wondering whether it is somewhat derogatory to call a user a punter. For instance,

  We should encourage punters to participate in the discussions.

Update: My apologies — I owe you an explanation. I do a lot of User Experience work for an organisation (online service) where internally users are occasionally referred to as punters. Because personas, customers and users are centric to my line of work, it bothers me every time I hear a word that may even remotely indicate users' inferiority. You know what they say — "Great UX is cultural". I've read a few references, but because English isn't my first language I wanted to find out whether there is a subtle nuance beyond a dictionary definition.


texts: "Was it your father who made these bookshelves?" - Is it a correct / best way to ask if the bookshelves were made by someone's father?

texts:
"Was it your father who made these bookshelves?"

vs

  "Were these bookshelves made by your father?"

I've been constructing questions (and statements) in the former way quite a lot.

But, I'm having doubts... Is this correct? I'm not sure if I've ever heard (or seen) such a sentence from anyone else (than me)... and it seems too similar to how I'd ask this in my native language (Polish)... so, I wonder, if I didn't unknowingly literately "autotranslate" this question from Polish to English... with the result being either artificial or outright incorrect.

Thus, may I ask if it is true that:

The former sentence is incorrect, only the latter one is correct;
The former sentence is correct, but sounds artificial in English; only the latter sentence should normally be used;
Both sentences are correct and sound naturally; the difference between these two sentences is that they stress slightly different things?


texts: the word confer in an official academic letter

texts:
I am wondering is this the right way to use confer in a sentence which is part of an official academic letter.

<'degree title'> conferred on <'student name'> by <'the dept., college, university'> on<'data of the award'>.

Example:

This is to further acknowledge that Master of Science in Information Systems was conferred on Ms.Sarah by the Department of Information Systems, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King University, on 1st of July 2011.


texts: What is the sense of "bosom labouring" here?

texts:
I've just came a cross the following sentence:

  It seemed to breathe from a bosom labouring under the deadliest terror.

and can't puzzle out the meaning of this two words combined together in this sentence. Could someone explain?


texts: A word for something that is immoral, but beneficial?

texts: Is there a word for something that is immoral or unethical, but must be done since it is beneficial. For example you would use the word to describe something like this, "we must kill those who misbehave so that we may maintain peace and prosperity in the country". Or another good example is Dexter from the TV show Dexter, he kills people, but he kills them because they are bad people.


texts: Correct prepositions to use with "risk of/for ABC for XYZ"

texts:
In a scientific medical context I need to talk about "risk" in various contexts. Two exemplary phrases each with a separate meaning are:

the risk of having ABC
risk that having ABC causes XYZ

To the former I refer to as "risk of ABC", now it seems strange to me to refer to the latter as "the risk of ABC for XYZ". As  a non-native speaker it is hard for me to assess whether the latter would convey the correct meaning. Better suggestions are welcome


texts:
The title of a section of a book by Robert Nozick is: *How to Back into a State without Really Trying".

I've never come across the word back as a verb, except to back up.

I can't find this phrasal verb in the dictionaries. What is the meaning of to back into?


texts: Meaning of a quote in the movie Casino (1995)

texts:
I am watching Martin Scorcese's movie Casino (1995) and there is lot of idioms. I am not native english speaker so I am searching for the meaning of quotes I didnt know already. I found meaning of most of them but I cant find meaning of the last two sentences in this one (in bold):

"The little guy. He's half in the bag, and nobody told him he was eighty-sixed from the joint, so we all turned our heads and made out like we didn't know who he was. He's over at the twenty-one table with his nose wide open. He took the money out of his own kick. His nose is open for about ten thousand."

I thought "nose wide open" has something to do with using cocaine but it doesnt make much sense. Thanks for explanation of the meaning.


texts: Do comparisons make up a special case for understanding either/or as a logical operator?

texts:
This question was prompted by a friend who is a fluent speaker of English but not a native one.

Consider the following cases:

I either eat the apple or the orange. I eat: apple XOR orange.
I eat either the apple or the orange. I eat: apple XOR orange.

No difference.

Now consider:

The banana either costs more than the apple or the orange. banana > apple XOR banana > orange

That is: The banana costs more than the apple or the orange, but not both.

The banana costs more than either the apple or the orange. banana > apple AND banana > orange

That is: The banana costs more than both the apple and the orange.

My friend asked me, as a native speaker, to first confirm that this was the correct logical translation and then to explain just what the hell is going on here. What rule governs the distinction in the second pair of propositions?

Usually in these cases, I just explain it away as some form of idiomatic expression: "Sometimes either/or means exclusive-or and sometimes it means and. It's just the way it works."

However, I did notice one thing here. This distinction arises in the propositions involving a comparison between subject and objects: less than or more than.

Am I on to something? Anybody have a more coherent explanation?


texts: Should Kyle be corrected, and if he doesn't, why?

texts:
In a recent blog entry, Jeff Atwood quotes his sysadmin Kyle:

  "Should the developers have access to the production environment, and if they do, to what extent?"

My understanding is that this sentence is only perfectly grammatical if it's parsed as:

  "Should the developers have access to the production environment, and if they do [already have access to the production environment], to what extent [is it okay for them to have it]?"

However, that is not what Kyle is actually asking. It's fairly obvious that he expects the question to be parsed as:

  "Should the developers have access to the production environment, and if they do [should], to what extent?"

And sure enough, that's exactly how I parsed it when I first read it. As in, I didn't even blink at the "do" kicking out a modal verb. It was only upon reading the sentence for a third or fourth time that it struck me as odd. It should also be noted that Kyle is a native speaker. So the construction can't be that ungrammatical after all, does it? Must we correct Kyle, and if we don't, why?

Edit: some of the people who have answered/commented say that they do, in fact,
read Kyle's question as:

  Should the developers have access to the production environment?
  If they already have access, to what extent is it OK for them to have it?

It looks like I have to explain why this reading makes little sense — at which I only hinted above — even when no context whatsoever is provided (and Kyle's post is well over a thousand words long).

This interpretation means that if developers already have access, the first question doesn't apply. We will throw it away just for them. But the first question is universal, it must not be thrown away. It is more general, more important. If we come to the conclusion that developers, in general, should not have access to the production environment, it also applies to those developers who already do have access. In fact, it applies to them more than to anyone else.

So, Kyle cannot possibly be asking: "Should the developers have access to the production environment? Oh, and if your developers already have access, never mind, forget that question, let's just discuss how much access is okay." Much rather, he is asking: "Should the developers have access to the production environment? And if and only if the answer to that question is 'yes', how much access should they have?"


texts:
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-russian-militants-attack-police-hq-ukraines-odessa-141824310.html

  In a bid to calm the crowd, police freed one of the detained pro-Russians, who emerged to cheers of "well played" from the protesters.

How do you understand that phrase in bold?


texts: What does “stand to” mean in the sentence, “China’s Health Ministry stands to profit from the industry’s growth?”

texts:
I found the following sentence in an archive of the Financial Times articles dated August 29, 2007, which was titled “Chinese? Don’t get ill.”

  The problems of the health system are tangled up in the country’s larger policy conflicts. How much of a role should be allowed for the market? The health ministry, which stands to profit from the industry’s growth, is resisting giving too much ground to the private sector.

As I can’t get the exact idea of Chinese Health Ministry “stands to profit” from the industry’s growth, I consulted the meaning of “stand to” with several dictionaries;

Neither of Cambridge or Merriam-Webster Dictionary registers “stand to” as an idiom though both carry “stand up to stg” as an idiom, Oxford Dictionaries provides the definition of “stand to” as;

Military stand ready for an attack, especially one before dawn or after attack. Example: Orders come to the guardsmen to stand to.

Sanseido’s Wisdom English Japanese dictionary carries “stand to” as an idiom meaning “stand ready for.”

The freedictionary.com defines “stand to” as “to rise to (or maintain) an upright position on the feet.

To me, none of the above definitions does seem to comfortably fit to the context of the line, “(Chinese) Health Ministry, stands to profit from the industry’s growth.

What meaning does “stand to” have other than “stand ready for” as an idiom? Or it’s not an idiom, it’s simply a verb (stand) ＋to do (profit) - from the industry growth.


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase "laying a fuse"?


texts: Looking for a phrase to replace "it is noteworthy"

texts:
I am looking for a phrase to interchangeably use with "it is noteworthy that" or "it is critical to note that".

The phrase will be used in a math paper to grab the attention of readers at specific parts of the text. Any suggestions?


texts:
In this sentence, does the adjective "warm" modify "tea cup" or just "cup?"

  "That is a warm tea cup."

If the adjective "warm" from the previous example modifies "tea cup" then would "warm" modify the entire phrase "cup of tea" in this sentence?

  "This is a warm cup of tea."

In this sentence, does "nicest" modify "mean person" or just "person?"

  "You are the nicest mean person I have ever met."


texts: Origin of "no such thing" idiomatic phrase

texts:
The risk of asking this question could be like asking the question

  What is the origin of the phrase "I love you", or "I need a shower", etc

which grew out of spontaneous language use.

Anyway, I am willing to take that risk because I have a strong feeling that its origins could be traced to a few or a singular event.

Examples of usage:

There is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is no such thing as Truth.
There is no such thing as real democracy.
There is no such thing as blah .. blah ...


texts: Is it correct to say "the previous resident of the offce"?

texts: Is it correct to say "the previous resident of the offce" speaking of the person who used to be in the office I am in right now?


texts: Vocations and what people are famous for

texts:
The lead section on Wikipedia biographies tend to contain:

Their birth name
Their date of birth (in brackets)
Their vocation(s), and/or the thing(s) they are famous for

I'm aware this is called the lead section, but I'm specifically interested in the last bit.

Is there a name for a sentence that describes a person's vocation(s) and/or the thing(s) they are famous for?


texts:
I'm writing an academic paper and have added some information within a set of brackets. I have then added a citation to this piece of information, which has now left me with this sentence:

  A total CI of lower than 1 and the low p-values of <0.05 (recorded between 0-1 (REFERENCE)) indicate that this...

Is my use of double brackets accurate or should I be using []?


texts: Pronoun for antedecents of different gender connected with "or" ,"either... or..."

texts:
I know that the sentence "David or Michael forgot to take his parasol" is correct.

But what about the case when two opposite genders are connected by or?

  David or Alice forgot to take _ parasol.

Which pronoun fits the blank?

Likewise when or connects plural and singular nouns. E.g., "either the manager or his assistants failed in their duty" is fine, but what if I switch them around?

  Either the assistants or their manager failed in _ duty.

Again, which pronoun should be used here?


texts: Adjectives and nouns to describe an answer that doesn't answer the question?

texts:
I've heard of the adjectives 'nonresponsive' or 'unresponsive', but are they restricted to law^?

  Collins Dictionary: nonresponsive =
      not responsive, not reacting to a stimulus

The definition above differs from the definitions of adjectives like 'equivocate,  evade' and nouns like 'dodging', but these are negative and accusive; I prefer neutral connotation.

^Only if you wish, please see: http://law.indiana.edu/instruction/tanford/web/reference/objections.html, p 169 of The Trial Lawyer: What it Takes to Win by David Berg,
p 271 of Trials: Strategy, Skills, and the New Power of Persuasion
by Thomas A. Mauet.


texts: What does "peak and pine" mean in this ballad?

texts:
From scoutsongs.com Oh, My Darling Clementine

  In a cavern, In a canyon, Excavating for a mine, Dwelt a miner
  forty-niner, And his daughter Clementine.

  Chorus: Oh my darling, Oh my darling, Oh my darling Clementine, You
  are lost and gone forever, Dreadful sorry Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  Light she was and like a fairy, And her shoes were number nine;
  Herring boxes, without topses, Sandals were for Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  Drove she ducklings to the water, Every morning just at nine; Hit her
  foot against a splinter, Fell into the foaming brine.

  Repeat chorus

  Ruby lips above the water, Blowing bubbles, soft and fine; But Alas! I
  was no swimmer, So I lost my Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  When the miner forty-niner, Soon began to peak and pine, Thought he
  oughter "jine" his daughter, Now he's with his clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  In a corner of the churchyard, Where the myrtle boughs entwine, Grow
  the roses in their poses, Fertilized by Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  In my dreams she still doth haunt me, Robed in garments soaked in
  brine. Though in life I used to hug her, Now she's dead, I'll draw the
  line.

  Repeat chorus

  How I missed her, how I missed her How I missed my Clementine. So I
  kissed her little sister, And forgot my Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

  Now you Boy Scouts, there's a moral To this little tale of mine.
  Artificial respiration, Would have saved my Clementine.

  Repeat chorus

What is meant by "peak and pine"? I know some versions of the song that end after the verse "Now he's with his clementine.", the version that continues on seems strange as the lyrics seem to suggest the miner committed suicide to be with Clementine but at the end he "kissed her little sister" which shows he's not dead.


texts: Word for something that happened to oneself due to circumstances

texts:
Is there a word to describe one's action of being swayed/led by the circumstances around themselves?

Example :

  A girl establishes a house only after inheriting a large sum of money. She just built it because her circumstances favored her.

Trying to find a word for a person who just does something because of circumstances and not because of their ethics.


texts:
We have the word additive as in "An additive process" or "additive manufacturing".
Why do we not have the antonym subtractive?
This seems relevant to styles of coding. Especially in css.
When building for mobile first, the process of making it desktop compatible is additive. Adding or including assets as the page expands. While building desktop first, the process of making it mobile compatibile would be subtractive. Removing or hiding elements or assets as the page collapses.
It could also be used when talking about SVGs or other image manipulation tools when subtracting a layer mask. "Additive blending" is used to describe "Linear Dodge". Additive gradients are also discussed.


texts: When to make compound adjectives with adverbs?

texts:
I'm trying to figure out what style guidelines or rules apply to creating compound adjectives when adverbs are involved. Typically you create compound adjectives when there is potential for ambiguity between the noun and the previous modifiers(s):

  This is a high-risk behavior.

But you don't typically hypenate 'ly' adverb pairs (I believe).

  This is a highly risky behavior.

While the example above looks correct to me, the example below just feels somehow wrong.

  That is a friendly looking dog.

It should be be:

  That is a friendly-looking dog.

Is there a general rule or style guidance for when a compound word is preferred over leaving the modifiers separate?


texts: What is the name of words or phrases people insert into sentences, seemingly unintentionally? And the practice?

texts:
For instance, I have a friend who just can't help himself constantly saying "ok". He'll say things like "ok, now we're going to [...]" or "now we've seen that, ok", and I'm just wondering what this practice is called.

I used to think this sort of thing was called a "verbal tic", but according to Wikipedia:

  Phonic tics are involuntary sounds produced by moving air through the nose, mouth, or throat. They may be alternately referred to as verbal tics or vocal tics, but most diagnosticians prefer the term phonic tics to reflect the notion that the vocal cords are not involved in all tics that produce sound.


texts:
The verb "reclaim" means:

  Recover (material) for reuse; recycle: 'a sufficient weight of plastic
  could easily be reclaimed'

The verb "recycle" means:

  Convert (waste) into reusable material: 'car hulks were recycled into
  new steel' (as noun recycling) 'a call for the recycling of all paper'

[Oxford Online Dictionary]

They look like synonyms, but the actual usages seem very different.

For example, when you google "reclaimed wood furniture", you get 425,000 hits but only 263,000 hits for "recycled wood furniture".

The striking difference is when you google "recycled paper", you get around 7 million hits, but only 29,000 hits for "reclaimed paper". And I think the difference comes from the definitions of the two verbs. Recycled paper comes from mostly "waste".

Obvious questions:

The 2 verbs seem to be interchangeable for furniture. But not for paper. Is there any reason why other than "that's the way it is"?
I always used "reclaimed wood desk/furniture/table" for relatively cheap furniture. Does "recycled wood furniture" have a different connotation, probably related with "waste" in the definition?

In terms of etymology, recycle was used to mean "specifically of waste material from 1960". But there is no explanation about "when it started to mean to recycle in the [Etymology Online Dictionary] about "reclaim"  except:

  Meaning "bring waste land into useful condition fit for cultivation"
  first attested 1764,

When did "reclaim" start to mean (sort of) "to recycle"? Are there any specific nouns that allow only "reclaim"?


texts:
The following excerpt is from a film review by Elizabeth Kerr:

  A sensual May-December romance between a popular romance writer and her student-turned-assistant takes a tragic turn when her early onset Alzheimer's asserts itself in Butterfly Sleep...

"Onset" is a noun but it seems it is used as an adjective here. Or are you allowed to have two nouns (onset and Alzheimer's) in a row?

How could you write this sentence differently, using "onset" in a simpler way, so I didn't have to debate if using two nouns were a problem?

Thank you very much.


texts: 'The Dog and Duck' is not an uncommon pub name in England.I have read in The Dictionary of Pub Names (Wordsworth Reference Series) that the pub name sometimes originated from the sport of duck hunting. This was favoured by Charles 2nd and remained popular until the early 19th century. Ducks wings were pinioned and they were thrown into the village pond to be hunted by spaniels. The only way the ducks could escape was to dive. I have read a number of explanations of the usage of the phrase, but could this have been the origin?


texts:
I know that "could've" and similar contractions are common, but how would you rate "it've" as a contraction of "it have"? Acceptable? Horrible? Something else?

In case context matters: "Could it've come from the cave?"


texts: How to pluralize a last name like Thomas

texts: If I am addressing a card to multiple family members with the last name Thomas, is the correct spelling Thomas's or Thomas'?


texts:
What's the meaning of hood in this comment? Is it neighbourhood, or it's a slang for something else?

  Cutler Ridge (they renamed it to Cutler Bay now wtf) has been hood for a long time. We used to street race out at Black Point when I was a dumb ass teenager. But Saga Bay and the immediate coast areas were pretty nice back then.

Edit:

This poster made his comment in response to the following remark that's made from another poster:

  My dad's SUV got jacked when I was living in Saga Bay. Don't live in FL anymore. Too much f-king crime and grime.


texts: "It's time everyone had access" or "It's time everyone has access"

texts:
Is this sentence gramatically correct?

  We think it's time everyone had access to the means of media production so we have developed a set of tools for it.

Or should I use has instead?

  We think it's time everyone has access to the means of media production so we have developed a set of tools for it.

Does it affect the meaning?


texts: Commas for essential appositives – “the subreddit /r/LanguageTechnology”, or “the subreddit, /r/LanguageTechnology”,

texts:
The answer is from user YourWelcomeOrMine from the subreddit
  /r/LanguageTechnology/.

I instinctively wanted to put a comma between “subreddit” and “/r/LanguageTechnology”, but “/r/LanguageTechnology/” is an essential appositive(?), so you don’t put a comma?

I don’t know why I didn’t feel the same way with “user YourWelcomeOrMine”, even though it’s probably the same situation.

Thanks.


texts: Any differences between "modify" and "change"?

texts:
In the context of sharing flight irregularity information to the passengers, are there any differences between "Your flight has been modified" and " Your flight has been changed"?
My understanding is that change means to become something completely different, while modify means to make partial changes. I would prefer "modified" if the flight is being rescheduled to a different date but with same flight number and route. Appreciate your suggestions to find the proper word.
Thanks.


texts:
When someone asked Berra how he liked school, he said, "Closed."
  Take it with a grin of salt
  It gets late early out here
  I think they just got through marinating the greens

These are Yogi Berra's sayings of which I can't understand the meaning.

Would you help me understand these sayings' meaning?


texts: Is there a British slang word for "company man"?

texts: I remember coming across a word that was British, and seemed to be a more specific reference to what we call a "company man" in the US. But this was a while ago and I forget it.


texts:
A customer recently sent me an email saying that he was being pre-pre-emptive. He got an updated product earlier than other customers.

I checked out the dictionary but I still find it hard to understand what he meant. Can anyone help me?


texts: "Could have" vs "might have" (in lucky escape situation)

texts:
That was a lucky escape! You might have been killed.
  That was a lucky escape! You could have been killed.

Which one is more suitable in this situation? Is there any difference between them?

Thanks in advance!


texts: How to refer to a split button in instructions?

texts:
A split button is a button in a program that the user can click it to do something or can click an arrow next to it to access additional functions. Here's an example:

If I am writing instructions that involve a split button, who should I instruct the user to access the secondary functions?

For example, if I needed to write a step in some instructions for the reader to access "Restart" in the above image, how would I write it?


texts: What does "Not a dream will i have left" mean?

texts:
I have no idea.

This is a part of classic song.

Is "Not a dream will I have left" "Not a dream / will I have left" or "Not a dream will / I have left"?

Is "will i have left" a form of future perfect's question?

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/carl+butler/dont+let+me+cross+over_20185290.html


texts: Need an adjective for the word "question"

texts:
What do you call a question that needs to be answered in the affirmative for a larger question to be answered in the affirmative?

I'm writing an introduction in this way:

This article attempts to answer the following question: <question specified>.

  To answer this question, we also need to answer the ________ question: <subsidiary question specified>

What will fill the blank appropriately? "Subsidiary" seems weak and inelegant.

Any suggestions?


texts: Is there a name for synonyms that appear to have opposite meanings?

texts:
The words flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, but (to someone unfamiliar with their meaning) appear to be opposites (because of the "in" prefix). Is there a name for such word pairs that appear to be opposites but actually mean the same thing?
A few other examples are ravel/unravel, regardless/irregardless, radiation/irradiation, incite/excite, culpatory/inculpatory, press/depress, to/unto, part/depart, fat chance/slim chance, thaw/dethaw/unthaw, candescent/ incandescent, canny/uncanny, dead/undead, write up/write down, valuable/invaluable, habitable/inhabitable


texts:
I came across the word, “The wonk gap” used as the headline of the article written by Paul Krugman in New York Times’ September 8 issue.
The word reappears in the following sentence:

  Senator Rand Paul --insisted, “the size of growth of government is
  enormous under President Obama” - which was completely untrue but was
  presumably what his sources had told him, knowing that it was what he
  wanted to hear.  For that, surely, is what the wonk gap is all about.
   - Source

None of CED, OED, and Merriam-Webster carries “wonk gap,” nor does GoogleNgram.

However, there are  dozens of descriptions incorporating “wonk gap” on Google Serach.

For an example, the article written by Steve Benen in MSnbc Maddow blog ( June 3, 2013) comes under the headline, “Avik Roy and the wonk gap,” and goes on:

  “Jon Krugman, and others have detailed reports explaining why Avik
  Roy's analysis simply doesn't make sense, and I hope folks will follow
  the links to understand the underlying policy dispute. It's not just
  of a gray area; Roy is simply wrong. But it's the point about "why we
  can't have an honest debate" that resonates with me. Indeed, it
  reinforces the "wonk gap" thesis I've been kicking around for a while.
   - Source

OED defines ‘wonk’ as;

(North American informal/derogatory)

a studious or hard-working person: any kid with an interest in science was a wonk
a person who takes an excessive interest in minor details of political policy:he is a policy wonk in tune with a younger generation of voters.

But it doesn’t give me a clear idea of ‘wonk gap’.

What does “wonk gap” mean in essence, in a couple of words?

Do most Americans understand and use this phrase, or it’s just a politics, or press jargon, of which currency is limited to a select group of people?


texts: Original Meaning and Derivation of "Ever and Anon"

texts:
A question posted today asks about the Use of “ever” in non-negated sentence, and one answer happens to mention the phrase "ever and anon." That phrase, with the meaning "occasionally or repeatedly," goes back at least as far as Shakespeare, who writes in Henry IV (act 1, scene 3):

  And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held/A pouncet-box, which ever and anon/He gave his nose, and took't away again.

But did "ever and anon" always carry this meaning? The meaning isn't intuitively obvious to me from its components because, in this setting, I think of ever as meaning "always" (though in other situations it can mean "at least once") and anon as meaning "soon" or "later." If not, what was the original meaning of the phrase? If so, how did it emerge from the separate meanings of ever and anon?


texts:
Is there a single word to denote reducing the color palette of an image to two colors: black and white? For instance, navy becomes black and beige turns into white.

I know there is desaturate, but it's too broad, can mean even a slight reduction in color.


texts: I'm trying to make out the meaning of this expression. So far I've seen meanings in several websites but I couldn't give it a closure (I couldn't fully understand the meaning). I'd be glad if someone could help me with this and if so, put it in a cohesive way.


texts:
The excerpt below is from Liar's Poker.  What nationality does the word "nipper" refer to? Also, is it derogatory?

  [...]he'd sell a few hundred millions worth of government bonds and grow bright again. “Yeah, Mikey!” he’d shout, as he scribbled a sales ticket. “The nippers, they love me. And I’m whipping and driving them. OOOOhhhhhhh yeaahhhh.”


texts: Why isn’t “him that is” instead “him who is” in this passage from the 1500s?

texts:
From page 123 of Frederick Schauer’s Thinking Like a Lawyer:

  As long ago as the sixteenth century, Lord Selden observed that

    . . . Equity is
    according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is
    longer or narrower so is equity. ’Tis all one as if they should make the
    standard for the measure [of a linear foot] a Chancellor’s foot.

I realise that this is from the 16th century, but shouldn’t the bold that be who there?

I wouldn’t expect someone as learned as Lord Selden to err grammatically like this.


texts: Italicizing a Title Which Includes a Ship Name

texts: I am writing an essay for school on the book The Wreck of the Whale-ship Essex for school.  However, the Essex, as a ship, should also be italicized.  Should I write it as "The Wreck of the Whale-ship Essex?"


texts: Should I follow English conventions, or write what sounds better?

texts:
How a sentence sounds when read aloud or in your head can often "sound" different for each individual doing so; however, I was reading details regarding the usage of "data" and "datum" and was intrigued by the alleged usage of it and how said usage flowed within a sentence/phrase.

It is explained here that the word data should not be used as,

  ...the data tells us...

but rather,

  ...the data tell us...

Reading the first seems natural, I've heard it quite often; however, the second seems very hard to read or say - simply unnatural in my mouth.  A similar situation is found with Hoi Polloi where it is incorrect to say,

  ...gone to meet with the hoi polloi...

but often corrected to,

  ...gone to meet with hoi polloi...

due to the redundancy of the term "the" (where Hoi Polloi meaning "The Many").

While my specific usage of these two situations may not be finely crafted, I believe the concept/question to be evident:  Is it better to appease my audience by using a commonly used phrasing, or is it better to adhere to the correct implementation of the words/phrases?

Another consideration is my credibility.  Will the readers perhaps discredit my writings due to the unfamiliar conventions utilized?


texts: Phrase for action "testing and correcting"

texts: What is a phrase to indicate the action testing and correcting? For example, imagine a situation in which you don't know what you should do exactly and step by step you change things and see the results.


texts: Is "established convention" a tautology?

texts:
Established convention looks like a tautology to me, though it could be found in many serious sources. Should I avoid it in technical writing and use just convention instead?

The Independent: Green as I am, I learned something new here, something which I suspect would be news to a lot of people, journalists or otherwise: if a reporter has a friendly chat with the Queen, it's a matter of established convention that her remarks remain private.

The Guardian: My aim is to turn established conventions on their heads.

The New York Times: However, when it comes to connected services, there are no established conventions.


texts:
A friend of mine received a letter stating the following: "The committee has issued orders to suspend John Doe for 30 days from the 20th of April 2018 until the 19th of May 2018." So, does the suspension end on the day of the 19th of May, or the 20th of May?
Thanks.


texts: Suggested alternatives for "nice-to-have" as a noun

texts:
In the example below, I’m looking for a suitable synonym for nice-to-have. I’m specifically looking for an appropriate noun replacement; do we actually have such a thing in English?

  Maintenance shouldn’t be a ‘nice-to-have’ but an all-important necessity.


texts: Why is the word 'appetite' appropriate in this context?

texts:
In his book about Bill Clinton, Christopher Hitchens describes how, in a 1992 speech on an event hosted by Jesse Jackson, Clinton "ambushed" Jackson by picking a fight with certain anti-White rap lyrics. Hitchens relates how, in reaction to this, Jackson "exasperatedly described the hungry young candidate as 'just an appetite'"

Why does Jackson use 'appetite' here? Is this an idiom I'm not familiar with?

I do see the potential wordplay on 'hungry' but I wonder if that's really supposed to be the punchline here. Since if it was, it seemed a bit off-target for Jackson quite clearly intended to rebuke the presidential candidate's behaviour, which is something else entirely than scoffing his hunger for office.


texts: I've come across instances where I felt using both was just fine. The dictionary definition doesn't provide much clarity either. Could someone please clarify the differences between the two?


texts:
What are the subjects, verbs and objects in this sentence?
Is it a sentence with two independent clauses?

Anybody who changed jobs too many times risked being seen as a “flake.”


texts:
What follows is a few sentences from two existing translation of The Gambler by FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY.
At first,I must say ,I don't want by any means to take PEVER and VOLOKHONSKY part. In my view ,however,the first translation is unintelligible in parts.perhaps,of course ,for me.

  The first translation:
  At length I returned from two weeks leave of absence to find that my patrons had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg.

I can't understand the sentence after 'to find that'. I feel the translator should have written the sentence in this way:

  My interpretation: At length I returned from two weeks leave of
  absence to find that my patrons ( who ) had arrived three days ago in
  Roulettenberg.

Namely,we must add WHO to the sentence
And,according to the story ,patrons is also disproportionate.

Now,please,pay attention to the second translation .

  The second translation: I've finally come back from my two-week absence.our people have already been in Roulettenburg for three days.

Is my criticism just?


texts: Usage of 'future perfect' versus 'future simple'

texts:
I have a question about the usage of the future perfect thingy: I know that it is used to talk about a completed action before a time in future, but is it wrong to use just plain future simple in this same case?

For example, can we use

  I will finish all my money by the end of the week.

instead of

  I will have finished all my money by the end of the week?

Do native speakers follow this rule in their speaking?


texts:
I sometimes get confused whether to use in or at. For example,

Children were not at school yesterday, because yesterday was a holiday.
Children were not in school yesterday, because yesterday was a holiday.

Is there a rule of thumb to not confuse in and at?


texts: Tags with or : Or do I ? Is it always proper english?

texts:
I often see sentences with the structure

  Girls just wanna have fun, or do they?

I know that with tags, the modal is supposed to be affirmative if the phrase was negative, and negative if the contrary. For example, I think it's true, don't you?

But with respect to or are they?, it translates something else, a kind of purposefully induced suspicion. Would they? No, really, they don't. And I never see (or hear, and it does not sound right) Girls just wanna have fun, or doesn't they? So is it actually correct to always use or are/do/can/should/etc. they? and not their negative forms?


texts: Is it incorrect to use "hard" when I mean "difficult"?

texts:
My late grandfather had several word-choice peeves for which he would gently interrupt a speaker, especially a grandchild, in order to correct. The one I remember most was his dislike for the use of "hard" as a synonym for "difficult," as in the statement:

  This homework is really hard.

I read and hear "hard" used this way all the time and often wonder if there is something incorrect about it. Is there, or has there ever been, any basis for this quibble?


texts:
Is the following sentence correct (when I call a company’s HR department)?

  Could you please call me back after checking my résumé?


texts:
Of course, I understand that the nature of the Internet means that a given person is not necessarily fluent in the English Language. But what I don't understand is how people can mangle a simple question.

  How do I go from X to Y?

As questions go, this kind of question is quite an important one to be able to ask. And yet, more often than not, I see this instead:

  How to go from X to Y

It looks more like a heading that's about to be followed by an explanation, not a question.

The strange thing is, though, is that so many people make this error. It's not like other mistakes that vary from person to person based on their own knowledge, it's like an epidemic: Either the person knows how to ask the question in its proper form, or they use the exact erroneous form shown here.

One thing I've noticed is that often a person will try to directly use their own language's sentence structure when speaking/writing in a foreign language. But in all the languages I know, none of them have this kind of sentence structure.

Where does this malformation come from?


texts: Is there a saying or proverb for a situation where the weakest party will always lose?

texts:
Yes this a repeat of a previous question, but I could not figure out how to post this answer, so I shall try to re-ask the question and answer it myself:

THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR By Thucydides 431 BC

Book V Chapter XVII: "Sixteenth Year of the War—The Melian Conference—Fate of Melos"

is known as the Melian Dialogue, and is one of the most famous portions of one of the greatest books of antiquity.

Wikipedia describes it under the heading "Melian Dialogue" as follows:

"The Melian dialogue takes place fifteen years into the Peloponnesian war, during the confrontation in 416–415 BC between the Athenians and the people of Melos, a small island located in the southern Aegean Sea just east of Sparta. The Athenians demanded that the Melians surrender their city and pay them tribute or face the destruction of their city. The Melians claimed their right to remain neutral, appealing to the Athenians' sense of decency and mercy toward a small, peaceful, and defenseless city."

The Athenians said to the Melians:

"you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

The Melians refused to surrender, so the Athenians defeated them, killed the adult men, and sold the women and children into slavery.


texts:
I'm not sure if "is" or "are" would be correct. I've written what I'm trying to say in 2 different ways; one being option A and the other being option B.

Option A:
'What is the name of the company?
The name of the company is....'

Or

Option B:
'What are the name of the company?
The name of the company are...'


texts:
Lauren has coaxed her brother many times to go cinema with her but he never listens
Lauren has coaxed her brother many times to go cinema with her but he never listened
Which sentence is correct?
Lauren has tried several times to take her brother to a cinema (action beginning at some time in the past and continuing up to the present moment) but her brother has a habit of not listening to her persuasion to go cinema with her. This is the idea that I want to convey in my sentence but I'm confused if I should use the simple present or simple past after the conjunction BUT in my sentence. Please help!


texts: Is there a word for the relationship between a sequential series of tasks where each one is dependent on completion of the one before it?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes the backward, dependency between items that must be completed in a specific order, one after another.

"A series of interdependent tasks."

Is there a word that is more specific than interdependent? I don't want to imply that multiple tasks might depend on multiple other tasks. I also don't want to imply that two or more tasks might share dependencies between themselves at the same time. Only one task at a time has dependency on its prerequisite and the dependency relationship only goes in one direction.


texts:
The sentence is:
It is important that he learn French. What is the rule or guideline that says to drop the "s"? I am tutoring a non-native English speaker.


texts: Cases that accept both "to" + infinitive and "to" + gerund

texts:
I have searched both Google and this site. According to Collins, predispose can accept both to + infinitive and to + gerund. I find this questionable, but there it is.

Other than that, I can think of approach:
We need a new approach to win customers.
We need a new approach to winning customers.
Actually, in this case, it seems the infinitive works because of "need" and the gerund works because of "approach", so they're not actually saying the same thing.

I have seen on this site that prone does not work both ways, although people do use it both ways. It should only be used with to + gerund.

Are there other words or phrases that can accept to + infinitive and to + gerund equally?

*Note: I am not asking about "to" + infinitive vs. gerund. I am only asking about cases where the word "to" comes before the gerund, and also before the infinitive, and means the same thing. I have not found this question duplicated anywhere.

EDIT: And if the expressions do not always have the same meaning, can they ever have the same meaning?

EDIT: My current list, yea or nay?
well suited to do = well suited to doing
be adapted to do = be adapted to doing
proceed to do = proceed to doing
with a mind to do = with a mind to doing
agree to do = agree to doing
consent to do = consent to doing
donate to do = donate to doing


texts:
I know a lot of words, but it's driving me crazy that I can't think of one for this. I'm sure there must be one. I want to be able to say:

  I had not only a great view of the ocean from that room, but also a great _,

where the blank means that I could hear it well as well as see it. Does such a word exist? (Rather, does it exist in the lexicon of "words regular people would recognize as being English" — that's what I'm looking for, not an extremely archaic word or one you made up. )


texts:
What does "the handle broken off short" mean when referring to an axe?

Does it mean the handle is broken off and it is a little far from the rest, or that it is broken close to the axe and there is only a small part of the handle still attached, or something else?

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Chapter 13 - Rescuing the Tin Woodman)


texts: "Any English I have learned" vs. "All the English I have learned"

texts: Is it correct to say: Any English I have learned has been from movies and the Internet or is it better: All the English I have learned has been from movies and the internet?


texts: What do you call those stuff published in craigslist.com?

texts:
I was thinking about the word of those things which are published in craigslist.com and whether if I should call them ads? list? commercials? notice? promotion? flyers? or something else.

To clear what I say, where I live, there some daily extra pages published with newspapers in which people and organizations publish their needs or what they can offer other people, as one sells a car or another needs a teacher etc.

What are these kind of things called?


texts:
An abstract noun is something that doesn't physically exist, such as an idea, concept, quality, emotion or event.

OR

An abstract noun is something that doesn't physically exist, such as an idea, a concept, a quality, an emotion or an event.

Thanks.


texts: What is the average number of meanings for a word in English?

texts:
Many words have multiple meanings. Sometimes they are related (like "theory" as opposed to "practice", versus "theory" as in "scientific theory"), but sometimes they’re completely different (like "dye" as in "colourize" versus "die" as in "stop living", or even the singular of "dice").

Dictionaries usually list several meanings for each lemma. I’m wondering if anybody knows what the average is for an English word?  (For that matter, is it known for other languages?)


texts:
In most dictionaries "labeled" or "labelled" isn't recognized as an adjective but there are a few who do deem it to be an adjective. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/labeled Is this correct? Or is "labeled" merely the past tense of "label"?

Any input is as always greatly appreciated!


texts: Can't ask for or couldn’t ask for what to use in this following context? Is this phrase Couldn't ask for has any particular grammar rule?

texts: I could not/ can not ask for more when i've been with my best buddy for such a long time.


texts: what is an expression that means something that will be there forever?

texts: I am looking for a word or two that means "something that will be there forever" as in Mr. Doe passed away. In our family he will be considered a _____________.


texts: Why does 'with' mean 'against' and not 'alongside' in phrases of opposition?

texts:
In phrases like fight with, argue with, combat with etc, why does with mean the subject is opposing the object (grammatical object, technically a human opponent)?

Phrases like go with, study with, etc do not have such a meaning (as the acts have no opposing sides by their nature) and they mean the act is performed along with the other person.

How did with develop such a conflicting dual purpose?


texts: Word or phrase for single letter differing in typeface from the surrounding text

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase for the following phenomenon:

A letter in a text that has a different typeface than the surrounding text for no good reason, such as  the letter s in all of the following:

  English Language
  English Language
  Englih Language
  Englih Language

This phenomenon was typical for movable type but also occurrs with other technology, if a special character was not supported by the employed typeface.

Why do I think that such a term might exist? Because the German language has one: Zwiebelfisch. Unfortunately the translations suggested by dictionaries are not accurate at all:

literal mistake and misprint – These can also refer to typos and other errors.
printer’s pie – This refers to a total mess of letters occurring when dropping the typecase.


texts:
Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias is written in iambic pentameter and contains the famous lines

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

I can think of a few different ways that the name Ozymandias could be proncounced, but all of them have five syllables. However, to fit the meter it should be only four syllables. Wikipedia gives "oz-ee-mand-yəs" as a 4-syllable pronunciation, but to me as a modern British English speaker this feels kind of forced.
My question is whether a four-syllable pronunciation would have been more natural in the 1810s when the poem was written, and if so, what that pronunciation would have been.
At one point I thought it might be a linguistic trick, in which Ozymandias' hubris is so great that he demands an extra syllable in his line, but the Wikipedia page also includes a poem by Horace Smith at around the same time, which is also in iambic pentameter and contains the line

"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,

This also requires "Ozymandias" to have four syllables, suggesting that the extra syllable isn't a quirk of Shelley's poem.
To reiterate, this question is about how the name "Ozymandias" would have naturally been pronounced in Shelley's time. Many comments and answers say that the extra syllable can be elided or unstressed, which is fair enough. However, I'm interested in how it would have been pronounced historically. Would Shelley and Smith have seen it as an extra-metrical syllable that they would have elided or un-stressed in order to fit it to the meter, or would they simply have thought of "Ozymandias" as being a four-syllable word in the first place, with the modern five-syllable pronunciation being due to a shift that occurred afterwards? I'm looking for answers that concretely address the historical pronunciation.


texts: What word describes the painful emotion/physical sensations felt when experiencing something SO beautiful?

texts:
I have looked for a single word to describe this feeling of what seems to be contradictory states of being.
I know a (very) little German, and searched there as it seems that language has more words to express complex emotions and feelings. No luck.
This to me might help to explain it.
I recently watched a clip of a little boy that started really crying  after seeing and holding a kitten. His mother asked him,

Why are you crying?

He could barely get it out...and said,

It’s just so beautiful!


texts: "Have you seen him run" or "have you seen him running"? Which of these sentences is more accurate?


texts:
So what's the opposite of feeding material to a machine? Are products ejected or discharged? While I think this may apply to a fast process where the product gets tossed out or dumped onto a hopper/bin, what is an appropriate term for a slower process?

  The oven __ the pizza.
  The pizza is __ from/by the oven.


texts: Strange usage of "reverently" -- can it be defended?

texts:
In the blog post "We are rewarding the Question Askers", the following phrase appears:

  For those of you that are getting new privileges: we ask you to take
  the responsibility reverently.

Reverently !?!

I have never encountered reverent or reverently in such a context.  One can be reverent at a religious service; at a death bed; in the presence of nature; visiting a national monument of great historical significance (e.g., Valley Forge); for a Japanese person, meeting the Emperor; for an American (or indeed anyone), reading about Harriet Tubman  —  this is only a partial list.

But reverent about a asking a question on SE?

According to Merriam Webster:

  Definition:  Worshipful

  History and Etymology for reverent Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin reverent-, reverens, present
  participle of reverērī "to stand in awe of, REVERE entry 1"

And, Merriam Webster defines revere as:

  to show devoted deferential honor to : regard as worthy of great honor

I no longer have access to the OED, so maybe there is an old, old usage of reverent that could be stretched to writing a question on SE, and if so, I'd like to know about it.  But until I do, my reaction is that of Scrooge to Christmas.


texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  I am to win the competition.

With this sentence I want to say that I must win the competition.


texts: “There is a bed, two chairs and a table in the bedroom”

texts:
Is this acceptable?

There is a bed, two chairs and a table in the bedroom.

Against these:

In the bedroom is a bed, two chairs and a table.

In the bedroom are two chairs, a bed and a table.


texts:
Is there any difference between "all X", "all of the X", "all the X"? E.g.,

  all friends
  all of the friends
  all the friends


texts: Why does “klick” mean kilometer in US military slang?

texts:
Wiktionary says it is either likely a pseudo-condensed pronunciation of kilometer or onomatopoeic of the sound of a military odometer.

  Though kilometers are not commonly used to measure distance in the USA, “klick” is commonly used by the US military, which uses the metric system almost exclusively in order to facilitate communication with allied forces.

Here’s an example of the word being used in the film Apocalypse Now:

  We’re going up river about 75 klicks above the Do Lung bridge.


texts: Meaning of 'the recovery might not last'

texts:
Without a large amount of spending, the recovery might not last.

I don't understand the meaning of the above sentence. Could someone help me to figure it out?


texts: Do you miss to inform someone or fail to inform them? I am seeing miss appear in places but it just seems awkward.


texts:
I've read many articles that use the term 'emergency services ' and ' location services' .

Why not service instead? Why must it be plural? Thank you


texts: A word for a parody that is also a good example of the thing parodied

texts:
A friend is struggling to remember a word.  It was for a parody of X which is also a good example of X. For example a parody of westerns which is also a good western in its own right.  There are some comedy bands who do parodies of various genres of music that are also good examples of their genres. He came across this word in a review he read some time, has a decent vocabulary and we've been through the obvious : burlesque etc.  He thinks the exact meaning was something that was both a parody and a sincere example of the thing that it's parodying.

eta: I obviously haven't phrased myself well. An example he gave was the film "Isn't It Romantic" which parodies romantic comedies while still being a good romantic comedy. (tips hat to Mari-Lou)
 Another example might be Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias whose song "Heads down no nonsense mindless boogie" - a parody of bands like Status Quo was really popular with Quo fans.


texts: What does "against which it must be seen" mean?

texts:
A sentence from TOEFL reading: " The best signal depends not only on its brightness but also on how well it contrasts with the background against which it must be seen."

My question is, I can not understand the rear part of the sentence:"it contrasts with the background against which it must be seen."
Specifically, what confuse me is "against which" and model verb " must".
Please help me out. Thankyou!


texts: Is "Had you anything", as a whole sentence, grammatically correct?

texts: I saw someone said "Had you anyone specific in mind" in an old English drama. How am I supposed to understand this sentence?


texts: A word to describe someone who finds pleasure in sad things

texts:
There's a sort of catharsis in listening to sad music, or reading sad poetry, and I'm looking for a word that describes how engaging in sad activities can actually be pleasurable.

I don't mean someone that revels in their own unhappiness or refuses to engage in activities that provide happiness, but rather when you want to watch a sad movie and have a good cry, even if you are generally happy.


texts: When an entity (organization, person) does the best they can but are hindered due to outside influence or chance.


texts: Is 'the' necessary when a noun is explained in a same sentence?

texts:
I know that definite article is used when a noun is already known in the context.

But I'm not sure with the usage of definite article when I described something explicitly but it hasn't been mentioned before.

So here's my example.

'I believe children are used to listening to the type of music that celebrities promote their life styles'

In the sentence, 'the type of music' was not mentioned before, however I described what type of music it is in the sentence. Also it sounds more comfortable with the article.

Is the article used right? or should it be just 'a type of music'?

Thanks for reading my question.


texts:
An English book tells me that the following sentence is correct:

  This publication is made from paper from sustainable forests.

Shouldn't it be of paper instead?


texts: What is the difference between sophisticated and complicated

texts:
All, I see these words are used many times literally or verbally. But I really don't know what is the difference between them.

Please review one of them which I got from a read.

  After an obligatory Hello World–caliber application, we construct a
  more sophisticated application that implements a daytime server.


texts:
Please consider this scenario and help me find a verb that can be used here.

I am curious.
I ask a question.
The question is answered.
My curiosity is...?


texts: choice of words: minimized to - limited to

texts:
The company's first products were minimized to hats and scarfs only, but soon after other accessories were added to the range of products.

Is that sentence correct? I think it should rather be:

  At first the company's assortment was limited to scarfs and hats, but other accessories were added to its range soon after.


texts:
I keep seeing both versions and I can't find a definite answer from googling.

For example, which of these would be correct?

"Although this dilemma poses a problem to the proposed view..."

"Although this dilemma poses a problem for the proposed view..."


texts: Quotation mark usage in the sentence given

texts:
A leading article in Britain's Independent newspaper has the following (my emphasis):

  It is also evident, albeit in a different form, in the Global Investment Summit that opened on Thursday with a rousing speech from the Prime Minister full of assurances about "getting behind" British business.

I have some confusion in understanding this statement. Are the words which are enclosed in quotation marks showing irony? Or is it just that the quoted words (by the source) are being quoted again by the author? Or is it that the author doesn't have the same opinion as did the source had in the meaning of the words?
Also please provide me with some important points in understanding quotation marks and their uses as I am a non-native learner.


texts: Proper usage of "does" in "Where does it come from?"

texts:
When inquiring after the immediate origin of a thing (i.e., where I purchased this gallon of milk), my wife will frequently say, "Where does it come from?". This always sounds odd to me—I'd say "Where did it come from?".

My impression is that the continuous "does" implies the coming from is somehow an essential part of the thing's essence—as opposed to an incidental fact about where I got it. After all, it doesn't sound weird to ask "Where does he come from?" in relation to a person's nationality. By extension, if I were to ask someone where a gallon of milk "comes from", I'd expect an answer like "Ohio dairy cows"—not "Kroger". But I can't articulate the grammatical terms much better than that.

Her construction isn't particularly wrong, is it? Just odd? She comes from an Amish Mennonite background, and I'm sure that's where this habit originates.

How would I grammatically describe what is going on when she says "Where does it come from?"


texts:
What is the term for using an adjective in the place of a noun?

It seems to come up a lot in fantasy fiction, generally used as a proper noun to describe a group ("the Twisted", "the Hunted"), but it also comes up in everyday use ("the mentally ill").


texts: Etymology of "Mother Nature" and "Father Time"

texts:
Why are "Mother Nature" and "Mother Earth" (and perhaps other similar connotations I am unaware of) feminine personifications? The same question stands for "Father Time" - why masculine?

Any explanation as to the history and/or origin (and/or anything else enlightening) of these phrases would be appreciated, particularly as they pertain to the differing genders.


texts: Is there a word (or short expression) for "the act of waving your shirt, in order to cool yourself off"?


texts: Why does "sophomore" refer to a second-year student?

texts:
I came across Etymonline's explanation for the word sophomore. I do not understand why this has come to be applied to second-years. Why is a second-year guy a wise one and a fool?

  "Student in the second year of university study," literally "arguer," altered from sophumer (1650s, from sophume, archaic variant form of sophism), probably by influence of folk etymology derivation from Greek sophos "wise" + mōros "foolish, dull" (see moron). The original reference might be to the dialectic exercises that formed a large part of education in the middle years. At Oxford and Cambridge, a sophister (from sophist with spurious -er as in philosopher) was a second- or third-year student (what Americans would call a "junior" might be a senior sophister).


texts:
George Galloway is an outspoken MP with excellent rhetorical skills. I will take a part of his speech to convey the idea of my question.

Video

  Iraq is neither strong, independent nor even a single country any more.

Would it be correct to rephrase the sentence above using this order "not/neither/nor" as follows:

  Iraq is not strong neither independent nor even a single country any more.

And so on, can I form sentences similar to it, for example:

  I am not mean neither greedy nor arrogant.

Would that be grammatically correct?


texts:
"Later, Magellan became involved in an insular conflict in the Philippines"

What does "Insular" mean here?

As far as Cambridge Dictionary is concerned,

Insular means:

  "interested only in your own country or group and not willing to accept different or foreign ideas".

I can not understand that sentence with the help of this meaning.  Can anyone please help me?


texts: Would, could, V(past simple) usage in the clause after "wish" and "if only"

texts:
My understanding is that if you refer to a future wish you cannot use the same subjects for "wish" and "would", but instead you may use "could".
For example:

  I wish I could attend your wedding next week.

Not I wish I would attend your wedding next week.

Also, my understanding of Verb (past simple form) usage in the clause after wish is to express a wish for things that are unreal or impossible to do at present.

However, there's a common saying that is

  I wish I had a lot of money

I wonder if this saying is simply used to express a wish for an unreal thing at present, or it is also acceptable to express a future wish, or I should use another expression such as

  I wish I could have a lot of money in the future


texts: The use of was and were with singular nouns

texts:
"That's a very, very funny question given the time frame, would have been even funnier if it was a month in the future."

My friend corrected me, and said it should be "were a month in the future" Is that correct if both question and month are singular?


texts: Is there a name for "reducing words to a minimum" in presentations?

texts:
Is there a name for the "technique" to reduce all sentences in a talk to the minimum?

nb: Perhaps we have to elaborate this question, but I do not know the right technical terms yet and am open for suggestions.


texts: Confused about the verb "relax" which means "make or become less tense or anxious"?

texts:
The word "relax" means "make or become less tense or anxious." Source

If you see these 2 simple sentences:

  (1) I relax.  (2) I am relaxed.

Does (1) mean "I become less less tense or anxious"?

Does (2) mean "someone / something makes me less tense or anxious"?


texts: Is there a proverb for "Don't ask a mother how her child is, due to her motherly bond she would be most inclined to remark he is the best"

texts: Is there a idiom/proverb for "Don't ask a mother how her child is, due to her motherly bond she would be most prone/inclined to remark he is the best in the world" even when he is a brat in eyes of others (outsiders).


texts: I'm wondering what is the best way to express that an email contains more than one attachment. Would saying "Please find the attached (name of document). Our (name of document) is also attached." be proper?


texts:
What does it mean when some book says that some algorithm is not so obvious, and then in brackets () says that this is possibly “the biggest understatement in this book”? Is the writer actually contradicting himself? If  understatement means “state weakly” then is this the proper usage?

This is the actual sentence:

  Strassen’s algorithm is not at all obvious. (This might be the biggest understatement in this book.)


texts: What is a good way to learn about words whose pronunciations are very different from how they are spelt

texts: It is embarrassing to be caught mispronouncing an aphonetic(?) word whose pronunciation is not intuitive. Are there any comprehensive word lists (may be the 5000 popular words that are commonly mis-pronounced) or resources for a non-native English speaker that can help with the correct pronunciation of "irregular" words.


texts: What is the semantic role of the subject of a copular verb?

texts:
Simple transitive verbs can be associated with easily identified semantic roles.   In the active voice, the subject typically identifies an actor or an agent, although other roles like observer are also available.   Similarly, the direct object of an active voice verb is typically a patient or a theme, again alongside other possibilities that do not seem very difficult to discover.

These semantic roles are convenient labels.   We can discuss clause structure, saying things like: "In this active-voice clause, the subject represents an agent and the direct object represents a theme.   In the passive-voice equivalent, that same theme is represented by the subject  and the agent is represented (if at all) by a prepositional phrase".

It's not a complicated system.   It's also typical of transitive verbs to express an action, and these semantic roles describe how those other constituents relate to the action.

So, what do we do when there is no action?   What kind of semantic role does the subject of "He is a student" play?

The grammar poses no trouble, and neither do the semantics of the clause as a whole.   "He" is the subject, "is" is the copula, and "a student" is the complement.   The clause establishes that the subject and its complement share their referent in the present tense.   We can go so far as to claim that the copula expresses a state of being in the same way that a transitive verb might express an action.

But, what is "he", given that he isn't doing anything?   "He" must have a role to play in the clause.   There is no chance that the "he" of "he is a student" is as semantically empty as the "it" of "it is raining".

I cannot and will not accept that there is no such role.   I certainly can and would accept that there is no general consensus.   In fact, I'd find a lack of consensus unsurprising and unremarkable.   All I want is at least one viable contender, one reasonable description of how the subject of a copular clause behaves semantically, independent of the grammatical relationship that attaches it to its verb and independent of the denotation and use of personal pronouns.


texts: I'm looking for a specific word that means to add something which isn't necessary

texts:
I have run across this site many times and it's helped quite a bit. So enough preambling

I'm looking for a singular word that essentially means

To add something which isn't necessary but is still there and which is not part of a redundancy. I keep on thinking superfluous but that doesnt seem to work.

Superfluous basically means obsolete (that it worked at one stage but no longer.I'm just looking for something that's just not strictly necessary to functioning but included nonetheless.

The only way I can describe the word that I'm looking for is akin to junk DNA. It's there but it's not necessary to functioning. And no I don't think it would be redundant because that infers a backup in case of failure

Strange question I know


texts: Distinction between pre-hire onboarding and post-hire onboarding

texts:
Wikipedia talks of onboarding as "the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders." And about.com has an article that discusses "Onboarding: Before The Employee Starts".

This is too broad for my usage.

In naming projects for my HR department, how can I logically separate tasks relating to bringing the employee in the door:

Get ID badge
Get parking pass
Process W-4 paperwork
Clean out office

and post-first-day organization socialization:

Initiate sales training
30-day follow up
Introduction to our products
Employee shadowing


texts: Phrase that means "there is either a lot or a little"

texts:
I heard someone use a phrase the other week that I cannot now remember that basically meant, "When this occurs, there is an abundance of it; otherwise there is a dearth." They were referring specifically to contract work: when they start picking up projects, it seems like they have more than they can handle, but when work falls off, it's tough. I think the phrase was alliterative, and I want to say the words started with S's, as in: "it's either S or S."

"When it rains, it pours" is similar, but it only covers the overabundance and not the shortage.

"After the feast comes the reckoning" is less similar, and implies that one follows from the other, which was not the case in the phrase that I'm searching for.


texts: English word for the employment relationship of a student of a work & study program?

texts:
In Germany we have the Cooperative State University.
Doing your bachelor’s degree at this university works as follows:

You will first need to find a company that employs you for this type of study
This company then will register you at the university
In roughly 3 month cycles you switch between working full time and studying full time
Working here means a form of apprenticeship where they give you tasks that help you with your studies
The whole program goes for 3 years and you will end it with a bachelor’s degree
Over these 3 years the company is paying you (like an apprenticeship)

You must keep in mind that universities in Germany are free and paid by the state.

At a normal university it is also possible to partially work at a job (with a limit on hours per week), but that is a different concept and should not be confused with the type of study program I'm talking about here.

What I'm looking for is a English word for the employment relationship.

The last employment relationship I mentioned (regarding normal universities) is just called "Student Employee".

In German, the word for the employment relationship of a student in this work & study program is "Dualer Student" what roughly translates into "Dual Student".
In the USA there doesn't seem to be a similar concept, probably because the universities aren't free to begin with.
In Australia and the UK, a dual study program seems to refer to a different type of concept. It seems to stand for programs where students study at two different universities at the same time.

Does any English speaking country have a similar study program?

If yes, how is a student of such a program called and how is the employment relationship of this student called?

I'm currently writing my CV. I worked at the same company in conjunction to such a program and also for my master’s degree as a normal student employee. I want to differentiate both employment relationships since they are quite different.


texts: What is the correct hyphenation of "human skin tissue emulating gel"?

texts:
A type of gel designed to emulate human skin tissue.

So, is this a "human skin tissue–emulating gel" (en dash)?

Or, is it a "human-skin-tissue-emulating gel" (all hyphens)?

Does anyone know the correct hyphenation of such a term?


texts: What's the difference between a 'tutorial' and a 'walk through'?

texts:
Is there any semantic difference between a tutorial and a walk through?

I have the feeling a tutorial is a video to explain a certain process, be it related to IT or not, whereas a walkthrough would be a sort of video games tutorial.

Is that right?


texts: Sorry... it is still very hard for me to understand this sentence's meaning

texts:
What does this sentence mean?

  This is done by creating and sustaining demand for Water, Sanitation
  and Hygiene services and by providing an enabling environment to
  assure the supply side and institutional set up.

I guess the meaning of

  This is done by creating and sustaining demand for Water, Sanitation
  and Hygiene services

is

  This is done by making and keeping necessaries of Water, Sanitation
  and Hygiene services.

However, I can not understand the meaning of

  by providing an enabling environment to assure the supply side and institutional set up

I would really appreciate it if you could help me as I have to translate this sentence to my language.


texts: "I, (any name), am here to... " is this correct?

texts:
I'm using this to introduce myself in a speech.

The sentence goes like, "On behalf of xyz, I, Kartik Choubisa, am here to..."
Or should i say, "... Is here to...?"


texts: Word for refusing to do what you're supposed to

texts:
What's another word that describes that act of not doing what you're supposed to do?
Eg: The electoral voter did not vote for his state's preferred candidate. He [the word]'ed.
"Reneged" doesn't quite sound right.


texts: Why is a 'vulgar fraction' called 'vulgar'?

texts:
I am just wondering about the origins of the phrase 'vulgar fraction'. It is synonymous with 'common fraction' & 'simple fraction' and simply refers to any fraction of two integers (e.g.: 2/5).

I assume vulgar is used in the 'lack of sophistication or taste' sense of the word, but don't understand why that applies to fractions.


texts: Is "incorrect facts" a contradiction in terms?

texts:
I've seen this so many times and it drives me crazy. The latest was the actor Paul Giamatti setting some story straight in the press about him: "It's unfortunately an incorrect fact about me and it's all over the place."

I've seen this written so many times, in magazines, books, but surely a fact is, by definition, true. So there cannot be any such thing as a "false" fact. Right?


texts: What is the difference between "rolling back" versus "roll backing"?

texts:
I read many articles on the internet in my free time. And sometime I see someone used "rolling back" in his statement. Another time I also see another guy used "roll backing". hmm

This makes me confused so much.

Are the both ways correct?


texts: Grammatical term for a noun coming after an infinitive?

texts:
I didn't come to offer help.

As far as I can tell, this is how I would analyze this sentence from a grammatical perspective.

I = pronoun
didn't = aux. verb with "not" for negation.
come = zero infintive verb.
to offer = infinitive acting as an adverb modifying the verb come.
help = ?

I suppose we could consider to offer help to be an adverbial noun phrase, but I'm wondering what the word help would be considered on its own? It certainly can't be an object since an infinitive acts as a noun so having an object seems illogical.


texts: adjective ending up with "al" vs. adjectives ending up with "ive"?

texts:
Is there a sharp difference between the meanings of adjectives ending up with "al" vs. adjectives ending up with "ive"? If so, what is that difference? Can they ever be used exchangeably?

Example:
intuitive vs. intuitional
creative vs. creational

Contrasting different examples, I think -ive adjective is about possessing a feature/thing, while -al adjectives are about being related to such a feature/thing. But I am not sure if this is applicable as a rule everywhere.

Also, does anyone know of any source where the answers to this kind of questions can be found?


texts: Is it acceptable to state conditions one after the other separated by commas but not have "and" or "or" in the end?

texts:
I found a duplicate question here, but am asking my question since the nature of my sentence is a little different.

The sentence:

  "You need to know your employees well. Who is unhappy at not getting
  a raise, who is hurt at being scolded by their boss, who is unable to
  tolerate the air-conditioning. Knowing, helps you blah blah...".

I don't have a reason to insert an "or" before the air-conditioning condition, because adding an "etc." at the end does not really fit into the point I'm trying to make. I want to mention only three examples of unhappy employees, and adding an "etc." will ruin the sentence by making the reader think of more employee disgruntlement situations I don't want them to think of. However, adding an "or" will make it seem like those three employee situations are the only possible situations.

Adding an "or" here doesn't seem right.

  "Who is unhappy at not getting a raise, who is hurt at being scolded
  by their boss or who is unable to tolerate the air-conditioning".

Is it acceptable English in such a situation to not use an "and" or "or"? I need to stick to the AP (Associated Press) Style guidelines, but couldn't find anything specific in the guideline, regarding this particular type of example.


texts: Does using "did" to form the past tense make a difference?

texts:
The two sentences here both indicate that, at some point in the past, I performed some work:

I did work
I worked

What is the difference between these two sentences? Does constructing one with did and the other with a simple past change the meaning?