texts: Is "introductive" a word? Or should I use "introductory"?

texts: I was very surprised when open office's spell check underlined the word introductive. I checked a few dictionaries and only a few (including The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1973) list it as an entry, whereas all contain the word introductory. I would like to know if the latter is preferable, since I used the former in an official document, and prefer to stick to it unless there are sound reasons not to.


texts: Is it bad English to have two to's in a row?

texts: For example how would one correct the sentence "what website should I go to to upload the photo?" or is it correct already?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase, “That’s for me to know and you to find out”?

texts:
I was just watching the preview for Blue Velvet (1986) and heard Kyle McLachlan use the phrase: “That’s for me to know, and you to find out”.

I assume the phrase is probably older than that movie, but I can’t find anything on the internet saying when and where it originated.


texts: should I say that or their? "so that it matches their client’s objectives" or "so that it matches that client's objectives"

texts: Should I say, as part of a sentence, "so that it matches their client’s objectives", or should I say "so that it matches that client's objectives"? Thank you.


texts: I need an adjective for “choosing the hard way”

texts:
I am searching for an adjective which conveys that a decision is challenging and pushing yourself instead of taking an easier option.

For example:

  The young choir and orchestra performed Jesus Christ Superstar which was a very ____________ choice as it is extremely complex.

So it kind of means brave.


texts: Is the pronunciation difference between “BrE deuce” vs “AmE deuce” systematic?

texts:
While checking the exact pronunciation of the term deuce, I  noticed   that there is a clear  difference between BrE /djuːs/ and  NAmE /duːs/.
While it is true that pronunciation has more exceptions than set rules, I’m surprised by the missing “e” (/j/) in the AmE version.
Is it just another exception, or are there other similar examples that might suggest a sort of pattern for similar clusters of letters?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a reason the British omit the article when they “go to hospital”?

Why is "I am going to town" or "I am going to school" acceptable but "I am going to garage" not acceptable?  Is there a term for this kind of exception on the use of definite/indefinite articles?


texts:
For example, having had long standing plans to attend a late night event, I suddenly realized that I was really tired and it will not be a good idea to attend.  While I made the decision to not attend the event, I was filled with regret, despite still being able to attend despite being tired.

I usually understand regret is a feeling about something that happened in the past.

What would you call a feeling that happens about something that is about to happen in the future, where you in theory can avoid it, although perhaps not in practice (since there was some reason to avoid it).


texts: Does "manicure" only apply to caring for hands?

texts: I understand that manicure derives from the Latin for hand and to care for, but can manicure mean care for by hand? So could you manicure a bush?


texts: Is using the present tense to depict a future state allowed?

texts:
When I complete it, I will feel that everything is fine.

Or,

  I will feel (that) everything is fine, when I complete it.

Should 'is' be 'will be', because feeling that 'everything is fine' will occur in the future?

I'm trying to depict a state that will be the present in the future, not a state that will happen after or later than some point in the future.


texts: Word that means "recognizing that something is 'a thing'"

texts:
I once read a story about a Navy man who, due to a bad childhood, never learned what emotions were. To him, there was no "angry", "happy", or "sad" — it was just "intense" and "not intense". Although most of us can differentiate between our feelings, there are many other such events in our daily lives that we experience, but don't necessarily have the language to talk or think about. For example:

Someone who doesn't know much about cooking might not know that their food is undersalted. To them, it would simply taste "bland". Or, for a more frequent example, someone who doesn't know about the taste of astringency might find that some cups of tea taste worse than others, but not be able to describe why. One more: how about beer? I only started drinking beer recently, and it used to all taste the same to me. Now I can differentiate between vastly different styles (IPA and hefeweizen, for example), but all IPAs still taste almost identical. Over time, I'm sure I'll be able to differentiate between even those.
Someone who's never encountered a discussion of framerate might not know why some TV shows look like soap operas and others don't.
Someone who never bothered to learn the rules of grammar might not be able to explain them, even though they'd still be able to use them in everyday speech. (Same with math.) I constantly surprise myself by becoming conscious of weird grammar rules in Russian, such as the fact that the words in a sentence can be rearranged without changing the meaning.
Someone who doesn't know music theory might not be able to explain why they have an emotional response to part of a song. A musician, on the other hand, can talk about chord progressions, tonality, melodic lines, voice leading, and various other techniques used to increase and decrease the tension.

In each of these cases, once you know the trick, the explanation seems obvious in retrospect. How could you not know what "happy" feels like? How do you not recognize saltiness? But when you're in a position where you don't even know that you don't know something, it's easy to miss patterns among the noise. There's simply no conceptual foundation for you to grab onto.

Is there a word that means, roughly, "taking something that was once understood in only a nebulous, ill-defined way, and acquiring the core concepts and vocabulary required to understand and talk about it specifically"? Or, more simply put, "recognizing that something is 'a thing'"?


texts: Offset dependent e.g. clause with em dash?

texts:
Consider the example

  Proper nouns (such as names) and multi-word eponyms do not usually take hyphens—e.g., Josephson  junction.

Would the preferred way to set off the dependent clause (the part after the em dash) be to use an em dash or a comma?
My understanding is that the em dash sets apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. So I suppose that it sounds sound to use an em dash, or even a parenthesis.

On the other hand, correct me if I am wrong, but one couldn't use a semicolon here because the second clause is not independent?

So, we have the choice of (1) comma, (2) parenthesis, or (3) em dash.

How does one choose between these?


texts: Are academics considered "experts", "professionals", or both in their scientific field?

texts:
I wrote a proposal for a survey to be conducted at a conference in the field of requirements engineering. I decided that all attendants at the conference, both the ones coming from industry and ones coming from academia, will be a good target population. I don't remember which word I used in the proposal, "RE experts" or "RE professionals" or both, because for me, both words apply to anybody who attends a conference in the field and are practically synonyms in this context.

In one of the reviews, the reviewer seems to make a distinction:

  For example, the RQ’s talk about the RE community and RE experts rather than professionals (e.g., what about researchers who may be experts but not professionals)

So my questions are

what is the actual distinction between an expert and a professional in such a setting?
Why would an academic researcher not be considered a professional?

This is maybe clear to native English speakers, but not to me, and I will probably have to use the terms frequently in my thesis, so I need the clarification.


texts: Difference between "I was being careless" and "I was careless"

texts:
Is there any significant difference between saying

  I am/was being adj. (careless, busy, etc)...

[treating "am/was" as an auxiliary verb]

and

  I am/was adj. (careless, busy, etc)...

Personally, I consider adding the word being a bit fussy but is there actually an effect of doing so?


texts: What is the difference between "amazed at" and "amazed by"?

texts:
Good day to all!

Could you please explain me in which cases it's better to use a preposition at and in which we should use by?

amazed at / amazed by
astonished at /astonished by

Thank you in advance


texts: What is a word for the length of sky between directly overhead and horizon?

texts:
What is a word that is closely defined to "the vertical length of sky between directly overhead and the horizon"?

Example for definition: "The sun shown through the fog in the |between-zenith-horizon|"

It may also be defined as "the range of directions between directly overhead and the horizon."

Example for definition: "The sun shown through the fog in the |between-overhead-horizon| sky"

I would prefer one word.


texts: I have studied English grammar for a long time. And the problem is now that I do not read and speak English very well. I'm really worried about that! How can I learn to speak fluently?


texts:
What does this sentence mean "I make sure everything stays clean and stocked"?
I don't understand the word "stocked". Please explain to me! Thank you so much!


texts: Can passive voice exist without "to be"?

texts:
A torpedo sunk the ship.
The ship was sunk.
The ship sunk.

The first is active, the second is passive.

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/quickreference/dash/dashactive.cfm contains the frequently-cited rule:

  When we write in the passive voice, we add some form of the helping
  verb "to be" (am, is, are, was, were, being, or been) to an otherwise
  strong verb that really did not need help.

But what about number three?  A debater could take either side:

Active: the ship performed an action upon itself, as if sinking itself were analogous to sinking another ship
Passive: The action happened to the ship as a result of some unspecified circumstance, identical in meaning to number two.

But I don't want to debate, I want to know which is the right answer :-).


texts: What is the outer metal/plastic box of a device called?

texts:
I am writing a repair manual for an electronic device and I am  looking for a specific word to refer to the outer part of any electronic device such as a laptop/phone/camera/TV/radio... This "housing" is usually made of plastic or metal and is the part that the user touches when holding the device.

I was thinking that some options could be "housing"/"case"/"casing"/"enclosure"/"shell"/"box". What is the correct word? I am not sure about some of these as they could be used to refer to the "case" of the device itself or to a "case" that you can add on top of the device for protection/aesthetics. I am looking for a word that specifically refers to the "case" of the device itself.


texts: Is there a word for people who have shared the same locality?

texts:
A "contemporary" is someone who has lived at the same time (more-or-less, anyway) as another person. e.g., Bret Harte (1836-1902) can be said to have been a contemporary of Mark Twain (1835-1910).

What about people who have lived in the same place, but at different times (such as myself and Mark Twain (Angels Camp, California)) - is there a word for that? "Congeorary" or so?

Or people who have lived in the same place and time (I don't even want to guess at what the word might be)?


texts: Capitalization of some common nouns in English texts

texts:
I’m a French web developer who translated a web site in English by a non-native but experienced English speaker (has lived in the US and UK for 15 years, worked in English for 20 years). I just received his translations and I’m a bit puzzled on how he capitalized some common nouns; it seems random. Here is a few examples:

  Confirmation of Registration to <...>
  Your registration to <...> has been recorded.
  Summary of your Personal Details
  Your Personal Line
  You have the possibility to edit all your Personal Details and visualise your winnings online by connecting to your personal account on our website
  We collected your Participation successfuly, you will receive a email confirmation shortly.
  Go to my Personal Account
  The payment of your Participation failed.
  Updating your Credit Card failed.
  This credit card number is already used by another client.

For short sentences on labels I do understand it is a common practice, even though it is a matter of style; but for longer sentences in a text, I don't get the logic behind (if there is a logic in the first place). Is it correct? Is this something common? What are the rules then?

(Talking to him would be useless, he won't explain why and will only reply "This is how it must be done, I know better than you.".)

NB: the web site is to be translated in British English.


texts: Can you put a semicolon after an and in a list with bullets? Example in body

texts:
For example, in the following list, would the use of the semicolon be proper?

These are my favorite fruits:

apples
bananas,
kiwis,
tomatoes,
pineapples,
watermelons, and;
oranges.

Otherwise, would there be any proper use of a semicolon in this list?
Thanks for your time!


texts: Is there a term like "doggerel" is for verse, but general to art?

texts:
doggerel ˈdɒɡ(ə)r(ə)l/ noun

  verse or words that are badly written or expressed.

Its most famous poet is Mcgonagall

  Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!

  Alas! I am very sorry to
  say

  That ninety lives have been taken away

  On the last Sabbath day of
  1879,

  Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

Is there a term for similarly bad or totally ineffective expressions which is general to any art?


texts: For quite a long time I have been using these two words interchangeably without thinking of their difference, even if it is slight. So can someone differentiate the former from the latter, please?


texts: How to write English without assumptions and/or shortcuts?

texts:
English grammar allows for many shortcuts due to assumptions(usually from context).  For example, not needing to put "you" in imperative sentences: "Get over here!" Another example is how commas are not needed due to how it would be strange for a phrase to refer to something unusual.  Another example is "We didn't win because I drank coke." (This could either refer to drinking coke causing a lose, or we won but it wasn't because I drank coke.)

How would one write English with no assumptions?  So it would be more like a programming language than a way to quickly communicate.  In a computer language, no matter what computer you use, you'll always get the same output.  I'm asking how could English be written like that?

I have seen some people put brackets around phrases.  Like this:

  <<<The> man> <entered <<the> bar>>>, <and <<the> same> man> ordered <<a> drink>.

Note: I realize that computer languages have assumptions, however they are more distinguishable (you usually have too be taught that a shortcut exists (but in English you usually need learn that a non-shortcut exists.)  When I speak of computer languages, I mean without any assumptions.

I ask because I want to create an affirmation for myself that is exact, without different possible interpretation.  I'm looking for a method that wouldn't require testing, rather the method itself would guarantee no assumptions, like how Java code only needs to be tested on one computer.


texts: What's the reason of prepositioning Internet with "on" but not "in"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “in the internet” and “on the internet”

Why do we say "on the Internet" but not "in the Internet"?

This seems to be against the meaning of these prepositions.


texts: Can an ambiguous word mean different things to multiple authors?

texts:
I'm writing a manuscript with a colleague and in the book they want to include a sentence mentioning that we feel blessed (without any further context whatsoever, so "God" wouldn't be mentioned). They want to do this in order to personally thank god, but as a non-religious person I'd only be fine including "blessed" if I could interpret it through its secular definition (i.e., just being happy or fortunate). This is just so I can put myself at ease, since I feel that thanking god would "tarnish" my book since I'm not religious and it would go against my views.

Question: If two authors write an ambiguous word in a sentence (where both of the word's meanings would make sense), could they each interpret it in their own way? Or must a word be interpreted in the same manner by both authors? If this affects anything, my co-author thinks I'm religious and that I am interpreting "blessed" in the same way as they are.


texts: Is the term "KTV" in use in any English-speaking country?

texts:
While travelling recently for two months in mainland China I noticed many buildings with the English letters KTV in their signage.

At first I thought this was something to do with company names or such and had no idea what the usually very gaudy buildings were for. Later I learned they were Karaoke places and still wondered about the Latin letters common in their signs.

I finally discovered that KTV is widely believed to be an English term originating in an abbreviation of Karaoke Television. I found this to be quite odd as I'm a middle aged native English speaker and have travelled in the majority of the other English speaking countries of the world but had never seen this term before. In fact to me it has the feel of "foreigner English" a bit like the German term Handy and many Japanese terms, which look like English, are believed by many speakers of those languages to be English, but are not used, or do not have same meaning, by native English speakers.

I've also travelled in Taiwan and it's used there alongside "卡拉OK". I've also travelled in Korea and Japan, which each have their own terms and haven't seen KTV used in either country.

It does get Google hits in English speaking countries, but not many and, without further evidence, I assume it is infrequently used for Asian-themed karaoke places, or places run by and targeting Asian customers, in western countries.

But I don't know everything, so maybe this is widely used by native English speakers in some English-speaking part of the world that I never ran into.

Does anybody know the true origin and history of this term? Is it really used in English? Is it only used in "foreigner English"? Could it be due to some brand or product name in some Asian country that became genericised? - I believed that's how Germany got Handy.

I'm now (early 2015) travelling in Cambodia and have found that KTV is the usual term here too, though karaoke is also used. I kept an eye out for it in Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos and only saw it occasionally at Chinese style places.

KTV sign in Mongolian and Chinese in Inner Mongolia, China

KTV sign in Zhangjiakou, China

KTV sign in Chinese in Malaysia

KTV sign in Khmer and Chinese in Cambodia


texts: Where should an adverb come in a sentence?

texts:
If both of the sentences below are correct, does the position of the adverb change the meaning (slightly), or perhaps the register of the sentence?

  The superior man thinks always of virtue.
  The superior man always thinks of virtue.


texts: What does "Sunny Greetings" mean when starting a conversation?

texts:
Recently I met a new friend who uses the message "Sunny Greetings" every time we start a conversation, especially via message.

What makes this word "Sunny" becomes appropriate?

Will it depend on any weather of the day?

Can I use this word after like let's say 3 PM of the day?


texts:
Person1: "I'm feeling quite rough today."
  Person2: "That sucks - what's the matter?"

Is Person2 using correct punctuation, or should there be a comma to separate the statement and the question?


texts: Synonym for a pleasurable coming-of-age experience

texts:
I’m looking for a word, phrase, or comparison to mean a pleasurable, coming-of-age experience or discovery. Possibly with connotations of surprise or embarrassment.

I would really like to be able to compare something to a wet dream, but I suspect that is inappropriate for an audience of potential interviewers.

The context: “My discovery of atmospheric science was comparable to a wet dream.”


texts:
Just as aquatic is to water and aerial is to air, what is an equivalent word for sand (or earth, I suppose)?

For context, I’m trying to describe the locomotion of worms within desert sand (as opposed to its surface). Ergo, terrestrial isn’t particularly suitable and neither is earthy.


texts: "Forgotten" or "forgot" as past participle of "forget"

texts:
In US and in UK respectively, which is more popular as the past participle of forget: forgotten or forgot? Which is more formal/informal?

Examples:

  I haven't forgot(ten) you.

  You will not be forgot(ten).


texts:
Which of these phrases would be the most gramatically correct? Additionally, in the case of "climbing a ladder" and "climbing up a ladder", which makes the most sense?

In case this is country specific, I live in the U.S.


texts: Rule for when to use "could" as a helper?

texts:
It would be helpful if you could provide us further details.

Is the use of could wrong here? Should it be

  It would be helpful if you provide us further details.

What is the rule when should we just stick to the present form without any helping verb?


texts:
I'd like to know what is the best/correct form between the following example lists. I use such lists in technical documents. My two concerns are whether I should capitalize each list item (a) and about the usage of punctuation at the end of every list item (b).

The examples follow.

a1. no capitalization

We need to:
- resolve dependencies
- manage problems
- build the system
- release

a2. capitalization

We need to:
- Resolve dependencies
- Manage problems
- Build the system
- Release

b1. no punctuation

We need to:
- resolve dependencies
- manage problems
- build the system
- release

b2. full stops

We need to:
- resolve dependencies.
- manage problems.
- build the system.
- release.

b3. semicolons apart last item

We need to:
- resolve dependencies;
- manage problems;
- build the system;
- release

b4. semicolons apart last item and usage of "and"

We need to:
- resolve dependencies;
- manage problems;
- build the system; and
- release


texts: Is there a reason that "Righty" isn't a good nickname?

texts:
I'm not sure if it's just the fact that most people are right handed. I have a jumping spider that's missing its left front leg, so I thought about nicknaming it "Righty", but then I realized that sounds stupid.

I'll probably call it "Lefty" to be ironic, but it made me wonder, why does Righty sound awkward, but Lefty sounds like a perfectly natural nickname?


texts: 'I can identify myself with' or 'I can identify with'?

texts:
Which is more correct?

  I can identify myself with

or

  I can identify with


texts: Why "Greater Toronto" rather than "Great Toronto"

texts:
Many big cities have their names preceded by Greater. Why not just Great? Does Greater indicate that the city is ambitious to expand itself?

Why is Greater not used for country names such as Great Britain? Is it just due to historical reasons?


texts: Is "we will connect to you" grammatically correct?

texts:
Am I right in thinking it does not make sense to say

  someone will connect to another one.

Would the correct sentence be

  someone will connect someone/something to another

or

  someone will be connected to another one.

This is driven from my instinct so I have no idea how to prove it.


texts: What are the technical symbols used in the margin of a page called?

texts:
I research Latin texts which discuss a peculiar medieval practice: the addition of minute graphic symbols into the margins of the page, for example in order to indicate passages of interest, flaws in argumentation or for some other technical purpose. The Latin-users had a very clear technical terminology for such signs: they called them notae (sg. nota) and the verb that they used to talk about this addition was adnotare (plus there was a whole range of words that could be formed from these two). Modern English does not seem to have a term that would have the same technical meaning and I have a constant problem with both native and non-native English speakers when I am trying to write or speak about these notae.

I have tried the English word markup (and its derivates), but this did not find favour with my audience. Translation as signs or marks is too vague and broad to be helpful. I cannot use the Latin word nota indefinitely, especially since I cannot make a verb out of it that would make sense in English.

What would you call this 'thing'?

An example of the technical signs in question: http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00054504/image_69 (PX- and PO-shaped symbols in the right margin)


texts: The Chauvet cave is unique because its preservation is unprecedented ? despite containing the oldest paintings ever discovered. Comma?

texts:
The Chauvet cave is unique because its preservation is unprecedented ? despite containing the oldest paintings ever discovered.

Do I need a comma here?


texts: What's another word for "Inspect" that conveys a similar meaning?

texts:
I'm trying to come up with a name for a service where drones will be used to inspect factories and power stations.

inspect: look at something to assess its condition

I wanted to call it DroneDeploy but that name is already taken by another drone service.

Is there another word for inspect that I could use to convey a suitable meaning?


texts: Is there any equivalent of "roll over in his grave" for someone who is alive?

texts: Recently my friend and I were talking about something that would cause great dismay to our other mutual friend, and he said "if X knew about this, he would roll over in his grave, if he were dead." Which is funny but also made me think how there's not really any equivalent expression for someone who is alive. Sure, I can say that it would cause him great dismay, but that feels a bit formal/stilted and also a bit of an understatement. Am I forgetting anything?


texts: Why "horseback riding" and not simply "horse riding"?

texts: As a German horse riding seems to be to the point. Why is it horseback riding in English? Isn't it obvious that you ride on the back of the horse? Is there a difference between British and American English on this point?


texts:
I'm looking for a name for our project.
The project is aimed to resolve a low recall issue in our search system.
Basically, it tries to improve the attention of many items in the search index so that all of those matched fields could be returned in the search results.

Requirement: this name needs to be a single word, e.g. some famous people's name, etc.

I did a lot of research, and found gasconade might be a good name, but it's actually meaning to extravagent boasting, not exactly what I intended to mean.

Any ideas please?

More specs about this project:
Imagine you type stack in Google, only 5 results showed up in your first page, you're disappointed, right?
This project aims at fixing this issue, instead of returning 5, we'll return possibly 50 pages of result (each page with 30 results).
This is the purpose of this project.

Thanks a lot!


texts: Hypenating in the middle of a person's name

texts: The editor or a Club bulletin split's a person's name if it comes at the end of the line in an article.  I do not believe this is grammatically correct, but I cannot find a ruling in writing to present to the editor.


texts: I have learned what "home truth" and "home thrust" means. But what is the meaning of "home question"?


texts:
I have read this at the Science.com, and it's in the second line of the last paragraph.

  A bow and arrow or an atlatl allows users to attack prey—and enemies—from a safer
  distance than does an ordinary spear.

I would have put it this way: A bow and arrow or an atlatl allows users to attack prey—and enemies—from a safer distance than an ordinary spear does.

So here are my questions:

Are both of the two sentences right?
When can I put the verb ahead of the noun? When is it a necessity?


texts:
Kamala Harris said in her victory speech as follows:

Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you,
simply because they've never seen it before.

What does she mean by the last part which reads “see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before?”


texts:
I heard a lady talk about her late husband today and was curious about her verb tense usage.

She said,

  "He was a loving father. He always took the kids out on weekends. He would stop whatever he was doing for the kids."

But then, I'm not entirely sure why she talked in simple past, since although he is dead, she was talking about a lot of things that happened in the past. It feels like she should have spoken in present perfect, since she was talking about several different events, not about specific times in the past. Can you please help?


texts: The verb and noun used to indicate that an error has been seen

texts:
I am writing a software program that displays a list of error messages and I want to tell users that an error message "can be marked as seen". For this I would like to describe the action taken by the user as a verb. Eg. "verb this error".

Edit - additional information: When the user has chosen this action the error will disappear from the list of error messages though it is still possible to find it through other means. This means the list of error messages will be curated by the user over time to show error messages that are current and still of interest.

When the error message have been "marked as seen" I would like to show that the error message has a "receipt" or similar noun to indicate that it has been seen. Eg. "Only show errors without noun". Alternatively I could use a negation of the previously mentioned verb eg. "Only show un-verbed errors"

Edit - additional information: It is possible to find the source of the error message and view more details about the source in question. Here all error messages will be visible but the ones that have been "marked as seen" will have a marker of some sort to show that the error message have been "verbed".

I hope this makes more sense after the edit. This is an attempt to be more specific so as to avoid answers that vary a lot, as per @KannE 's comment.

If anyone could help me with this I would really appreciate it.


texts: What is the correct way to say "several, but few" in a single word?

texts:
What can transform this:

"to group items into several (but few) categories, ..."

into:

"to group items into {word} categories, ..."

while still conveying the same meaning? I'd like to condense this information into one shorter word.


texts:
I wonder what one would call an alarm that is set off when the impact of a (nuclear) missile is imminent.

Air-raid doesn't really fit, for the bombardement is not carried out by planes but rather by a (single) missile.


texts: Difference between styles of English in technical communication

texts:
I have a collaborative software project with two other users. Nearly every technical report and documentation written goes through the following editorial changes to some of the sentences (examples below; note the differences in the parts in italics):
User A (original version)

Example X can also be written as Y
As is often the case, ...
Such programs are generally known as ...

User B (revised version)

Example X also can be written as Y
As often is the case, ...
Such programs generally are known as ...

Now both users are native speakers of English. As a non-native myself, I'm confused between the right style here. Both seem correct to me, but I couldn't care less either way. The consistency with which the users write these sentences makes me wonder if it is due to US/UK English conventions. An alternative explanation might be the expected style of writing in technical communication.
Can someone shed some light on this?


texts: What does it mean to "bounce a(n) __ off" someone?

texts:
I recently tried to use the expression "bounce an opportunity off someone" in writing, but using it seemed awkward to me. The expression "bounce an idea off someone" felt much more comfortable, but it didn't convey what I meant to get across. I believe the expression means something like "I want to conversationally determine what someone's thoughts are about a particular idea", but I'm not even sure if that interpretation is correct.

What does it mean to bounce an idea off someone? Does the expression have a known origin?
Can I only bounce "ideas" off someone? Can it extend to other concepts (such as "opportunities")?
Is there a better way to idiomatically express the phrase "bounce an opportunity off someone", in the sense of "I want to conversationally gauge someone's level of interest in a particular opportunity"?


texts: Can "née" be used for entities other than people?

texts:
The qualification née is typically used to signify the name a woman previously had, most likely before her marriage. However, today I've seen it in a Spiegel article applied to a company name:

  When German retailer Arcandor (née QuelleKarstadt) went bankrupt in 2009, it marked the end of a company rich in tradition.

Obviously, in this context it means the previous name the company had. I understand that it might be used humorously, but I wonder if this usage is actually correct.


texts:
Does anybody have a name for this construction? To me it is non-grammatical.

  I hiked early this morning with my sister which I am not a morning person!

I hear this kind of thing quite a bit. It occurred to me that which splice might be a reasonable name; Google didn't back me up on that though.

The fundamental problem seems to be that which's antecedent really has no grammatical connection to the latter half of the sentence while the speaker is clearly implying a link. (The linkage is destroyed by giving that secondary clause it's own new subject?)

Does this just amount to not recognizing that which is a pronoun and so trying to use it as a conjunction?

If anybody has insight on terminology or the root of the confusion I'd appreciate it.

Edit

Which seems to be functioning as an abbreviated stand-in for something more like which is notable because.

My perception is that it feels like a relative clause to the writer/speaker. The distance from the original subject I forces it to be restated for clarification. Yet even if we accept that as valid there's another concern over using which rather than who.

  I hiked early this morning with my sister who I am not a morning person! (X)

Would anybody argue in favor of that one?

Edit 2

This usage isn't limited to exclamation sentences yet I see a noteworthy twist in this example. A slightly awkward rephrasing alters the impact of the statement:

  I, not a morning person, hiked early this morning with my sister!

The morning person part is intensified by coming at the end and attaches semantically to the exclamatory mark. Had the spliced thoughts been separated by a full stop the meaning is probably nearly identical to what the writer wanted to convey and better reflected by the punctuation.

Edit 3

This is not an issue of ESL or dialect. Seeing it in print on Facebook is what prompted me to go ahead and post the question. I've heard it spoken many times by people I know well. This has nothing to do with auto-correction. I've thought about this many times before and investigated it myself.


texts:
"The Best Punctuation Book, Period," by June Casagrande, says that, when forming the possessive of text in quotation marks, we do this:
“Casablanca” ’s best scene
I love it!
The ending double quotation marks are followed by a thin space; then the single possessive apostrophe is placed before the "s" — exactly as shown above.
This is strictly opinion based upon the mechanics (and logic) of punctuation.
My question is: If the possessive title in quotes ends in an "s," how would we punctuate it?
In Set 1 below, the ending double quote marks are followed by a thin space, then the single possessive apostrophe.
Set 1
“The Sopranos” ’ cast...
“Game of Thrones” ’ success...
“Field of Dreams” ’ box-office success
In Set 2 below, the single possessive apostrophe comes directly after the ending "s" (in each example) followed by a thin space and the ending double quote marks.
Set 2
“The Sopranos’ ” cast...
“Game of Thrones’ ” success...
“Field of Dreams’ ” box-office success
Is Set 1 or Set 2 technically correct with regard to the placement of the ending quote marks?


texts: Which is the correct tense to use for this phrase is/was presented with the award?

texts:
If I am writing the sentence: John is/was presented with an award yesterday.

Which tense should I use? is or was?

How about this? "Please ensure step 1 is completed before proceeding to step 2"

Why "is" is used in this case?


texts: Should "Good Morning" always be used as the first greeting of the day?

texts: Is it true that regardless of the time of the day, the first wish to a person must be Good morning? Even if I meet him in the afternoon?


texts: What is the difference between "might be" and "must be"?

texts:
(C ) 7 —You look worried. What's wrong?

—I can't find my wallet anywhere. It________lost.

A. must be
B. might be

Question:
Which one is right? A or B?


texts: Can "to spill" be used with small fragments such as crumbs?

texts:
I asked some people this question and I have got different answers. Some said to spill can only be used witlh liquids as in "when she knocked into me, I spilled my tea all over the floor", but some said it is acceptable to use it with small fragments and sticky substances as in "I forgot the banana in my bag and it spilled in it" and "do not spill the crumbs of the bread or bugs will be lured into your bed at night". The first group suggested using dropping rather than spilling for small fragments.

Do you think to spill can be used for sticky substances as in the banana example and small fragments such as bread crumbs, or is it always exclusively used for liquids?


texts:
BIONDELLO: Why, is it not news, to hear of Petruchio's coming?

  BAPTISTA: Is he come?

  BIONDELLO: Why, no, sir.

  BAPTISTA: What then?

  BIONDELLO: He is coming.

  BAPTISTA: When will he be here?

  BIONDELLO: When he stands where I am and sees you there.

An extract from Taming of the Shrew Act 3 Scene 2

What does 'come' mean in this context? I guess that come could be substituted for here. But after searching for what come could have a second meaning in middle english, I came up with nothing. Does anyone have sufficient evidence to be able to prove that my claim is correct or disprove it and come up with an alternate solution?

Edit to clarify why my question is different from this. It is because I am interested in the word 'come' and not 'become.' The other answer does not satisfy my queries which is the evidence. I believe that these two topics are completely different and under no circumstances is my question a duplicate.


texts: Are the sentences with the word "aplomb" correct?

texts:
I am unsure of all the ways aplomb can be used in a sentence. For example:

Ken was hitting Jordan, but Jordan did not fight back in anger but rather handled the situation with immaculate aplomb.

I have seen many sentence examples in which there is always the word "with" before "aplomb" (with aplomb, with considerable aplomb, with astonishing aplomb, etc). But can I use the word "aplomb" without the word "with"? For example:

Although the other guy was attacking him, he did not fight back and instead reamained aplomb.

Is the sentence I stated above correct? Can I use the word "aplomb" without having the word "with" or will "aplomb" always have the word "with" before it either directly (i.e with aplomb) or with an adjective to emphasize on its meaning (i.e with astonishing aplomb).


texts: What is the importance of just in comparative sentence?

texts:
Do these two statements mean the same thing?

Pizza tastes as good as pasta.

Pizza tastes just as good as pasta.

To me, 1 sounds like pizza tastes at least like pasta or better while 2 sounds like pizza tastes no better than pasta.
Am I right in my interpretation?


texts: Single word for better "in all respects"

texts:
I am looking for a single word that describes something as "better in all respects."

My "failures" so far include:

"unilaterally better," my first attempt, but on further reflection seems to indicate better in only one respect
"uniformly better," which comes closer, but seems to connote something less intense than I intend

I know there is a previous question similar to this one, but none of the single-word responses there seem to fit my use case, and I would prefer here to not use a phrase such as "across the board." Any suggestions?


texts: Some people have traced the origin of spring cleaning to the Iranian New Year, which is on the first day of spring. However, it seems like I can find earlier origins of this. What is the true origin of the phrase "spring cleaning" and why do we use it so much (why not another season - for example, places like Scotland, Ireland, and Japan clean in winter)? Does it have something to the with human biology or is it just a word preference?


texts: Term for when someone steals and uses your credit card

texts:
What is it called when :

  Someone steals and uses your credit card, your account is ___ ?

Not hacked, more like another word for vulnerable?


texts:
What do you call a watch that isn't a smart watch? A dumb watch? Just "a watch"? Something else?

I checked Wiktionary and it didn't have any antonyms.


texts: Comparing/Contrasting Adjectives with/without "the" and "one"

texts:
In terms of American English, I'm considering the following 3 options of comparing/contrasting adjectives. Are all of these okay?

The red dress is better than blue.
The red dress is better than the blue.
The red dress is better than the blue one.

Another example,

The American death rate is greater than British.
The American death rate is greater than the British.
The American death rate is greater than the British one.


texts:
One definition of verbose states:

  characterized by the use of many or too many words; wordy: a verbose report.

Some (including the above link) suggest that the opposite is concise or laconic, however both mean covering much in few words.

Is there an opposite of verbose which means the use of too few words?

Here's a blog post about this, although it doesn't offer an alternative.


texts: Does the word "merry" have some negative meaning?

texts:
Two observations:

In the New Testament, the word εὐφραίνω (euphrainō) has been translated as celebrate, rejoice, glad. But only in one location, it is translated as merry, which is the famous "eat, drink and be merry" (Luke 12:19).

  And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' "Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?'
  (Luk 12:16-20)

Another thing to note is the Queen appears to intentionally avoid saying "Merry Christmas" in her Christmas address. Even though many Brits have been accustomed to that phrase, the Queen still insisted every year saying "wish you a very happy Christmas".

So, is merry in fact a bad word?


texts: The difference between nurture, cultivate, and foster (qualities)?

texts:
I looked at Merriam dictionary but there are no notes on usage and the three words are synonyms. I want to talk about encouraging the development of certain qualities in people, like honesty or bravery.  Does it make any difference whatsoever which word I use?

p.s. I have seen some people even use the word nourish but google search shows me that usage is less frequent and perhaps more useful for feeding actual things (like plants) not qualities.


texts:
I know the 'due to vs because of' issue has been tackled here before, but I hope anybody can help me with this specific issue:

Should it be: 'The tournament was cancelled due to disappointing weather conditions.' or

'The tournament was cancelled because of the disappointing weather conditions.'

Swan's Practical English Usage states in its 166th entry: 'Due to the bad weather, the match was cancelled.'
'Because of the bad weather' seems like an adverbial clause in this sentence, therefore I have a preference for 'because of' in this case. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Thank you very much in advance!


texts: General technical term that uncontroversially encompasses both bacteria and viruses

texts:
We can speak of "microbes" or "micro-organisms," and I used to think that these terms clearly included viruses. And they are used this way by at least some other people; here's a website that refers to viruses as a category of microbe.

However, I recently discovered that these terms are usually defined as referring to microscopic "life," and the definition of "life" with regards to viruses is a contentious topic.

When dealing with disease-causing agents, we can use the word "pathogen." However, not all bacteria and viruses are pathogenic.

All viruses must infect living cells to reproduce, so it is appropriate to refer to all viruses as "infectious agents" (this is what the Wikipedia article on viruses uses in its introduction). However, not all bacteria are necessarily infectious.

The informal terms "bug" and "germ" do exist. While these don't seem strictly limited to pathogens, that seems to be their most typical use. But for a technical audience, does any term exist for which there is a consensus that it refers to both all bacteria and all viruses?

If no single word exists, a short two-word phrase along the lines of "biological entity" would also be OK. (This phrase also comes from the "virus" Wikipedia article, and seems to be the best fit I've found so far. I can also think of a few others along these lines, like "microbial entity" which could be seen as a shorter equivalent to "microscopic biological entity.")

Here are the most important criteria I'll consider when deciding whether to accept an answer:

technical correctness: The term must be acceptable regardless of whether one considers viruses to be living or non-living, organisms or not organisms. "Micro-organism" does not meet this criterion because some people do not consider viruses to be organisms.
positive scope: It must include all viruses and all bacteria. "Pathogen" does not meet this criterion because not all viruses or bacteria are pathogenic.
negative scope: It should not include inorganic objects, whether microscopic or macroscopic. E.g. rock particles. It's OK if it includes protists or multi-cellular organisms, or prions and other "pro-life," or some combination of any of these.

Other important criteria for me:

established terminology: I'd prefer a term that is already in use to a neologism. If a neologism seems to be necessary, I'd like it to be linguistically well-formed and etymologically transparent.
length: all else equal, I'd prefer a shorter term.
grammatical number: I'd prefer a term that can be used in the singular to refer to a single species of viruses or bacteria, as opposed to an always-plural word or a singular mass noun.


texts:
I realize that this second sentence is a fragment. (It is in a piece of fiction.) Still, I would appreciate it if someone can verify for me that I am using "herself" correctly here. Thank you, kindly!

She saw Jake’s surface, not the multilayered person she had known for years. Not her twin, but someone wholly unrelated to herself.


texts: What is the difference between sqq and ff?

texts:
What's the difference between sqq. and ff.?

The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas by Bernhard Pick has, for example, these 4 references in a row:

  Hennecke, N eutestamentliche Apokryphen, 1904, 358 ff.
  Handbuch, 1904, 359 sqq.
  Schmidt, Acta Pauli, 1904, 145-161.
  Bardenhewer, Patrology, p. 102 ff.

Why the variation?


texts:
The next fifteen minutes were the longest fifteen minutes in the world. Until the quiet was invaded by the distant sound of a car engine.

I found the above sentence in a novel. My question is can we use "until" in the start of a sentence with no second clause. Thanks in advance


texts:
If subordinate clauses can be placed before or after the main clause as follows:

They hid because I came.
Because I came, they hid.

Why isn't the same true for relative clauses?
They are types of subordinate clauses.
One never hears *"That the song is upbeat I love" as an alternative to "I love that the song is upbeat." At least, I never have.
Was it used at one time? Is it used now, albeit rarely?
On a side note, do any other Indo-European languages have this limitation?


texts: Pronunciation of the /s/ letter in English language

texts:
I have a question about pronunciation
Of /s/ sound after ‘th’ sound like these situations

With /S/eventy-five
Or
With /S/ilver

to make things simple since I’m not a native speaker
Provide a word or something as simple as a word if it’s possible

Thanks for your help..!


texts: is 'do we actually know where we are going any more' a question?

texts:
I'm confused as to if

  do we actually know where we are going any more

is a question or not, because of the 'do' I think yes but when read it seems like a sentence.


texts: What is the word for damage to cloth caused by contact with a sharp point?

texts:
If you are wearing jeans and brush up against a thorn bush, the fabric may be damaged by a thorn hooking on the fabric and pulling one or more threads away from the surface of the fabric, leaving a small exposed loop of thread extruding from the cloth.

Among my family we use the term "pick" to refer to instances of this kind of damage (e.g., "my pants have a few picks in them after falling into that thorn bush"), but I do not see this usage covered in any online dictionaries.

Is there another word for this, or are the dictionaries missing a definition?

I am not looking for words that describe rips or tears. It is specifically the kind of damage described above, where one or more loops of thread are pulled.


texts: Apparently, the term "psychopath" was coined in 1888, and at that point, it might not have even been used by the laypeople. So, I*m wondering about a word used for people that display psychopathic characteristics that was used in the 1850s. In the book im writing, the main character is from Birmingham, UK, so the word will have to have been common around those parts. The word can be of posh language or street language, either is fine because the main character is familiar with both sociolects.


texts: Should "two" as a pronoun be spelled out in AMA style?

texts:
In AMA style, numerals are used for 1 through 9, but "one," when used as a pronoun, is spelled out. Easy enough. But now I'm looking at a sentence that says this:

  Drug A enhances the performance of Drug B when the two are used in combination.

A colleague of mine changed "two" to "2," but I'm not sure that's right. "The two" seems to be synonymous with "(the) both," which is a pronoun.

Given all this, would "the two" be spelled out according to the same rule by which "one" is spelled out?


texts: Is British English the one used in European academia?

texts:
English is used all over Europe in (more or less) academic papers and books that are not necessarily related to reviews and publishing houses based in UK or US, and that are not necessarily intended for UK or US markets. English is largely used between non-English speaking areas as lingua franca.

What is the main trend in this field concerning the use of British vs American English?

Are there certain guidelines (or even EU directives) on the matter?


texts: A question about “fluctuating” vs "fluctuated"

texts:
The following sentence is a sentence in my composition, and I think it is reasonable to write a sentence in this way. However, a grammar checker has said that I should use "fluctuating" rather than "fluctuated". Is it a false negative check result?

Except for the amount of goods transported by railway fluctuated over 28 years, a significant increase can be seen in the number of goods transported by other methods.


texts: Is there a difference between "seeks" and "tries"?

texts:
I am seeking guidance on using seek vs try when speaking.
This sentence is talking about what a research study is attempting to discover:

A flu challenge study tries to understand what happens when a person is infected with flu virus and how the body controls the infection.

or

A flu challenge study seeks to understand what happens when a person is infected with flu virus and how the body controls the infection.

Is there a difference?


texts: I know a male ass is a jackass, but what is a female ass called? Perusal of the internet suggests jillass or janeass, but I haven't found what might be called an authoritative source.


texts: What is it called when you use someone's exact words against them?

texts:
Sometimes, people would make a statement that makes them feel slick, or something. And I would use the exact same statement against them in a similar scenario that I create.

For example, in the movie Zootopia, Nick says "It's called a hustle, sweetheart" when Judy calls him a liar after she buys him a popsicle which he then uses to make a profit. Then, later on, Judy uses the exact same phrase after she has sufficient evidence to put him in jail for tax evasion. In this example, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart" is being repeated.

What is this called exactly? Sorta like touche?


texts: Is there another way to write the possessive -s?

texts:
I have a question regarding the possessive. Which one of the two is correct?

Caroline's car
Caroline her car

Or are they both correct?


texts:
I have the following sentence in my technical manual about naming files:

Punctuation marks other than hyphens, spaces around punctuation marks that are replaced by underscores, and spaces between initials are removed.

As you may see, there are two ways to read it:

(1) Punctuation marks other than hyphens, (2) spaces around punctuation marks that are replaced by underscores, (3) and spaces between initials are removed. (This is what I actually mean.)

Punctuation marks other than (1) hyphens, (2) spaces around punctuation marks that are replaced by underscores, (3) and spaces between initials are removed. (Wrong.)

How can I remove this ambiguity and show that only the first version is correct without using numbers?
I can replace commas with semicolons, but I don't think it really solves the problem.


texts: Meaning and origin of "rally peters out"

texts:
Positive reactions from stock markets can be described as the markets "rallying peters out". See this guardian article for an example of this usage.

I don't quite understand this proverb. Where does it come from and how to interpret it? Is it linked to St. Peter for instance?

EDIT: I edited the tags, as this is not about a proverb


texts: What is the pronunciation of parenthesized ‘read’?

texts:
In sentences like the following one, what is the pronunciation of the word read? I have always pronounced it red, as past-tense, but I have, a couple of times, heard it pronounced reed, as instruction to the reader.

  The text was unhelpful (read a waste of money) for the class.

(As a side note/question, is there a specific term for that usage of read or its parenthesized sub-sentence?)


texts:
I've identified a part of English speech where I always become stuck. Some examples will illustrate:

  "He's as great a man as you will ever find." // Fine

  "It's as good an option as you could hope for." // Fine

  "It's as wise a decision you could've made in the circumstances." //
  Fine

I've looked this up and the words "man", "option" and "decision" are said to be the postcedents, and the first word of each sentence (which is a personal pronoun), are said to be cataphors. Confer anaphora and antecedent for opposites.

Now the problem arises (as I see it) if you try to use this same construction or pattern with the postcedent in each example in the plural form.

  "They're as great [a] men as you will ever find."

  "They're as good [an] options as you could hope for."

  "They're as wise [a] decisions you could've made in the
  circumstances."

Whenever I find myself verbally walking down one of these paths, I get to the first indefinite article, and have to stop, all confused, and have to tread back to the start to reconstruct the sentence a different way.

Also, this doesn't just happen when using a pronoun. For example:

  "The Chief Justice is as moral a man as you will find."

  "The Supreme Court justices are as moral [a] men as you will find."

After thinking about it, I found that you can "cheat", so to speak, by forcing the thing referred to into a singular form. For example:

  "They're as great a group of men as you will ever find."

  "They're as good a set of options as you could hope for."

  "They're as wise a group of decisions you could have made in the
  circumstances."

I know that this (as far as I know is acceptable), but what I'm really asking is whether you can complete the sentence without using this (hack or kludge), as I see it. In other words can you say:

  "They're as great men as you will ever find."

I don't think you can. This has always bugged me.


texts: Using verbs correctly when mixing past and future tenses

texts:
A: Why did you call me last night?

B: I just wanted to know if I could use your car when/whenever my girlfriend asks me to pick her up at her home.

I would like to know if the verbs in bold are in the correct tense.


texts: "In the late afternoon" why does it have "the " here?

texts:
"In the late afternoon, we would often be visited by one or more of the failed Beat poets who always, very coincidentally, found themselves in the neighborhood.?"

I have a question about the definite article. In the sentence above, there is "the" before "late afternoon". However, I do not think the author is talking about a particular afternoon when he/she was visited by the failed Beat poets seeing that the word "would" implies not a particular time but habitual times. So I do not get why it has to be "the late afternoon" instead of "late afternoons" to match with the word "would."

Please explain as in detail as possible.


texts:
Which sentence is correct and why?

  The World Cup is held every four years.

or,

  The World Cup is being held every four years.


texts: "the sum" or "a sum", which should be preferred when referring to an amount of money of a given value?

texts:
Considering the following three sentences:
    I worked for three weeks for which I received the/a princely sum of $100.

    Her divorce settlement included the/a lump sum of $2 million.

    She was paid the/a mind-boggling sum of ten million pounds for that film.

Should we prefer the "the sum" version or the "a sum" version?


texts: Verb moods in the poem "Once more into the fray"

texts:
There is a poem in the Movie "The Grey" (2011). It goes like this:

  Once more into the fray...
  Into the last good fight I'll ever know.
  Live and die on this day...
  Live and die on this day...

What is the mood of the verbs live and die? Is it imperative or indicative? Or is it the infinitive, even?

I can understand the general meaning of the poem, but I´m not a native speaker. I'm not sure if I understand it the right way.


texts:
I'm looking for a word or phrase to describe how something takes simple work, but a lot of it.
For example, sorting a stack of documents fits the bill as it is not hard if you had a few, but really hard when you have a stack of a few hundred of them.
In my language I would say something along the lines of "It's black work" (I don't think it has anything to do with black people...).
"Drudgery", on the other hand, doesn't seem to fit. According to some googling it seems it means simply hard work with no implication of said work being easy in small amounts.
Although, in Merriam-Webster the definition looks very close to what I'm looking for:

Full Definition of drudgery
plural drudg·er·ies
:  dull, irksome, and fatiguing work :  uninspiring or menial labor

What ruins it for me is the "fatiguing" part.
Am I just misunderstanding and already have found my word?


texts: Is it correct that this sentence is supposed to have a relative inside?

texts:
I am reading a book and there's one sentence: "race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason." (from Born A Crime by Trevor Noah)
I wonder how "crime" and "worse" connect? is it okay to just put the adjective behind or there is " which is" between them?
So the original should be " a crime (which is) worse than treason"?
Thanks!!!


texts: looking for an appropriate word for something that has problem

texts:
I need to know an appropriate single word that could be used for something that has some problems (devices) or errors (for programs)! to describe something that has got a bit flaw which could be fixed.

some thing I could with the 'Not Working' part as in the following example:

I need a list of all [Not Working] devices in the stock.


texts:
The passage below comes from a book, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: -

  A steady stream of “heir mail” announcements ensued. Disability or
  accumulated sick leave were available to expectant mothers who wanted
  to return to work when their children were old enough to be left in
  the care of someone else during the day, though how easily this was
  done depended on the disposition of their managers.

What's the meaning of “heir mail” in this context?


texts: Is there an English saying like "cut to the chase", but with a negative connotation?

texts:
If I say:

"You really cut to the chase there."

I think it's not clear whether I'm expressing approval or disapproval.

I'm wondering if there's a similar saying which would express the sentiment that someone has transitioned too abruptly from one thing to another.


texts: the difference between to draw up and to write something

texts:
What is the difference between  between to draw up  and to write in terms of meaning?

I saw it this usage in a sentence like "...draw up a constitution..." and I thought can I say also

" to draw up a company costumer policy " ?

When I google it , google suggests like "how to draw up a contract/ will /business plan/action plan " etc.

But interestingly  most of the results come up  with  " how to write a business plan/company policy" etc.

Can to  draw up  suggest more like writing a intricate thing from the scratch ?

and can a robber plan/plot be drawn up?


texts:
Should I say You look beautifully today or You look beautiful today?

In my opinion, the first form is correct because beautifully describes the verb and not the noun. Thus, I should use the beautiful form in a sentence like You are beautiful when it describes the noun.


texts: Relationship between "ductile" and "malleable"

texts: What is the relationship between the words ductile and malleable? They are definitely not antonyms, but can we call them synonyms?


texts: Which of these meanings for the word "pet" came first?

texts:
The word "pet" has a few different definitions (my own paraphrase):

n: An animal kept for companionship.
v: To affectionately caress.

My question is, which of these usages originated first? Do we refer to companion animals as "pets" because we pet them? Or is the act of "petting" so dubbed because it is what we do to pets?


texts: What do we call a person who is obsessed with cleanliness?

texts: Is there any word for a person who is very , very much concerned about cleanliness and keeping things hygienic and even point out faults in clean things and explaining that they were dirty ?


texts: Generic way for writing about person without knowing his/her gender

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?

Is there generic way to write something like this

Karin Bellow replied to his own post.

But making this sentence generic, because writing his I suppose that I write to male person.
How can I do that?


texts: Distinction between meaning of racial minority vs. racialized minority

texts:
Is there a substantive distinction in the meaning of racial vs. racialized when referring to a minority group?
Note: question is intended to focus on meaning, not part of speech i.e. verb+object vs. adjective

According to Oxford Dictionaries definitions are as follows:

  Racialize

  VERB [WITH OBJECT]

  Make racial in tone or character.

  ‘the ways in which language is used to colonize, racialize, and commodify the other' e.g. ‘this kind of racialized discourse was common to nineteenth-century thinkers’

  1.1 Categorize or divide according to race.
  ‘a highly racialized society’

  Racial

  ADJECTIVE

  Relating to race.
  ‘a racial minority’

  1.1 On the grounds of or connected with difference in race.
  e.g. ‘racial abuse’

I read these as an indication that racialize is an effort to include race as a important characteristic as opposed to racial which I perceive as passive where race is inherently a component.

I would appreciate any commentary and examples that help make the distinction.

Edit: Here is an example newspaper article, which includes the term racialized minority


texts:
For question sentences that start with "Dare I" like "Dare I join them?" can it mean: Should I take the risk of joining them? Or does it strictly mean: Do I have the bravery to join them?
It would mean the latter, according to definitions I've seen of the word "dare" but I've always thought that it could mean the former. Please confirm that I've been mistaken.


texts: What is the proper way to cross-reference a section within the same document?

texts:
I'm updating a user manual which references other sections within the same document. Currently the cross references look like this:

Lorem ipsum blah blah (see "Formigulating the whatzit").

I want to add page numbers and had thought about wrapping the page in parentheses, but I don't like nesting the parentheses because it just looks bad:

Lorem ipsum blah blah (see "Formigulating the whatzit" (page 22)).

I also tried a comma. I learned years ago that a comma always goes before a quotation mark and never after one, but tried both ways and neither one looks quite "right":

Lorem ipsum blah blah (see "Formigulating the whatzit," page 22).
Lorem ipsum blah blah (see "Formigulating the whatzit", page 22).

I've also thought about italicizing the section name instead of quoting it:

Lorem ipsum blah blah (see Formigulating the whatzit, page 22).

This last one looks the best out of the options thus far, but I'm wondering if there's a more technically correct solution. I tried searching for MLA style guide recommendations, but all I could find were references on how to cite external sources.
Is there a technically-correct way to cross-reference a different section and page within the same document, and if so, what is the format?


texts: Forming the possessive of a username that is a contraction

texts:
Suppose there was a user of one of these sites whose handle was Won't. How would one form the possessive of this username to refer to that user's post?*

  Won't's answer

Given that the 's possessive construction is apparently derived from a contraction, and the existence of a fair number of double contractions, I suspect this first one might be correct, but frankly, it looks weird to me.

  Won'ts answer

One apostrophe in its usual place looks a little better to me, but it also looks like it might be a pluralization,** even though that doesn't make sense in context. This choice might read confusingly.

  Wont's answer

This seems to be a non-starter, since it changes the name for the sake of forming the possessive.

Is the first one right, or is there a possibility I've missed?*

*Aside from using "the post by Won't" or similar rewriting.
**Especially given "Do's" and "don'ts" or "do's" and "don't's"?


texts:
For directions to my house, I'd like to use the phrase:

  Pass under an overpass in front of you.

However, it sounds weird with twice "pass", "over" and "under" etc.
Is there any better alternative or should I simply let it be?

I considered using "bridge", but there are other (car) bridges around, and this one is a (pedestrian) overpass; I do not want to confuse my visitors.


texts:
Can I call a chair that is about 13 feet tall (a statue) 'life sized'? As in 'she is standing next to a life-sized chair'? Seemed appropriate to me at first, but then I realized (after checking its definition) 'life sized' would mean the chair is of a normal chair's size, which isn't correct. But it does sound right. Is it appropriate to use 'life sized' here, or is there a word for 'larger than life-sized' that's more suitable here?
I have vague recollections of hearing 'life sized' used to describe a much larger replica of a small object. As in a 'life-sized' apple to mean an apple (statue) that's literally as big as a person. Could it be acceptable in some cute/sarcastic sense?
If 'life sized' is not appropriate, is there any way to describe it (the chair) without making it seem like I'm complaining that the chair is too big, or bigger than it should, or suggesting anything negative?


texts: How do you pluralize a last name ending in y?

texts:
My last name is Mayberry and for years I have spelled it "Mayberries"on our Christmas cards because I like it that way. I realize that the normal rule of pluralizing nouns doesn't apply to proper names. I just figured since it was my last name then I should get to decide how I sign it or pluralize it. This wasn't an issue until a sister in law of mine decided to point out this year that I was spelling it wrong. So I took to the internet to see what it had to say. I found this thread about the same thing but its a few years old.

Any thoughts on whether or not I should stop using it the way I like and go with the "correct" way of Mayberrys?


texts: I’m looking for a word or phrase that describes the feeling that something very bad or catastrophic is about to happen

texts:
It may be something that will happen to the person who is having the feeling but it may also be to several persons, as might occur with a highly destructive earthquake, for instance.

The word or phrase would be used in the following sentence:

  “I’m no spiritualist but I have a feeling of ___. I hope it’s just a feeling."

EDIT - The phrase I'm looking for conveys a much stronger feeling than "I have a bad hunch". It is about something catastrophic which the person feels is "going to happen in a few minutes".


texts: Can "recall" be used in an imperative sense?

texts:
Can "recall" be used in an imperative sense, interchangeably with "remember", such as in "Recall that..." as if I was saying "Remember that..."

i.e. "John, recall I told you to go shopping"


texts: Is the following information being said in the implied quote, to the reader, or is it ambiguous

texts:
I am referring specifically to the phrase "which we weren't." I cannot tell whether or not he is saying it to the reader or if it is part of his reply. Is it ambiguous?

First example:

  "I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative."

I include this second example because it appears to me that it is an explanation to the reader in this circumstance, but again I am not sure. And if the conclusion is different in both examples, I would like to know why.

Second example in which the same language is used:

  "I said the White House Counsel should contact the leadership of DOJ to
  make the request, which was the traditional channel."

Full Context


texts:
Is the sentence "Those two are triplets" proper? It seems like it would not be correct, because triplets come in 3 and this only references two people.

A similar case would be "He is a twin." I think this is different though because twin is singular, and triplets is plural.

If I was only pointing out one, "He is a triplet" seems correct. I feel that when using triplets, it implies 3.


texts: "I did it by myself" vs "I did it myself"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Myself vs by myself

"I did it by myself" and "I did it myself"; what's the exact and subtle difference between the two?


texts: Noun for someone who respects no authority, recognizes no national boundaries, no political parties?

texts: I am looking for a word that can sum up the entire nature of someone who does not respect authority, recognizes no boundaries, and recognizes no political establishment.


texts: You have a quick eye. Why didn't you marry her? it's from 'the Age of Innocence'.What is the meaning of 'a quick eye'?


texts:
When I was about 10-15 years younger, I lived near a club named Cache. It was pronouced like 'sachet'.  I assumed at this time that this was the spelling of what is defined as 'Cachet'.  Also, I assumed that it meant to have the definition most closely to 'Cachet', but my understanding was a little different.  Much like the data storage definition of cache, I understood cachet to mean that you had a collection of respect or clout.

The definition in OED declares this is more of a state, and says nothing of amassed respect or clout.  Since, with the inclusion of ridiculous newly added words, I now question everything about the OED.

Am I right in thinking this about cachet, that it implies amassed respect or clout?  Or does it not have this sense, and is only really a state?

ADDENDUM: It should also be noted that this club was a West Indies Islands club. I don't know enough Spanish to know if Cache means the same as the English cachet. The definition I cited (not the computer data cache) is the sense I got of its use.


texts:
Bois employs the metaphor of chess, arguing that the game represents the artists’ exchange as “a competitive rivalry and a complex temporality” that can be viewed both as a linear process and a simultaneous structure.

As per wikiwand, it has this meaning - https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Temporality

But I am not able to tie the sentence with this meaning

Entire paragraph -
Matisse and Picasso; Picasso and Matisse. Throughout the twentieth century, this pairing has been touted as the quintessential artistic rivalry. In Matisse and Picasso, Yve-Alain Bois follows Hubert Damisch in proposing that the interaction between Picasso and Matisse should be seen as a dynamic game rather than a static conflict of artistic polarities. Bois employs the metaphor of chess, arguing that the game represents the artists’ exchange as “a competitive rivalry and a complex temporality” that can be viewed both as a linear process and a simultaneous structure."


texts: How do would you write out character whispering in a narrative story, would you use italics, parantheses, maybe dependent on variety of styles?


texts: What's the the proper usage of apostrophes for possession when two might be used? See example

texts: I've looked other places online to try and find the answer to this question and was unable to confirm if I should use an apostrophe for both words or not. It seems awkward to do so but grammar rules appear to tell me otherwise. The situation I'm thinking of is one like this: "Mary's sister's lasagna" or "Joe's dog's bone." From the rules I've read I'm pretty sure that both words would need an apostrophe because they are both possessive, and each in their own right possessing individual things: it's Mary's sister, and the sister's lasagna. If it were Mary and her sister's lasagna, the apostrophe could go after 'sister' because they both are sharing possession of the same thing.


texts: "Katy bar the gate" origins -- Katherine Who?

texts:
For the first time in a long time, I recently heard the expression "Katy, bar the gate!" exclaimed as a warning.  It was said so fast I had to ask the  speaker to repeat himself.  His anecdotal derivation was that it's what was said when trouble is on the way and to lock the barn door, specifically not to let the horses out when marauders coming.  I was intrigued.  What are the origins of this expression, and who is Katy?
I've read into the history of Catherine Douglas aka  Catherine Barlass protecting King James I of Scotland from assassination in 1437. A poem from 1881 has the line "Catherine, keep the door!" as an origin of the expression of how she physically protected the king with her arm in a door (The King's Tragedy by Dante Gabriel Rossetti), but this falls short.
Other sources suggest a traditional Scots ballad, "Get Up and Bar the Door!" about a marital dispute that does not name a Katy or Katie. Nothing about horses, either.
The trouble with the 1881 poem as origin is that at least two sources predate its publication:

I saw it was “Katy bar the door” with me unless I
skipped, and I lost no time in skipping.
The Democrat (Lima, Ohio), 30 Oct. 1879.
A rather earlier one hints at a possible source:
The Custom House Packet, with the Custom House colored band, U.S.
Marshal Packard, in command, with the old flag triumphantly kissing
the breeze of old Red, the band playing “Katie, Bar The Door,” and
with waving rags touched the wharf and proceeded to land her precious
cargo.
The Louisiana Democrat (Alexandria, Louisiana), 2 Oct. 1872.

Green's Dictionary of Slang comes in at 1872:

[adoption of a popular US fiddle tune, thus entitled] (US) used as a
warning, to indicate impending danger; cite 1878 differs slightly,
suggesting inclusiness rather than exclusiveness.

There are 400 years between the incident of Catherine Barlass and the poem, which doesn't actually use the phrase "Katy bar the gate."  Is it an American idiom?  Some have used it as simply "Stop," others as "Game over."
Still nothing about horses (could the speaker have been thinking of Catherine the Great?).  I've tried variations on Katie/Katy/Catie and door vs. gate.  Some sources show it is a fiddle tune of Southern US origins, but I'd like to know more.  Are there
other Katies barring the door out there, and since when? Are there other meanings to this phrase?


texts: Is the -ie suffix commonly associated with femininity?

texts:
Is it valid to assume that the -ie suffix is commonly associated with femininity? Say, we take a word like owl and add the suffix, so we get owlie. Would a person whose native language is English be more likely to assume that owlie is a feminine sounding word? By extension, same for words like sharkie, stormie, etc.
If we take female names like Carrie, Abbie, Kylie and so on into consideration, my theory might not be entirely baseless.


texts: Is this past participle to be changed to present participle?

texts:
In this sentence, is the past participle of ‘clasped’ in ‘with his hands clasped over his fat bottom’ to be changed to ‘clasping’?

  He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.


texts: How do I express the position of an object by counting from the last?

texts:
I have some events. a occurred the the first and d occurred the last. The order is as follows

  a > b > c > d

How do I express the position of c. I'd like to count from the last. Is it correct to say?

  c is the second last event

What are the alternative words?


texts: What resources can you recommend for finding words based on knowing some of its letters?

texts:
Are there any websites that allow searching for a word based on only knowing, let us say, the second character, the third character and the total number of characters?

I thought about this while solving a crossword today, but could not find such a tool on the internet.


texts: I have hear serpentine pronounced sir-pen-tine and sir-pen-teen. Which is correct or more common?


texts: Work Gives Professional Experience, School Gives ___ Experience?

texts:
If I'm trying to differentiate between my knowledge base, how do I address the experience gained in school? For example,

"My professional experience includes C#, .NET, etc."

"My educational? experience includes Java, C++, etc."


texts: A single word for "not seeing the big picture"

texts:
I am looking for a word that would describe being obsessed with the details of a larger entity such that the "looker" neglects to see the whole or (perhaps more importantly) the purpose of the whole.

Basically, "not seeing the big picture".

What can [more] succinctly describe this?

Edit: I just found this post: An adjective for "able to see the big picture". I think I want the exact opposite.


texts: Which is correct, "be proceeded" or "be processed" (used in business letter)

texts:
Which usage (be proceed/be processed) is correct in the following sentence? (This is written in a business letter) Are there any differences between these two words? Thanks a lot!

Please be noted that your order won't be "proceeded" until we receive your confirmation.
Please be noted that your order won't be "processed" until we receive your confirmation.


texts: What's the word for the use of the wrong prefix or suffix?

texts:
For example if someone said unliterate instead of illiterate or discluded instead of excluded?
Is there a word for this kind of grammatical error?


texts: Word for "heating food in pot without heat on"

texts:
What's that verb to describe "to heat food in a lid-covered pot without heat on"?

For example, when preparing food such as pastas you typically boil it in water for some time maybe 10 minutes or so depending on the amount, then afterwards you turn off the heat and just let it sit with the lid covered while it's being cooked inside.

What's that word to describe that process, that process of letting the food cook inside the lid-covered pot while the heat is turned off? Like, "boil the pasta for 10 minutes then turn off the heat and [that word] for another 10 minutes.


texts: What is the difference between "universal" and "generic"?

texts: I hear lots of time the words universal and generic being used in similar contexts (especially in software engineering) - what is the difference between them?


texts:
Is there an equivalent use of Autodidactic as a verb? Such as "John is an autodidactor". I couldn't find "autodidactor" or "Autodidact Eclipse RCP so I am better educated about how to use Eclipse RCP" as if it were a to-do item.
I am trying to express the idea of self-taught as a verb:  One can learn things on one's own, but does that mean that one can autodidact things?


texts: "Changes in" , "Changes of" or "Changes to"

texts:
I am confused about the selection of in, of or to
I want to explain that
"changes in hydrological variables and changes in landscape variables in wetlands can change the populations of waterbirds"
Here are some options, I am not sure they are right or not. Can someone please help that which one is explaining it best and why?

1) Changes in wetland hydrological and landscape variables can alter the population dynamics of waterbirds.

2) Changes of hydrology and landscapes in wetlands can alter the population dynamics of waterbirds.

3) Changes to hydrology and landscapes in wetlands can alter the population dynamics of waterbirds.

4) Hydrological and landscape changes in wetlands can alter the population dynamics of waterbirds.


texts: A single word for “blind” and “slow on the uptake”

texts: We have a word tiomny in Russian which has the meanings blind, dim, and dumb. Is there a word (possibly slang) in American English which is as close in meaning to both blind and slow on the uptake?


texts: "Please join me, my family and [my] crew." Can the second "my" be left out?

texts:
Is it proper to say:

  Please join me, my family and crew in celebrating my Bat Mitzvah?

Or should there be a 'my' before crew?


texts:
Could anyone tell me the tense of these sentences?

I should have done my homework by now.
Had he cooked a risotto, he would have won the contest.

As far as I can remember, in school, we classified the first sentence as present perfect tense of supposition.

Could anyone clarify the tenses of those sentences?


texts:
The author was offered to become a practitioner in the Organizational Behavior department at Harvard Business School to help to connect the faculty with the real world, he went to have an interview and he felt that not everyone was keen on the idea of brining him as a practitioner. "A few days later, I heard from the OB group that they didn't see a fit. They had a number of faculty who were researching careers, and there was too much overlap with other faculty."
I don't understand what's meant by "researching careers"? they were more involved in research?
The source is a book titled ""Teaching by Heart".


texts: Can verbally female-concerned idioms be used for male cases, (and vice versa)?

texts:
The idiom like Caesar's wife is mentioned in the book 1100 words you need to know (Murray Bromberg and Melvin Gordon, 4th edition), and used in the following sentence as an example:

  Mrs. Drake would have to be like Caesar's wife so that no tinge of
  scandal would embarrass her husband, our new mayor. (page 134)

I'd like to know if such idioms that are verbally suited for one particular gender can be acceptably used for the opposite sex as well. To my non-native way of thinking, and considering the definition of idiom (i.e. an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements - Merriam Webster's- 11th edition), the opposite-sex usage sounds non-problematic as long as an idiom- and not a proverb- is used. Any ideas, please?


texts: How do I refer to something that happened in the past, but it was recent at that time?

texts:
The sentence is something like this:
The program was controversial when it was launched in 2017, mostly due to the (then recent) social climate.


texts: Word for wise person who can see the big picture when others cannot

texts:
Bonus if this word talks about this person using this knowledge to guide others. But word without guidance in meaning can still be used in my sentence as an adjective.

  The professor was ——- and used that to guide his students towards the right direction.


texts: Action of unintentionally leading someone into concluding something

texts:
Imagine a situation where one sees a woman without being aware of her surroundings and concludes wrongly something about her and the group she is a part of. For example, the person sees the writings on woman's face and proceeds to conclude that the she is part of a protest group, but is soon told otherwise. Now the person sees the bigger picture and learns that it was actually a football match.  What may he respond? I'm looking for the right response.

"Sorry, I was ... by that woman" "The woman ... me"
maybe: "Sorry, I was misled by that woman" "That girl tricked me (into thinking it was a protest)" "I was deceived by that woman"

There must be a more fitting word.

I'm looking for a verb which describes the woman's unintentional misleading of a person into concluding wrongly.

She was the reason why the person came to the wrong conclusion, because women rarely attend football matches so one concluded it was something more plausible. As if the person was tricked into believing something based on a single characteristics which turned out to be the one which can't represent the entire group.


texts: What are analogous words to "occidental" and "oriental" for southern and northern?

texts:
Definitions

Occidental: "1: relating to the countries of the West"

Oriental:  "1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Orient, or East; Eastern."

So, occidental is effectively a word that is a synonym to western, and oriental is a synonym to eastern.

Do similar words to these exist for northern and southern?


texts: "Sorry to have kept you waiting" vs. "sorry for having kept you waiting"

texts:
Can I transform "I am sorry to have kept you waiting so long" into "I am sorry for having kept you waiting so long"? Is there a difference between them?

Additionally, is "I'm sorry having kept you waiting so long" grammatical?


texts: What is the origin of the noun "satellite town"?

texts: A satellite town is a town that is located in the outskirts of a major city. What is the origin of this name, satellite town? What does "satellite" exactly mean here?


texts: When is it correct to not use the irregular form for a plural? e.g. mouses vs. mice

texts:
I seem to recall that an English teacher somewhere along the course of my education had indicated that when referencing distinct types of a word, e.g. a computer mouse and the mammal, it would be proper to refer to them as "two mouses" rather than mice.

Is that actually the case? If so, where are the lines commonly drawn - consider for example  observing a Canada Goose and a Greylag Goose as a more gray area or perhaps the tooth from a mouth versus a tooth from a saw blade as something quite distinct.


texts: Succinct word or phrase to begin quoting approximately what someone said

texts:
I would like a more concise way of phrasing what is bracketed in the examples below:

Socrates [said something along the lines of] I'm smart because I know that I don't know much.
Tyler [said something like] success breeds a hidden failure.


texts: Is there a hypernym for persons and companies as entities?

texts: I have to describe owners of certain properties and those can be persons or companies. I was thinking of naming them entities, but that seems too broad.


texts: When did service first start being used to mean "commercially valuable act"?

texts:
Was there a specific point at which service started being used regularly as the commercial counterpart to a physical product, i.e. "goods and services"?

From what I've read, service became a popular word in business in the US in the 1920s. Online Etymology Dictionary reports that:

  Service industry (as distinct from production) attested from 1938.

I can't find any other more definitive source on the use of the word service in this manner, and it's fairly similar to the expected use of the word service, which makes it even harder to tell.


texts: About the definite and zero article meaning generic concepts

texts:
I have been having a trouble with the idea of the definite article meaning generic concepts.

Recently, I came upon a question asking which one is correct between " The Chines invented the paper" and "The Chinese invented paper.

All of the commentators said the second one is correct because you are indicating paper in general, which I totally agree with. But, the definite article "the" also has a function to indicate the generic concept of something as in "The lion is big". So I assumed using "the" in the sentence would be okay, implying the generic idea of paper not a specific kind of paper. But it apparently seems not right from English natives' perspectives.

So, I concluded that general things expressed by nouns with zero article and general things expressed by nouns with definite articles are different.

How are they different?


texts: What does "the dog who caught the car" mean?

texts:
There's a back-and-forth email correspondence between Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky discussing ethics here. In one of the emails Sam says to Noam:

I trust that certain of your acolytes would love to see the master in
high dudgeon—believing, as you seem to, that you are in the process of
mopping the floor with me—but the truth is that your emotions are
getting the better of you. I’d rather you not look like the dog who
caught the car.

I've found only one site online that gives a meaning of it:

n. A person who has reached their goal but doesn’t know what to do
next.
Notes This idiom is based on the strange habit that some dogs have
of chasing cars that are passing by on a nearby road. What on earth
would one of these crazed canines do if it actually caught a car? This
idiom is also seen as the dog that caught the truck (1993) and the dog
that caught the bus (1994).
Wordspy

However this meaning doesn't make sense to me in the context. Sam is accusing Noam of being belligerent and cantankerous, and I don't see this as Sam telling Noam that he'd hate to see him be "the one who has achieved his goal and now doesn't know what to do."
I also found some user definitions on Yahoo Answers, but the meanings vary. The top answer there is:

the impossible has been accomplished.

The second answer is:

It can be taken two ways .
One.......it means you finally did something, you have tried many
times and failed...........
or it can be a euphemism, for.........the Dog is dead.
Because the dog actually CATCHING the car.....usually doesn't end well
for the dog.

Achieving the impossible doesn't seem to fit in the Harris-Chomsky discussion.
However, the dog being dead makes a bit more sense, as Sam is telling Noam that his manifest aggressiveness is not making him look good in front of their readers, and so the dog being dead could be figurative for Noam's attacks backfiring on him and making him look bad.
I'm having trouble knowing what is meant by this in the email exchange, and also in general. Stephen Colbert seems to use it in the way Wordspy defined it:

Stephen Colbert likens Trump team to the dog that caught the car
Trump and his team, he continued, are “like a dog who spent his whole
life chasing a car — now he has to drive the car.” Entertainment
Weekly article

Does this most generally mean what Wordspy says? Also, is my reading of Sam Harris' use of it to mean "dead dog" right?


texts: Has there been any theory on the vowel /o/ that was inserted into words like "arrow"?

texts:
Words like tomorrow, sorrow, arrow, follow, borough contain /o/, as in the diphthong /oʊ/, which was /wə(n)/ in Middle English which was weakened from Old English /x/ or /ɣ/ + some sort of vowel. There was no vowel /o/ there in the first place. For example: morrow < ME morwen (no /o/) < OE morgen (no /o/); follow < ME folwen (no /o/) < OE folgian (no /o/).

Has there been a theory on when and why it was inserted there? Also, why does North American English have /oʊ/ consistently regardless of whether the original Old English consonant was /x/ or /ɣ/, while British English has /ə/ for Old English /x/ (as in borough < ME borwe < OE burh) and /əʊ/ (as in bow < ME bowe < OE boga; however arrow in both NAE and BE < ME arwe < OE earh)?


texts:
I've just started translating to my navite language the movie "Ice castles (1978)" and I found the sentence in the title. Here is some context:

A girl and her mom are watching an hockey match (one of the players is the girl's boyfriend) and at a given point it looks like the players are starting a scuffle; so the mom says this:

"Come on you pansies, get in there! No! Don't check with your goddamn wrists! Let's have a little blood flow on that ice!"

What could the sentence in the title mean here? Thanks in advance!


texts: Looking for an English term or expression that describes a man who has been charmed and subjugated by a woman

texts: Like, a word or term for the resultant state of a man who has been completely charmed by a woman and brought under her control, or even a term for the act wherein a woman renders a man in such a state. Is there anything at all?


texts: Any less impolite alternatives for the too-informal interjection “Hell”?

texts:
Consider the passage:

Mathematicians are pretty comfortable with treating spaces without any embedding. A surface can just exist—no need for a volume for it to hover in. It does so with all its properties attached: curvature, roughness, holes, etc. Hell, even a measly point can boast of its existence without any assist from “3Dness”.

It’s as if even the simple point were shaking its defiant fist in the face of “3Dness” and proclaiming that the the point’s existence is not subject to “approval” by “3Dness” for the point to actually exist.
However, the interjection Hell! seems out of place to me in the register needed for formal writing, so I don't wish to use it. The OED says of this interjection that its usage ranges from “informal” to “impolite”:

Expressing annoyance, anger, or surprise. Also with intensifying adjective, as bloody hell, fucking hell, etc.
The register of usage ranges from informal to impolite.

The earliest and latest citations provided for this usage in the OED are these two:

1888    Frederic Thomas Elworthy · The West Somerset word-book at Oaths   With some individuals ‘Hell! bloody hell!’ serve to eke out most sentences.
[...]
2005    Steve Amick  · The Lake, The River & The Other Lake xxxii. 131   Hell, he’d power-rodded the guy’s main line at least a dozen times and barely charged him the standard price.

I don’t risk coming off sounding informal at best or impolite at worst, so
is there an alternative way of saying what I’m trying to say here that still carries that same “mood” as my original wording without actually using the word hell?  I don’t wish to be rude.


texts:
My friend: I am ready to go to any country in the world if there's a treatment.

Me: There's a hospital in the US – they WOULD/WILL be able to treat this.

What's the difference between WOULD BE and WILL BE here?
TIA.
I know there are a lot of questions about will/would but most of them are about which one's more polite. And I don't think mine has anything to do with politeness.