texts:
This is a follow-up question to this one and I understand the difference between "there" and "here".

I understand "there" functions differently from the adverb "here", but it leads to another question. It might sound too basic, but I believe it is relevant to why there could be some uncertainty in accepting there as a subject.

If you Google search "There is a dog in the house" and "There is my dog in the house", there is not a single hit for the latter, zero, nothing, nada while I get 738,000 hits for the former. You get 258,000 hits for "My dog is in the house".
If you Google search "There is a cat in the house" and "There is my cat in the house", still you get no hit for the latter and 358,000 hits for the former. You get 767,000 hits for "My cat is in the house".

You don't find any results for "There is my dog in his/her/our/their house", either.

Apparently, there doesn't seem to be used when determiner "my" (or other possessives) is used for a noun.

Another flaw, if you like, is a subject-verb agreement.

There sometimes takes a singular "be" for a "plural noun" that follows it. As @John Lawler pointed out in the answer

  There's one biscuit left ~ There's a unicorn in the garden ~ There's
  someone here to see you. (One can say There is, but it's far commoner
  to start a There-Insertion sentence with There's
  -- even when the postposed subject is plural -- There's some people here to see you).

There are some people here to see you is much more broadly used as the below shows.

My question is:

Is the subject "there" as a "dummy subject" flawed as the above-mentioned points seem to suggest?
Using a singular verb "be" before a "plural" noun ungrammatical?
Why is there no usage of "there is my dog in the house"?

Note: I am reluctant to ask the third question and please disregard it if you consider it to be "too basic a question".

Thank you!


texts: Grammatically, can you have a 'bit' of liquid?

texts:
Example:

There is a bit of wine left in the glass.


texts: Word or phrase for someone claimed as one of a city's own

texts:
What is a word that captures not merely that a person was considered great, but also in some sense belongs to a place?
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsmouth, and lived much of his life in London, where he died, and yet the city of Bristol hosts many of his most famous feats of engineering. Accordingly, Bristol often claims Brunel as one of its own. Not a resident, not a citizen, but... a luminary? A celebrity? Something like adopted son, but with added reverance?
Example sentence:
"The famous engineer Brunel was one of Bristol's _________"?


texts: What is the adverb for describing a range from nearly perfectly to perfectly?

texts:
Is there an adverb for describing a range from nearly perfectly to perfectly?

For example:

I played basketball almost as well or even as well as a professional basketball player.


texts: How did 'bump' humorously evolve into 'bumptious'?

texts:
[OED:] Etymology:  A humorous formation, suggested perhaps by bump n.1 or bump v.1, and words in -tious, like fractious. (Not in Craig 1847, nor in any earlier Dict.)
bumptious  {adjective} = Irritatingly self-assertive

1. How does 'bump' (as either the noun or verb) relate to the meaning of 'bumptious'? Please help me dig deeper than the definition, which I already understand and so ask NOT about. I heed the Etymological Fallacy. But what are some right ways of interpreting the etymology to make it feel reasonable and intuitive?
2. What was humorous? Etymonline also doesn't explain the humour.


texts: Is there a word for a person who takes on his own challenge?

texts:
A challenger? I'm not a native English speaker but I think when people hear that word they naturally assume the challenge is not set by the challenger. I don't want to imply that.

If no such word exists, a synonym (informal if necessary) for a courageous person (in one word) would be the next best thing.


texts:
In secret organisations (at least on TV) there are documents which are marked EYES ONLY meaning that they shouldn't be recorded in any way except for authorised officers to look at them directly.

What is the opposite of this? (e.g. a document which should never be seen by a human but should readily be read and copied by machines, such as the information a machine collects for google ads).

My specific case is that I have a file containing data for physics research which I should never look at (so as not to bias myself) but I want the computer to analyse based on a priori parameters. This is called a blinded analysis (for more info, see here).


texts:
I've heard phrases similar to

  It was if they wear hearing me but they weren't listening

My first request is what are the common forms of this statement as I've heard some that seem more logical than others.

What precisely does the phrase mean? I believe taken literally it's an oxymoron as most dictionaries define hearing and listening very similarly. From the definitions I've red, listening tends to imply that the sound being heard carries meaning (but don't all sounds?). For example you could say "listen to his instructions to know what to do" but you could also listen to something non-verbal to gain information, for example if you heard a tree come falling down, you know that a tree fell down.

For the over all meaning of the phrase, I can think of a few different meanings and was wondering if any are right or wrong:

The person was perceiving the message but knowingly chose not to comply. e.g. Joe heard Bob tell him to come early but he chose to disregard the request.
The person's capacity to hear is working well but cognitively he is disengaged. e.g. Joe stood in front of Bob while Bob was talking, but Joe's mind was elsewhere.
The person is incapable of interpreting the message. e.g. Joe doesn't speak the language Bob was speaking to him in.

This is what I don't get, in example 3. most people would say Joe was listening to Bob but couldn't understand him. So this seems to show that the phrase in question missuses the word "listen".

TL;DR
In a sense I'm asking what the difference is between "hearing" and "listening" and if the quoted phrase is an idiom in the sense it does not logically apply the rule.


texts: English word forms not having cognates in any other language

texts:
I've heard that the word "dog" does not have cognates in any other known language (checked with etymonline ). That is, this very common words has similar forms in other languages, Germanic, Romance, or Celtic (those that have large overlap in vocabulary etymology with English).

So my question is of two kinds:

what are some other (common?) words that -do not- share etymology with words in any other language?
what are some ways to such a search automatically? (I feel like oed.com used to allow plain old test search of any entry so that one could have looked for 'unknown' or something similar). Also are there any online English word lists that have some etymological info?


texts: Which is correct here, "your" or "yours"?

texts:
I know that

"Your" is a determiner and,
"Yours" is a possessive pronoun.

I had a case where I wasn't sure if it should be used as a determiner or pronoun:

  In response from your and someone's answers

OR

  In response from yours and someone's answers

Which was the correct use?


texts:
Is there a word (or short phrase) that can be used for the feeling that accompanies the death of (a) hope? Specifically for something long term, like in a failing relationship or other similar loss (friends, jobs, etc.), where there might be multiple "hopes" that can die independently.

I do not feel that "Impending demise" or similar expressions are right, because they are more logical projections, rather than the actual emotion that is felt as a result. Dread also is not correct, because dread implies a fear that is not meant to be present in this usage - the emotion is more of a neutral/muted emption.

Sample:

  As I sat there watching my girlfriend stew in anger, I felt ____ as I realized once again that we were probably heading for a breakup.

This feeling is not about the hope being gone, but more about having had a lot of hope before, and now there is not as much and one more hope just died.


texts:
I want to say: "We end up really liking the bourgeoisie establishments we visit."

But visit seems like a weak word for the job. In my mind, I want a verb which has the connotation of refinement and taste similar to the noun "patron". Does such a word or phrase exist?


texts:
In this article, a top French official is in trouble for sodomizing a maid. Yet, the article says that he forced her to perform oral sex. I always understood sodomy as involving anal as that seemed to be what was going on in Sodom in the Bible. Then I looked at this definition on Onelook.com and found that it includes bestiality.

Did other taboo sex acts just get lumped in with sodomy over the years, or did it include all those from the beginning?


texts: "On this occasion" vs. "during this occasion"

texts:
Which one is correct?

  I met my future wife on this very American traditional occasion.
  I met my future wife during this very American traditional occasion.


texts: How would you term a person who gives you a job opportunity and then reminds you to be grateful that he's given you that opportunity....


texts: Diagramming a Sentence with a Causative Verb

texts:
For a Reed–Kellogg sentence diagram, how would you diagram a sentence with a causative verb like "made"? For example:

  The hot weather made her want to swim.

I understand that "weather" is the subject and "made" is the verb, but is the direct object "her" or "want to swim"? And either way, how would you diagram "want to swim"? As a participial phrase, or as an infinitive phrase with a blank space where the "to" would usually be?

Thanks for any help you're able to offer! I've been trying to figure this out for days...


texts: The difference between "take" and "last"

texts:
We say: "the meeting will last two hours". But we say: "how long does the flight take?"
Please let me know the difference between last and take and when we should use each.


texts: Commas, Subject and Verb in Imperative Sentence

texts:
In this sentence, the speaker is issuing Ian a command:

  "Ian, set course for Mars Station."

This violates the rule about separating a noun from its verb with a comma. However, written:

  "Ian set course for Mars Station."

it does not sound like a command to my ear, but like a statement of fact.

Is it incorrect to use a comma in this instance? If so, how can I prevent the sentence from reading like a statement rather than a command?


texts: Is there a saying describing a person who attacks member of his/her community to appeal to another community?

texts:
I am looking for a saying or idiomatic expression about a person from a community who attacks (verbally) his own members just to please the members of the other community on an controversial issue. The two communities can be at peace but in the past there were some tensions that surface at some times. The attacker can have a point on a controversial issue but that is difficult to gauge. In this context, the attacker crosses the red line from just critique to (mostly) offense. It is just to say that the attacker can only please the members from the another community who already are somewhat hostile to the first community members; not all members from another community appreciate this attack on his own members.

In Latvian there is a saying that literally translated says: "[because of what he said] he will be beaten by both sides." Beaten by both sides implies that he annoys the members of his community and also by other community because he does not really belong there or get accepted there. Beaten here does not mean physical beating.


texts:
India rejected an Australian request to join maritime exercises along with the U.S. and Japan this June, and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said quite plainly last month that there was no plan to “militarise” the Quad.

I took this line from a newspaper.
I think the usage of "this June" may be incorrect. It should have been used before the conjunction "along with".
Also, the usage of the adverb "quite" is unnecessary.
can anyone please explain?


texts: Is 'fed up OF' acceptable, shouldn't it be 'fed up WITH'?

texts:
Question really says it all.   "I am fed up of
television ?" just does not sound correct yet I hear it used all the time.


texts:
I asked a question regarding PP complements the other day and I believe I now have a better handle on that. But I am still scratching my head over this paragraph from CGEL:

Within the category of internal dependents we will draw a distinction between modifiers and complements. The pre-head dependents in [7] are modifiers, while complements are seen in the finance minister, our legal advisor, and the like. (Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002), p.331)

I thought "finance" in "the finance minister" was a noun adjunct, and so was "legal" in "our legal advisor", because if you take them out what you get is still normal, meaningful NPs. A minister is a minister, and that one just happens to be responsible for finance. But in Huddleston and Pullum's description, "finance" and "legal" are indispensable to the NPs. Are they integral parts of their respective NPs because they bond with the head nouns? But why?


texts: Usage, prevalence of “rooster sauce” and “cock sauce”

texts:
Sriracha sauce is a kind of chili sauce named for Si Racha, Thailand, but in the United States many people call it “rooster sauce” or “cock sauce” after the prominent rooster logo on a popular brand of the sauce.

Photo by Memphis CVB

Most people I know in the San Francisco Bay Area just call it “Sriracha,” but I occasionally hear the nicknames too. I originally assumed that more serious folk would only use the “rooster sauce” name, with “cock sauce” reserved for jokers and provocateurs* because of the double entendre. As food blogger Alan Sytsma notes (emphasis added):

  After all, how many condiments have their own nicknames? Ketchup? No. Mustard? Not a chance. But Sriracha? In a nod to its bottle many connoisseurs simply call it “cock sauce,” a name that is as bawdy and virile as the sauce itself.

However, I recently heard a man in Green Bay use the “cock sauce” nickname quite matter-of-factly, with none of the usual vocal cues that would indicate irony or innuendo. That got me to wondering just how prevalent those nicknames are – and in particular, how many people use “cock sauce” without sniggering.

How widespread are the “rooster sauce” and “cock sauce” nicknames for Sriracha sauce? Are there any significant examples of English speakers or writers using the latter term in more sober contexts?

* Like me.


texts: Where should I add "forcefully" in the following sentence?

texts:
Her lips curled up forcefully at the ends.

  Her lips forcefully curled up at the ends.

Which is the most correct/idiomatic option? And why?


texts: Which is right, "bananas and apples" or "apples and bananas" or both?

texts:
My English teacher just asked us to write a random sentence in English.

Off the top of my head I wrote "I like to eat apples and bananas".

She highlighted "apples" and said: "man, this is blatantly wrong".

"Uh, what's wrong, M'am?"

"It should be bananas and apples. English people always enumerate things in reverse alphabetical order. Always. Just like when they enumerate parts of the body, they always converge to the heart. Always. We do that automatically, without even thinking about it. Not doing it is wrong".

Granted, I'm not a native speaker, but I've never heard anything like this before.

Bullshit or what?


texts: interrogative sentences with WH-clauses in the middle

texts:
I know that when we are reporting a question in a sentence in reported speech, the question mark should be removed, like this:

  Question asked of me: "Did you know that girl?"
  Reported: He asked me if I had known the girl.

But what about the case where the question has a with a wh-clause?

As in:

  "Do you know where...?"

  "Do you know where I can get a handmade knife?"

If the above question sounds correct, why doesn't the one below?

  Do you know where can I get a handmade knife?

I'd like the name for the grammar involved here, and an explanation of why the word order is switched.


texts:
Here is a list of _______ that occurred in testing.

I am trying to find a concise way to convey that something is an outlier in an unexpectedly good way. I was thinking of using the term "black swan", but recent usage of that (particularly in the finance industry) leaves me the impression that black swans are bad things (even though I understand that isn't necessarily the origin of the phrase). A neutral word would be "outlier", but I'd also like to convey that it is a positive thing (and "positive outlier" isn't doing it for me).


texts: Fullstop in a full quoted sentence in the middle of another sentence?

texts:
E.g., The statement made that "Apples are red." is wrong.

Should it be a comma instead e.g., 'The statement made that "Apples are red," is wrong.'?


texts: syntactic analysis of a phrase with FROM...TO

texts:
In the sentence

  Everything we do, from eating and ice cream to crossing the Atlantic and from baking a loaf to writing a novel, involves the use of coal, directly or indirectly.

I can't come up with the answer to the syntactic function of the two phrases from eating an ice cream to crossing the Atlantic and from baking a loaf to writing a novel. Are these adjuncts complementing the verb do? Are these complements to the pronoun everything?


texts: Could one use “our” and “we” in a formal essay?

texts:
I'm finding it hard to replace personal pronouns in a formal essay. My sentence:

To illustrate this more carefully, we will take the example of the 58th Presidential Election of the United States and examine the role played by media ethics in the election.

How could I change that? Any help!

Thanks! :)


texts: A number is divided evenly by its factors; what to call this number?

texts:
A number is divided evenly by its factors, then what to call this number with?
For example:
10 is divided evenly by 1, 2 and 5.
1, 2, 5 are the factors
Then, how can I denote "10" with a noun?
(I tried searching math.stackexchange, but this seems to be too elementary there)


texts: Alternative expression to 'free from' meaning to disassociate oneself from something bad

texts:
Can anybody provide an alternative expression to the phrase 'free from' meaning to disassociate oneself from something or someone bad?

For example, a company manager commits fraud and the deputy manager addresses him saying: 'I'm free from you and your criminal ways!' Meaning that he disassociates himself from the manager and the actions of the manager due to his disgust at the manager's crime.


texts: What does "Without padding one’s end zone" mean?

texts:
In the following sentence of Eat, Drink and Be Healthy in New York Times (Feb.1) contributed by columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget, I found the following sentence:

You can work up Super Bowl Sunday without padding your own end zone.

I think the phrase is a pun associated with the football game. As a perfect illiterate on American sports (not only sports but everything), I'm not able to figure out what do something without padding one's end zone means. Can anybody explain it to me?

  Like other food-centered celebrations,
  Super Bowl gatherings can be both fun
  and fraught with apprehension for
  those concerned about their
  waistlines. Nobody wants to sit on the
  sidelines, skipping the traditional
  snacks. But who wants to deal with
  postgame regrets? You can work
  football-fan food into your Super Bowl
  Sunday "without padding your own end
  zone." As your coach, I've scouted
  some game-day favorites:


texts: Are there different types of Pronunciation Guides?

texts: In dictionaries you'll often see a pronunciation guide next to words like (bakery would be beɪkəri).  Are there different standards of these pronunciation guides? Also, where can I learn how to understand the pronunciation guide?


texts:
Why not brew wine and make beer? Non native speaker so I can't fully discern the difference.

Thanks.


texts: What's the difference between patent and obvious?

texts: Patent is used a lot more in "serious" matters, like legal breaches, such as a "patent breach of law," but does that really mean anything? Does "patent" just sound more refined?


texts: Phrase for shared experience which indirectly affected direction of a field

texts:
Imagine that every person who had gone on to do something extraordinary in a field of endeavor had had a shared experience --

E.g. imagine that every scientist who received the Nobel prize in 2015 had coincidentally been at the same summer camp in 1995 and seen a person give an amazing talk that inspired them all to be scientists. Or imagine all of the great musicians of the 1970s had been to Woodstock as teenagers.

What would you call this shared thing?

Bonus points: I'd love if there were also a sense in this phrase/word of a "crossroads" - that is, there was directionlessness and this event "cleared the way"


texts:
In news about English and "Commonwealth" team sports (e.g., rugby, cricket), I occasionally hear the visiting team being referred to as "tourists" (e.g., "the tourists won the match ...").  This usage is listed in very few dictionaries, probably because it is almost unknown in North America, and those are the sources I have available.

I'm wondering what the connotations of that usage are.  Does it simply mean "one who tours" in the very original sense of the word, or does it have sarcastic undertones, likening the visiting team to sightseers?

Also, what constitutes a tour?  If an English football team plays a match in another English town or, say, in Italy, are they also "tourists"?


texts:
Recently there appeared a question as to the difference between:

I can't stop laughing.

I can't help laughing.

and it appears there is a difference in them.
Is it proper to say that "I can't but laugh" can be used in place of both the examples?


texts:
Are both "compared to" and "as compared to" correct?

Microsoft has bigger market share compared to Apple.
This question is more difficult as compared to the previous one.


texts:
Can some one tell me the appropriate word instead of 'very fast' in sentence:

  Don't loose hope very fast.


texts:
I was talking to this guy about food, and I asked if his mom taught him how to cook when he was still living with her (he moved to my city 6 years ago). His response was: "...my mom was a great cook..." When he used the word "was", did he mean that his mom had already passed away? If not, why didn't he use "is a good cook" instead? I barely know him so I did not want to ask any personal questions. 2 cents from anyone is appreciated. :)
Thank you


texts: Why do we do drugs but have food? Or even have a beer, which is alcoholic beverage thus a sort of drug too. In both cases we consume something. Is there a rule for this?


texts: What is the right exclamation for expressing schadenfreude and revealing the banter after tricking someone? In German there is the phrase "Reingelegt!". In my opinion "Just kidding!" lacks of schadenfreude.


texts:
So this is about (preventing) an off-by-one error in the (interpretation of) English language. I have found some similar (not duplicate) questions but I don't feel entirely comfortable yet. For context, I'm an application developer, and I want my application to be crystal clear. To that end, I've found existing answers to be unsatisfactory.
Let me give an example sentence that should explain it all.

The contract lasts from 1 January to 31 January.

The word to is ambiguous, although in this case is easily understood to be up to and including the 31st. However, it will not always be this easy! In Dutch, we have a simple solution to this ambiguity:

het contract duurt van 1 januari tot 1 februari (<)
het contract duurt van 1 januari t/m 31 januari (<=)

I want to be able to use both forms in my application, but, again, it needs to be crystal clear to the user which of the 2 is meant.
The English equivalent for t/m that first comes to mind is up to and including. However, that is just too long for my tastes compared to t/m. In Dutch, because it's so short, the ambiguity of tot is almost non-existent because laziness is not an excuse to write tot instead of t/m. I fear that some developers will write up to or until where they actually meant up to and including.
I also considered the word through, so it would be this:

The contract lasts from 1 January to 1 February. (<)
The contract lasts from 1 January through 31 January. (<=)

Is through really understood by everyone to be up to and including? Or is there an alternative, better word? Or perhaps I'm looking in the wrong direction for a solution and there's a word for to that explicitly excludes the boundary?

So again, to summarize, I'm looking for:

a word or phrase that unambiguously means less than
a word or phrase that unambiguously means less than or equals


texts: Is "wanna" more common with non-native speakers?

texts:
Is the word "wanna" (as opposed to "want to") more common in the writing of non-native speakers than in the writing of native speakers of English?

Is this effect more pronounced when you exclude casual conversation, and also exclude quotation of speech?


texts: Can I use "within" in place of "before" in "I will go there before 7 p.m."?

texts:
I will go there before 7 p.m.

Can I use "within 7 p.m." in this sentence ? Or would it be wrong to use "within"?


texts: V-S inversion: Gets my daughter a present

texts:
Recently got curious about V-S inversion. Heard and saw some of them from the lyrics of songs, daily conversations, et cetera, I want to know how it works. As inversion is generally used in writings, it occurs to me that it would be not so appropriate to use inversions in conversations. But the truth is that they are widely used and fairly understandable.

Here is the sentence which made me curious.

Gets my daughter a present, I do . . . (Not sure the rest of it)

If this is idiomatic, how about these sentences below I just made and how can they work?

Receives the boy the prize, everyone congratulates him.
Brags my brother about his new phone, I want to hit him.

Thanks.


texts: What word would you use to describe someone speaking harshly but truthfully of someone else?

texts: I'm thinking 'honestly' but I'm not sure that it's captures the harshness or criticalness of the situation. I want to describe someone who is not speaking overly critical of someone but exactly critical.


texts: Is there a word like apathy but with positive moral connotations?

texts:
Consider the following two people:

Alice obsessively watches the news and feels horrified by the constant bad news she sees. She takes up smoking to deal with the stress, and experiences panic attacks.
Bob also watches the news, but he realises he can't do much to change anything on a national scale so he decides not to care and goes for a walk with his dog.

I am looking for a noun to describe Bob's attitude. Apathy could work but it has negative moral connotations.  Is there a positive equivalent?


texts: Complex alternative question with OR, do I need the verb before the subject twice?

texts:
Which is correct?

  Would you like to have such feature or it is unnecessary?

or

  Would you like to have such feature or is it unnecessary?


texts: What's the adjective for someone who requires too much?

texts: they require too many things or want people to do too many things even when they are unnecessary


texts:
I updated my colleague about a travel subscription confirmation. And he said
"Great News! Hold off on arranging travel until I hear from Bill today." I got the point - Dont arrange any travel. But I want to know how else can we use Hold off in different or similar situations.


texts: Does the prefix "pre" connote negative meanings? Examples: "Presage" vs "sage", "pretext" and "preclude"

texts:
I came across the word "presage" through the Vocabulary Builder as below

  presage (v.) presij
  to indicate something (usually bad) is about to happen.
  The sudden loss of jobs presaged an economic downturn.
  The Latin word ōmen is thought to be the origin for presage. Presage can also be a noun, describing an incident or event that presages something.

And I am familiar with the word "sage" as an adjective. Merriam-Webster Unabridged says,

  a:  eminent in wisdom:  wise through reflection and experience:  prudent and philosophic in judgment and views
  the wise reasoning of a certain sage magistrate — George Berkeley

  b [archaic]:  grave, solemn
  among the sage and somber figures that would put his unsophisticated cheerfulness to shame — Nathaniel Hawthorne

  2: proceeding from or characterized by wisdom, prudence, and good judgment
  providing sage guidance to non-ponderous writing — Saturday Review

I know "pre" is the suffix originally from Latin meaning "before".

Does anyone how come adding "pre" adds the meaning of something bad to the word "presage" etymologically?

Other examples are "pretext" and "preclude" also taken from The Vocabulary Builder by Magoosh.

  Pretext (n.) A reason given for something that is not the actual reason

  Preclude (v.) to make it impossible for something to happen

  Presentiment (n.) A feeling that something (typically bad) is about to happen

Thank you for answer anyhow. But are you sure pre and per are the same? (It says, "extended").

Pre

So if "beyond" extends, it means, too much. Wouldn't too much mean too less?


texts: "If he saw that he should act" or "If he sees that he should act"

texts:
If he saw that he should act immediately

or

  If he sees that he should act immediately

Any differences betweeen these?


texts: The term Falcon Friday was found on deviantArt Twitter and later found constantly used in academic domain, like in universities, what is the meaning of Falcon Friday when an university management use the term?  Thanks.


texts: Ambiguity in Negation: "John did not come because of the rain"

texts:
John did not come because of the rain.

This sentence seems to allow the following two completely different interpretations.

John did not come. And the reason was the rain.
John came. But the reason was not the rain.

Questions

A.  How does this ambiguity arise? Is it because of negation?

B.  What is the easiest way to avoid this ambiguity?


texts: Use of the word maximum in the end of a sentence

texts: If we want to say that the maximum value of a thing is '4 dollars' or any other value can we put it this way, 'This car might cost you 35000 dollars to the maximum'?


texts: Is there an adjective describing the feeling of touching a cool, water-condensated surface?

texts: I'm trying to describe the peculiar feeling when you touch a cool, water-condensated surface (like a soda can freshly out of the fridge, the indoor side of a window in winter, etc.). It's kind of an unpleasant feeling because you'd get your hand wet and cold touching it. Any good suggestions?


texts: Can "a-mingle" be a verb in imperative mood?

texts:
In the last lines of "Jingle Bells Rock":

  Jingle bell time is a swell time

  To go gliding in a one-horse sleigh

  Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet

  Jingle around the clock

  Mix and a-mingle in the jingling feet

  That's the jingle bell,

  That's the jingle bell,

  That's the jingle bell rock

Are "mix" and "a-mingle" verbs? If  yes, are they in imperative mood? Who do they refer to? To the horse mentioned one line above?


texts: What part of speech is "only" in "Fame lights a fuse that leads only to extinguishment"?

texts:
My impulse is that it's modifying the verb leads, and is thus an adverb; yet it seems that a case could also be made that it's exerting power on the phrase to extinguishment, a noun, which would make it ... what, exactly? an adjective? I'm confused.

  Fame lights a fuse that leads only to extinguishment.


texts: In English language, why is the "Heart" analogy always used to describe the core or central theme?

texts:
There are commonly used phrases like "heart of the city" and "heart of the matter". Even to describe the nature of people, we use words like "kind hearted" and "evil hearted".

My question is, why is the emphasis so much on the heart? After all, it is just another organ of the body. In fact, the brain cells and the mind cause the thinking process that make people what they are, what does the heart do? Other languages don't seem to do that, as often.


texts:
Came across the following choice of words from a British-Australian writer. It is not very recognizable to me, and am wondering if it's a question of dialect, or was just a mistake/typo:

All this what is happening is self-evidently well organising
itself.

Vs (the more recognizable choice, to me, as a U.S. speaker):

All this that is happening is self-evidently well organising
itself.


texts: Should it be "is" or "are" in this construction?

texts:
One could say:

  The audience is cheering.

However, it sounds strange saying:

  The audience is the people who are cheering.

Should it be this instead?

  The audience are the people who are cheering.

I'm unsure as to which of the former two sentences would be correct.


texts: Task, project, assignment, job. Which one is correct in my case?

texts:
I have a tiny table/bulletin board to display information for all members to remind them of their deadline task.
They work for one large project, each is assigned to code for a specific thing.
Which correct word should I use as the table's title?

Project Deadline / Task Deadline / Assignment Deadline / Job Deadline?

I don't know about how your company's team works on a project (member job dispatch). Because in my company it is done so, in case of one member who might keep pace with others or times when he can't code before deadline, it's problematic, right? How to solve this?


texts: Subject, Verb Object (and so forth) sentence analysis. In particular: What's the Verb here?

texts:
I need help! Could you please look at this sentence:

  When I obtained a credit card, I began spending money recklessly.

I'm doing basic sentence patterns, and I don't know how to analyse this part: began spending money. Is began spending the verb in the sentence  or just began without spending? Why?


texts: Which preposition follows the word "sequence" said of the relation between things?

texts: Can one speak of the sequence (order) between two things, or should it be the sequence of A and B?


texts: Is it correct to use "I have something on hold"?

texts:
For example, some people have offered me price, and I am waiting for last person

so I tell him

Can you offer your price quickly? Because I have some offers on hold, that I have to reply to those people.


texts: Why does 'I'm with stupid' have a positive connotation?

texts:
I see the phrase ...

  I'm with stupid

... used in many occasions, especially on forums using a smiley similar to this one:

It's almost exclusively used with a positive connotation, in the meaning: "I agree with the poster above". But I just don't get why you'd call someone you agree with 'stupid'.

What is the origin and true meaning of this phrase?


texts: How could Ronald Reagan be compared with God in Sarah Palin's list of American authentic, and why?

texts:
Further to my question about the usage of ‘Blood libels’ I posted yesterday, I found the following lead-copy of an article referring to Sara Palin’s rhetoric in today’s Washington Post. It seems the article is hinting a problem of her presidential quality in terms of choice of words. However, I don’t understand why on the earth , God appears in a file of Founding Fathers, the Constitution and Ronald Reagan, even though it may be a rhetoric gimmick. It looks to me an odd combination (or comparison). Do you understand my question? Can somebody clarify?

‘Sarah Palin's effort to defuse controversy backfires with 'blood libel' comment:
The presidential-quality stagecraft was there: an American flag over Sarah Palin's left shoulder and another over her heart. So was the rhetorical polish, with its invocations of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, God and Ronald Reagan.’


texts:
I'm not sure about the use of the verbs "offer" and "promise" with to infinitive clauses. With the verb offer, the noun following the verb (person offered something) is normally understood as the subject of the to-infinitive like:

  We offered her to stay with us until she found an apartment.

(we offered, she to stay)

But, can the context be ambiguous and allow interpreting the subject of the main clause as the subject of to-infinitive clause, like:

  We offered her to pay the rent until she found an apartment.

She to pay the rent or we to pay the rent?

My second question is related to the same construction with the verb "promise". Am I correct that "that" clause phrasing is usually preferred to the one with "to-infinitive" with this verb, especially with negative sentences:

  I promised her not to forget to call her when I came home.

vs

  I promised her that I wouldn't forget to call her when I came home.


texts: When to use "necropsy" instead of "autopsy"?

texts:
I came across the following in an article about dove hunting:

  ...the study recorded the hits and misses of 5,094 shots with size 6
  and 7 steel shot and 7 1/2 lead shot, killing a total of 1,146 doves,
  1,100 of which were necropsied.

After looking this up it seems necropsy is another way of saying that an autopsy was performed; the body was examined after death.

When should we prefer one to the other?


texts: Can anyone explain the type of structure and meaning of this Rousseau quote?

texts:
Please explain this type of sentence structure and meaning of the following:

  By what inconceivable art has a means been found of making men free by making them  subject; of using in the service of the State the properties, the persons and even the lives of all its members, without constraining and without consulting them; of confining their will by their own admission; of overcoming their refusal by that consent, and forcing them to punish  themselves, when they act against their own will? —The Social Contract

It is quoted in the prologue to Invisible Hands.


texts:
If book A is sponsored by entity B, how can I say:

  . . . in the upcoming B 's sponsored book A .
  . .

or

  . . . in the upcoming B sponsored book A . .
  .


texts: A positive word for "intolerance towards intolerant people"

texts:
Is there any positive word that means "Intolerance towards intolerant people"?

If I need just one word to describe in a positive way the majority of people in a country who have now become intolerant towards sexist people or racist people what word can be used to describe such a situation, a situation where tolerance for sexist or racist people has decreased?


texts: A word that means "of few words" or "without words"

texts:
I assume that in English there is a word for everything, and I am looking for one that roughly means "of few words" or "of no words". The closest I could think of is non-verbal, but it sounds a bit too dry. Is there a better word?

Note: I did check for antonyms of "verbal" before I posted here, but didn't find any.


texts: What's the negative way of saying "I can only finish a small part of the jobs."

texts:
What's the negative way of saying

  "I can only finish a small portion of the jobs."

Is it

  "I cannot finish most of the jobs?"

And I appreciate it if more "native" expressions are provided.

Edit:

The reason I asked this is I don't know how to effectively express 1) I can do some jobs 2) But only a small portion in a single sentence. Jim commented

  "I can't get it all done."

But how much? Most of them, half, or little? This doesn't give the subtle feeling of "I can do but only a little".

Edit:

I thought this is quite common. The scenario is being asked

  "Can you do these?"

while the requester asked me to mark all papers.


texts: Is there a word for a verb which requires an adverb or prep. phrase in order to make sense?

texts:
Put is the one I'm thinking of.  It is always transitive, but even with a direct object, it still makes no sense without an adverb or prepositional phrase.

I put it somewhere.
I put it on the shelf.
I put it down.

But never:

I put it.

Is there a word for this kind of verb, and can anyone think of more like this?


texts:
What's the word for someone with two identities? i.e. someone who acts in a certain way during some times (due to the culture and people around them) and acts differently (like with another identity) at another time?

The word may begin with c?

Thanks


texts:
In a sentence such as

This is the first year I’ve lived in a house with a yard.

Is it all right to have a clause other than present perfect? That is, can you say, for instance, sentences like the following:

This is the first year I'm living in a house with a yard
That was the first year I lived in a house with a yard.


texts: How to read exponential expressions, e.g., "2^16"?

texts:
How do you say the mathematical function in English:

  x^y (or xy)

For example, how do you say

  2^16  (or 216)

I know ^ means 'power' or 'exponentiate', but that is the name of the operation, not how you pronounce its use.

If y = 2, it is 'x squared', y=3 then 'x cubed'. What if y is some other arbitrary number?


texts:
I know one says an act of desperation, but I've heard desperacy much more than I've ever heard desperation, it's like I've almost never heard desperation.

Why exactly was desperation preferred over desperacy and is there a pattern to noun adjectives ending with -ate?


texts: "Can take no other" vs. "can't take other"

texts:
As an ESL I'm not sure if I can use the following sentences:

  You can take no other directions.

I'm using it on giving indications to a foreigner.

Should I use instead:

  You can't take other directions.

Which one do you think it is the most natural/idiomatic?


texts:
His pursuers were hard on his heels, so he hid in a thicket hard by. The first use of "hard" means close in time and the second use means close in distance. Was there an early use of "hard" just to mean close? Does a hard-edge abstraction refer to a painting in which changes occur close by? (This last question, seems to be a stretch, but I've never heard anyone talk about a hard-edge knife.) I know "hard on his heels" sounds like close in distance, but that's not how it's used: cf. Cambridge Dictionary Online come/follow hard/hot on the heels of sth

"to happen very soon after something"


texts:
I came across this English test question:

  You aren't allowed to use your mobile so ________.

  it's no point in leaving it on [my answer]
  there's no point in leaving it on [correct answer as given by the marker]

The answers are very similar and I am not sure why mine was incorrect. Can someone explain why the second one is correct while the first
is wrong or less correct?


texts: What's the usage of 'for which' in this sentence?

texts:
Each of you have been carefully selected to be in this class, for which you receive an automatic grade of A upon completion.

How does for which work here?
I think this is not the case where you put a preposition before a relative pronoun (e.g. This is the uni to which I applied.)

Thanks.


texts: Difference between 'treatise' and 'epistle'

texts:
I noticed that sometimes these two are used interchangeably, especially as  designations of older, Medieval written documents. I know that 'epistle' is a letter, whereas 'treatise' is a written work concerned with a specific subject; surely, they are not synonymous. But can they ever be mutually inclusive?
Any information regarding these two words is appreciable.


texts: "right" is to "righteous," as "wrong" is to ________?

texts:
"Right" is to "righteous" as "wrong" is to _______?

What sparked my question was variation in translations of Psalm 1 where the righteous is contrasted with the wicked, the ungodly, sinners... I realized there is no wrongeous and wondered why, and what is the direct opposite of righteous.  The Hebrew source I am sure has linguistic etymology at play in translations.  This was just what sparked my curiosity as to the English direct antonym of righteous.

There seems to be no English word for one who does wrong that contains the word wrong in it, like righteous contains right. I looked for an antonyms  of righteous, but don't find any parallel adjectives.

Dictionary Definition 1

  right·eous
  ˈrīCHəs/

  adjective

  (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous.
  "he is a good, righteous man, I am sure"
  synonyms: good, virtuous, upright, upstanding, decent; More ethical, principled, moral, high-minded, law-abiding, honest, honorable, blameless, irreproachable, noble; saintly, angelic, pure  "righteous living"
  justifiable, justified, legitimate, defensible, supportable, rightful; admissible, allowable, understandable, excusable, acceptable, reasonable "righteous anger"
  antonyms:   sinful, unjustifiable

If a person who does right is righteous, then I thought the closest parallel antonym might be wrong-doers.  However, in looking at they etymology, it seems that the -eous ending connotates both doing (manner) and being (state).

Etymology/Origin 1

  Old English rihtwīs, from riht ‘right’ + wīs ‘manner, state,
  condition’ The change in the ending in the 16th century was due to
  association with words such as bounteous.

So what English word would be the antonym for righteous that would be self contained and connote both wrong doing and wrong

1 Provisional citation : Oxford Living Dictionaries


texts: Stylistic Advice regarding the two types of possessives before a gerund

texts:
I know that, in terms of formal grammar, either a possessive pronoun or genitive form should precede a gerund. So, for example, 'his being', etc.
I am, however, far more comfortable with the former than the latter: I have read it more. Moreover, some writers - thinking mostly of academics, who are likely to know (and apply) the possessive/gerund rule - will apply the former rule while neglecting the latter rule. Why is this?
To take the example with which I am struggling:
Despite Smith borrowing from Brown, he innovated in his political thought where necessary.
Now, according to the rule, this phrase should be rewritten as: 'Despite Smith's borrowing from Brown, he innovated in his political thought where necessary.'
This is for a final-year dissertation at university, so it is obviously for a formal piece of work. Is is ttherefore advisable that I use the possessive/gerund rule? And, related to that, why does the possessive pronoun (his borrowing) sound correct (if a little stilted), but the genitive (Smith's borrowing) sounds as if the writer or speaker is not a native speaker and has an incomplete grasp of the language.


texts: Is there a figurative term equivalent to the German idiom "Fingerübung"?

texts:
Just recently I was wondering on how to best translate the figurative German word 'Fingerübung'
In particular I am referring to the second meaning in the authorative German dictionary duden1, which
translates to

b) small/easy piece of an exercise (translation: me)

In my research, I stumpled upon the verbatim translation finger exercise, however it only seems to be valid for the first meaning in German, i.e. its meaning being limited to music2.
I also encountered the phrase apprentice piece but I was not able to find water-proof resources or a confirmative entry of the dictionaries I know of.
So my question remains, is there an equivalent idiom (preferably a single word, if there is one for this purpose) in the English language that can be used figuratively in the sense that it refers to a small, easy exercise which neither needs much time nor effort to solve or complete3?

Footnotes & References:
1 https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Fingeruebung
2 vide, e.g. https://www.lexico.com/definition/finger_exercise or https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/finger-exercises resp.
3 To give an example for the use of the word in the German language. For instance, one can refer to small, i.e. not out-of-the-oridnary tricky, calculus problems such as solving an integral or computing the derivative of a well-behaved function as a 'Fingerübung' (when the student itself attends a lecture on 'Mathematical Methods in Physics', in which tasks like integrals or derivatives are seen as preliminaries.)


texts: Is this sentence correct? "If I were you I would be looking for a new job"

texts: Was asked to translate this question from italian to english, teacher marked it as wrong but I sometimes see people using this formula (I would be looking for...) so is it correct or not?


texts: Who are you romantically jealous of? [no joke]

texts:
Who are you romantically jealous of?

Say A (f) and B (m) are a couple, but B is way too friendly towards C (f) which makes A jealous. But who is A jealous of? B or C?

Or C (f) has a crush on B (m), but A (f) and B are a couple which makes C jealous. But who is C jealous of? A or B?

Basically what I want to know is the target of "jealous of" when it comes to a romantic relationship. Cases like "I'm a dude and I'm jealous of him because he has a girlfriend" are pretty clear as to what the target is since you can't really be jealous of the girlfriend as you're a straight dude.


texts: (Why) is this "how many" question ungrammatical?

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  How many members has this family?

It seems to me like this is ungrammatical, and should be written as

  How many members does this family have?

However, how could I motivate this to someone?


texts: Difference in meanings for English past tense

texts:
Do they all mean the same thing, or are there any technical differences?

I worked at McDonald's.
I used to work at McDonald's.
I had worked at McDonald's.


texts: Does the following sentence have correct grammar?

texts:
This failure to seperate results in the formation of a gamete that has two chromosomes when they should only have one.

This sentence has been bugging me for the last hour and I am still not sure which is correct:

results in or resulted in
formation or forming
have or have had

I'd appreciate some help so I can understand this better, thank you in advance.


texts: Idiom/metaphor for a certain kind of robbing

texts:
I am looking for an idiom or a metaphor that implies or states the act of robbing through violent ways.

The closest metaphor that I could think of (tho, I would strongly prefer to find an idiom) is "Hit people in the head". However, this denotes an act of violence without implying an act of robbery.

Context (example sentence):

  A condition attributed by collective thinking that imposes loneliness to me, and the latter isn’t a volition anymore. However, how can I live outside society? Word would spread everywhere I would go, and I do not have enough money to move to another country. What could I do? _____("Hit people in the head"), deepen myself on a dark path and spend the rest of my days in miserable decadence?


texts: How do I make a question rhetorical? I'm having trouble making a should question rhetorically. Please help me out.


texts: Why does 'lowdown' mean 'the true facts and the relevant information'?

texts:
How can we know the meaning just through the sound of a word?

How do we invent new words?....(I think on the basis of sound.)


texts: Meaning of "community adolescents" in a research study

texts:
From "Early Variations in White Matter Microstructure and Depression Outcome in Adolescents With Subthreshold Depression":

  Neuroimaging and clinical data were obtained from a large sample of community adolescents recruited around age 14 in middle schools from eight sites in four European countries (www.imagen-europe.com). A detailed description of recruitment and assessment procedures, with exclusion and inclusion criteria, has been published elsewhere (14).

What is the meaning of "community adolescents"? Does it mean that they all belong to some typical "school community", spend their time in typical school environments?  A boy/girl of the same age but belonging to a shepherd community in Afghanistan would not fit this "group"? Or does it mean "any adolescent that lives in any kind of community"?

I want to translate this sentence into Russian, and cannot understand the precise meaning.

The abstract of the article uses the term "community-based cohort":

  Adolescents with subthreshold depression (N=96) and healthy control subjects (N=336) drawn from a community-based cohort were compared using diffusion tensor imaging and whole brain tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) at age 14 to assess white matter microstructure.


texts:
We know that a clause is a sentence which is a part of a sentence. So, a clause is itself a sentence having a subject and a predicate, but a phrase is just a group of words.
To tell you the truth,I was terrified.
He regrets now having jumped.
I apologized for being late.
Nowadays Infinitives, participles and gerunds are regarded as 'non-finite clauses'.

My question is : -
(1) Are all the three parts (written above in bold letters) phrases as well as (non-finite) clauses at the same time?
(2) Why are they regarded as clauses though they are not a complete sentence having a subject and a predicate?
(3) Is there no distinction between a phrase and a (non-finite) clause in this case?


texts: I believe I've heard that might is the past tense of may. So you should say might have never may have.


texts:
American Heritage Dictionary  of Idioms defines "in the pipeline" as:

  In process, under way, as in The blueprints for the new machine are in the pipeline, but it will take months to get approval . "(Colloquial; 1940s)”.

and according to the site “theidioms.com” the idiomatic expression is:

  from the plumbing world;  something that is in the pipeline is sure to come out from either end. It refers to on-going projects when used in real life situations.

the site notes that,

  Speculated to be American in its origin but there is no literary evidence available to justify this speculation.

Google Books is not very helpful in this case as many usage instances are literal, so I'd like to ask:

was the above idiomatic expression AmE in origin?
did it originate from the oil and gas pipeline context rather than the domestic home plumbing system?


texts:
What is the difference between "get/got/gotten" and "am/is/was/are/were/be/have or has been" in the (Passive Voice) grammar?

For example:

  My computer gets/got/gotten damaged.

and

  My computer is/was/has been damaged.

And what about if I mix with them in a sentence? For example:

  My computer is got/gotten damaged.

Thanks for reading and being interested of my question :).


texts:
Assuming there is a company that was founded by two people (A and B), one of them is also the CEO (A).

Is it correct to say that A is the founder and B is the (only) co-founder? Or does co-founder always imply that there has to be more than one co-founder, e.g. A and B are both co-founders (or founders) of that company?
Can the term co-founder ever imply being a subordinate to the founder?


texts: What does "no frame of graft" mean in this context?

texts:
Young Ethan: All right, look. I've gotta tell you something. I'm not
  17. I only said so that you'd think I was cute and vunerable. I'm actually 30, I have a wife, I have a job, I'm your Congressman.
  Monica, this is ridiculous, we're great together. We can talk, we make
  each other laugh, and the sex. Oh, man, okay i have no frame of graft,
  but I thought that was great.

  Monica: It was.

  Young Ethan: Then, what's the problem?

  Monica: Ethan, it's um... it's icky.

Taken from the sitcom Friends season 1 episode 22, it's hard for me to understand the meaning of "no frame of graft" in this context.

After searching through the internet, I figured it might not be an idiom or slang.

Anyone share their interpretation with me?


texts: Where did we get "buster" as in "Look here, buster"?

texts:
Americans, at least, have for some time used buster in speech or dialogue as a generic form of address. It has a range of tonalities, from light to affectionate to grimly confrontational.

Listen, buster, you can't beat me no matter how hard you try!
All right, buster, this time you're going down for the count.

As an aside, few people know that Jimi Hendrix's nickname, which his close friends used, was Buster. (The guitar duo of Rodrigo y Gabriela dedicated one of their tracks, Buster Voodoo, to him.)
Etymonline.com has this to say:

As a generic or playful address to a male, from 1948, American English.

The OED gives this:

Also used as a slang form of address, usu. friendly or slightly disrespectful; ‘mate’, fellow

and has a few citations beginning in 1948 (no doubt where Etymonline got its origin date):

1948 A. Seager Inheritance 174 ― ‘Hi-ya, buster. What’s new?’ he heard a woman’s coarse voice say.
1962 A. Shepard in Into Orbit 101 ― ‘OK, Buster,’ I said to myself, ‘you volunteered for this thing.’
1965 P. Arrowsmith Jericho xix. 199 ― If you go on accusing me of attacking you lot, buster, you’ll have the police to answer to.

Yet it's used as a name much earlier (Buster Keaton, Buster Brown, etc.), and as the title of comic strips and even a play (see below). It's hard to imagine that the two uses are unrelated.

Indeed, Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Supplement, page 1042), gives us this:

Buster. 'A name for anybody whose real name may or may not be known to the speaker. Usually but not necessarily pejorative. "Now listen here, Buster, this means trouble!"' (Leechman): Canadian: adopted, ca. 1920, ex U.S.

It's not clear to me how it got its present meaning from burster or buster (meaning "a gay, roistering blade"), and it certainly doesn't seem likely that it arrived from the meaning of a breaker of horses.
So I'm wondering. Did this just spring into the language fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus? Or is there a more mundane, less divine explanation?
Additional Information
I recently watched a documentary on Buster Keaton, which said he got his nickname in a certain way. While I can't reproduce that here, Wikipedia has something close to it:

According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal,[14] Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at the age of about 18 months. An actor friend named George Pardey was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Pardey remarked, "He's a regular buster!"[15] After this, Keaton's father began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster. Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including a 1964 interview with the CBC's Telescope. In Keaton's retelling, he was six months old when the incident occurred, and Harry Houdini gave him the nickname.

Although the story may be apocryphal, it does clearly point to a usage that was current at the time.


texts: Is there an adage in English for "realizing you are not the biggest"?

texts:
There is an adage in South Asia which literally translates to: A camel has finally seen the mountain. Which basically goes back to a story where a camel used to think that it was the tallest until it sees a mountain and it realizes that it isn't and there are things taller and bigger than it.

Here is an example usage: BlackBerry used to think they were the biggest in cell phone market until they saw Apple; the camel has seen the mountain.

Is there an expression in English for this?


texts: Which one is better, a matter of urgency, or simply urgency?

texts:
It becomes a matter of urgency to establish the accountability of the
  public officials.

  It becomes an urgency to establish the accountability of the public
  officials.

Which one is better? I think “a matter of urgency” is both redundant and unclear.


texts: Are the words "imagination" and "curiosity" in continuous tense?


texts: Single verb for "at the location most of the time"

texts:
I am drafting an email in which I would like to convey that

  Dian Guang Zhou is there most of the time

but would like a more effecient way of conveying this idea.

I want the sentence to read like so: [Subject] [verb] [place pronoun].

I thought about frequent, but it makes the subject sound like a patron instead of an owner (and he is an owner). I wish I could say "he oftens there."


texts: I have a question regarding English Subjunctive mood

texts:
When I turn the sentence below into
Subjunctive mood, which one is correct?

★Sentence I want to change :

*He is sad as he does not know that the problem has been solved

★Changed sentences (Which one is correct?) :

*If he knew that the problem has been solved, he would not be sad.

*If he knew that the problem had been solved, he would not be sad.


texts: I watched an old "Judge Judy" today. At some point she asked the opponents if they were still friends. It brought to mind a question my mother used to ask when I said something negative about a friend of mine. She would ask if we were "bad friends". My understanding was that if we were, it meant more like "friends having a bad day" Rather than that a friendship that was over. Has anyone else heard the term? Would you agree with my definition?


texts: "Advertising" vs. "Advertisement" in US political commercials

texts:
This is the first year I noticed the verbal boilerplate at the end of US political commercials states:

  Group X is responsible for the content of this advertising.

compared to what I recall (and prefer) from previous years,

  Group X is responsible for the content of this advertisement.

I understand advertisements to be the end result of advertising (supported here) - and my second example feels/sounds more right to me than the first.

However, I also found a number of definitions similar to the second definition on dictionary.com: paid announcements; advertisements suggesting the two words are completely interchangeable.

Is this a result of some crusade in the advertising business to change terminology, a result of the plurality of the times the advertisement is run, or am I just being overly picky and I need to get over my distinct preference for advertisement?


texts: Word to define person with bad social skills

texts:
How would you define a person without (or with very bad) social skills?

I don't mean a totally anti-social, but one that struggles to behave in a social context, and feels awkward or out-of-place when forced to stay and talk with other people.

Maybe that would be anti-social, but not by choice... Just thinking to be rejected/avoided by others, and that keeps trying to relate to others but fails everytime.

Is there a word that could describe this? Or else, what word would be the closest and more appropriate to help explain this?

Altough some answer overlap my question this question differs from mine. This question is not about understanding others and their feelings, but rather at behaving in social context, or being marked as a weird/awkward person that's avoided by others.


texts: Is there a term for not identifying with your current age?

texts:
"Transgender" refers to someone who doesn't identify with their birth gender. "Transracial" refers to someone who doesn't identify with their birth race.

Is there a term for someone who doesn't identify with their current age? For example, if someone is 50 years old, but feels a like they are 30?

Perhaps something like "Transaged"?
Is there a generally accepted term for this?


texts: What is the term for saying something like A is B,and B is A?

texts:
Watching an ad about a mobile network operator that recently changed it's brand name:
Tunisiana is ooredooo, and ooredoo is Tunisiana

is there a term for this kind of statement?
another example:
One for all, and all for one


texts: "Note that, because English orthography, there are two verbs tear, pronounced differently, one transitive......"

texts:
While reading an answer by John Lawler, I got puzzled by a sentence with unfamiliar phrasing. I for the life of me can't understand the meaning of that sentence. I read it for about 30 times. Here is the full paragraph with the bold sentence confusing:

The up particle in the verb tear up doesn't mean 'into pieces'; that's what it means with tear, because of what tear means. Note that, because English orthography, there are two verbs tear, pronounced differently, one transitive, one intransitive, with completely unrelated meanings. And both of them have phrasal verbs with up. The same up.
I want them to tear up the agreement. /tɛr əp/ 'rip into pieces' (transitive)
I want them to tear up at the climax. /tɪr əp/ 'start to cry' (intransitive)

https://english.stackexchange.com/a/558960/387044
I guess the "because English orthography" after the first comma is a part of "pronounced differently" AND "Note that" belongs to "there are two verbs tear," but it is extremely confusing.
Can anyone explain it a bit? What kind of phrasing is this and which clauses belong to which ones? And how would you say it? Where would you pause while saying it in speech?
(I'm hoping to get an explanation from the person who wrote it)....


texts: Word for the sound of a box cutter retracting: open and close

texts: The sound of an exacto (box cutter) knife retracting in and out. Open and close. Sound effect.


texts: I'm trying to make a sentence about evaluating how interesting something is. I'm evaluating its ________?


texts:
I got an email to confirm my availability:
We would like to know your availability on the week of May 10th from 10:00 - 14:00.
Does it mean they are asking my availability for the whole week for the given timeslot?
Should I reply like this:
"....
May 10th - 10:00 - 14:00
May 11th - 12:00 - 14:00
May 12th - 10:00 - 11:00
...."


texts: Is this a relative pronoun or conjunction?

texts:
I want to know everything (that) there is to know about you.

I chanced to come across ‘expletive there’ in a syntactic textbook. It says in this type of sentences: there is an expletive, to know about you is the argument for the verb. Then [there is to know about you] is a complete sentence and there is no grammatical place for ‘(that).’
Then, ‘(that) there is to know about you ‘ is not a relative clause but complement for the noun everything (adjective clause), and so ‘(that)’ is not a relative pronoun but a conjunction, I think. Can this be a possible and appropriate thought?


texts: Why are baseball statistics called "sabermetrics"?

texts:
Loosely defined, sabermetrics is the study/usage/development of baseball statistics. I get the "metrics" part of the word, and I know what a saber is. But, what do sabers have to do with baseball?

My only idea is that the baseball bat is kind of like a saber, but that seems to be a stretch.


texts:
I often hear the following, particularly during announcements when travelling by rail or air:

  On behalf of myself and the rest of the team, I would like to wish
  you a pleasant journey.

I've always wondered whether this is grammatical. I found this question, which discusses how to form such a sentence, but it still seems unusual to me even if it is correct. Something closer to the following would seem more rational:

  On behalf of the whole team, I would like to wish you a pleasant journey.

This is because the whole team is not speaking. Contrast this to the first example in which the speaker claims to be speaking on behalf of himself.

Can either of these sentences be used to mean the same thing? Is one preferred over the other?


texts: What are other ways to say I now understand or I have learned?

texts: What are other ways to say I now understand or I have learned in an academic paper?  (It is appropriate to write in first person for this particular assignment).


texts: What part of speech is "handsome" in the following sentence

texts:
What part of speech is handsome in the sentence:

  The bridegroom looked so handsome.


texts: Term for a type of relationship that two parties benefit from

texts:
Looking for a term, phrase or idiom that best describes a special type of relationship between two parties, not necessarily humans, in which both gain unprecedented benefits. However, such advantages could not be acquired without the relationship; they can continue their own ways without that. In fact, the relationship will add something invaluable.

The desired word should complete such a sentence : There is a ---- relationship between concept A and B.


texts: What is the meaning of the word 'navitis' in the second edition of 'Introducing html5'?

texts:
The word 'navitis' shows up a lot in the book Introducing html5, and I didn't find it in a dictionary.
The sentences are:

'I was previously guilty of navitis—the urge to surround any links to other parts of a site as <nav>.'

'When tempted to use a “fat footer,” consider whether such links actually need <nav> at all—navitis can be hard to shake off.'


texts:
I'm looking for synonyms of "hand in" which means "give something", often used in this kind of context:

  I will hand in my paper tomorrow.

Any suggestions?


texts: Difference between "should not" and "should avoid"

texts:
Is there a difference between should not and should avoid or more generally between not and avoid
e.g

You should not be drinking.
You should avoid drinking.


texts:
How to avoid using "on" twice in the same sentence?

For example "my part concentrate on the impact on the industrial and transportation sectors."


texts:
Which one is the right sentence for a paper?

We believe that our method can be an informed choice to use as starter program for...
We believe that our method can be an informed choice to be used as starter program for...


texts: Is there a word for someone who holds a position but they have no real power, they just merely have the title but not the power or privileges that come with it?  I'm looking for a word with a negative connotation, almost like a placeholder position.


texts: A word for someone who shallowly emulates someone/something they wish to be like (but not tied to fads/popularism - not doing it fleetingly)

texts:
To detail further; I'm looking for a word for someone who makes shallow attempts to be like someone or something they like or admire by doing nothing more than acting out the perceived actions, whilst making little to no effort to understand the deeper knowledge that facilitates those actions.

Basically a top-down approach to things, rather than a comprehension-based climb.

A good (possibly offensive) example might be the sorts of nerd-types who wear fedoras in attempts to be a 'gentleman' and invoke the kind of respect that goes along with it without understanding the finer points of what else actually creates that 'look' or description.


texts: What's the origin of "flipping the bird"?

texts: What is the origin/meaning of the phrase "flipping the bird"?


texts: Is there a word for temporary-but-may-become-permanent?

texts:
Is there a word in English for a solution that is temporary, but may become permanent if no better solution is found? I thought of "provisional" but if there is something better than that I would like to know.

The context is a position which I will take upon myself if I can, but I am asking for a "temporary" volunteer to replace me now and to stay the replacement if my situation means that I cannot take the position.

Thanks.


texts: I'm sure there must be another phrase but I just can't seem to find it. I'm not looking for a word to replace "unsung", I prefer a completely new phrase/idiom that expresses the same meaning. Thank you.


texts: Have definition; searching for matching word

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Other expressions for “to be the devil's advocate”?

Given the definition: "the adoption of an ostensibly defensible position, less because one actually believes in it than for the sake of ruffling feathers," what word springs handily to mind?


texts: Meaning of "pit technically something against something"

texts:
Is "to pit technically something/somebody against something/somebody" an idiom ? I'm not sure whether it is an idiom or not. If it's an idiom, then how do I use it in a sentence? Does it have another meaning in any other context?

Could anyone help me to understand it?


texts:
I'd like to use the word "readable" with another one, can it be "pretty"? If not, what other adjectives can be used with "readable"?

Thanks guys!


texts: A family genealogist discovered that his grandparent who was believed to have had six siblings actually had two more who had died very young; one died a few days after birth.  The firstborn died at the age of one year old.  My cousin referred to this firstborn as "the eldest".  I found it jarring to hear someone who died at the age of one called "the eldest".  Is that normal usage and am I out of line?  Or does "eldest" actually mean that one has reached an age greater than the others in his/her group?


texts:
I was wondering if there is a difference between reduced temporal clause with gerund and reduced temporal clause with past participle, and which one is used in formal setting?

For example:
Sentence A: The plant dies after being exposed to hazardous chemicals.
Sentence B: The plant dies after exposed to hazardous chemicals.

I am always inclined to use sentence A since I never heard of the reduction of clause like in B.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated


texts:
I looked here to find the difference in meanings between "looks good" and "looks well". I was wondering whether you could replace the "looks" with any other verb like "reads", i.e. "reads good to me" when referring to a text.

Edit: I think I need to give an example to make it clearer.

Somebody shows me their essay. To complement it, I say "this reads good to me" (in an attempt to say something analogous to "this looks good to me").

The description about sense verbs in the comments clarified it, though.


texts: About the article "a" instead of the when knowing the noun clearly

texts:
For Netflix, securing the Obama programming is a part of the company’s broader search for original content, as the streaming service competes for viewers with HBO, Apple, Amazon and the traditional broadcast networks. Netflix has said it could spend as much as $8 billion on content this year. It has been paying top dollar for original programs like its hit Stranger Things and the documentary Icarus, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary feature.
  It would also be another coup for a company that began by distributing DVDs and is now doing deals with some of the most powerful names in entertainment.
  Obama in Talks to Provide Shows for Netflix

Hi,
I read this article, and I would like to know why the writer uses "a" company instead of "the" company.
I think since the writer already mentioned Netflix, it seems like "the" company is okay.

(+) I know this rule:

  We often use a when we mention something for the first time, and then change to the when it is clear which thing we are talking about. We also use the when it is obvious which thing we are talking about or when there is only one of something.
  A, an, and the: how to use articles in English


texts: Nope is another form of No. When we say this other form, we say p in it. What is this p called? Where did it come from?


texts:
When traveling by sea, knowing your exact location can mean the difference between life and death.

This is one of the sentences written in Korean high school English textbook. I spent some years in U.S. and had an opportunity to learn English grammar in a few college classes.

What I learned during class was that when we make a participle construction, the subjects of the main clause and the subordinate clause should be the same. If not, it is dangled, therefore we can't use it.

Korean English text books are usually well written, yet it seems to me, in the sentence above, the subjects of each clause are not exactly the same. I want to hear from someone who knows about the grammar rules associated with the participle construction.


texts: Why Grammarly mask a subheading text as an incomplete sentence?

texts:
I use Grammarly free account. My strategy to maximize it is to write a sentece by sentence, and see if I get an alert. For example, when I finish writing "John is punched by the monkey" and I get "Passive Voice Misuse" alert, I know I should change that line.

Here is my subheading text, which get "Incomplete Sentences":

"Step 1: Looking for a more simple method"

"Step 2: Measure our chest freezer size"

How do I change those kind of sentences so the alert is not showing up? Thank you.


texts: Using "should" in a conditional sentence

texts:
I have a question about certain conditional sentences. Specifically with these rules:

If + present = future
For example: "If I win the lottery, I will go to France."

If + past = conditional (preterit form of a modal)
For example: "If I won the lottery, I would go to France."

My question is about the use of should with these rules (in American English). Why is it okay to say "If I win the lottery, I should donate to charity," or "If you have the time you should read this book"? Why is it acceptable to use the preterit form of shall if the rule demands the future?

A secondary question: As a native speaker of English, I find it acceptable to use could with both 'If + present' and 'If + past' clauses. Is that wrong, or is it simply a particularity of spoken English?


texts:
Someone on Stack Overflow says "open source camp" is one of his interests. At first sight, I was confused by the use of "camp" here.

Now I feel that it might refer to the word "campaign", which seems to make the best sense to me among others.

Am I correct? If so, is the use of "camp" as a short term for "campaign" well accepted? I can't find any entry for "camp" from online dictionaries that is related to "campaign".


texts: Punctuation mark before a closing quote mark (Children's picture book)

texts:
I’m writing a children's picture book and enjoy the illustration element but struggle with the writing side. When using an online grammar checker I get the following error for the text below:

“In dialogue you should always have a punctuation mark, usually a comma before a closing quote mark.”

This is my text.

  James once asked the cat, “have you seen another person like me?”.  The cat crossed his legs and thought for a while, then replied, “I’ve scratched lots of trees, but I’ve never seen a boy like you”.


texts: "An advantage given a handicapped person at the beginning of a competition to make them draw even"

texts: I'm looking for a single-word or set-phrase defining the advantage given a handicapped person at a competition.  I know that most competitions, including the Olympic Games, don't do that as they have a special edition for the disabled.  But some competitions, not necessarily sports, still do it.


texts:
Wikipedia describes a "splash screen" as such...

  "A splash screen is an image that appears while a game or program is loading."

and its purpose...

  [Splash screens] are typically used by particularly large applications
  to notify the user that the program is in the process of loading.

But why is it called a "splash" screen? Why not "loading screen"? Where did this phrase come from, and how long has it been about?


texts:
If "mentor" describes someone that you learn important lessons from, and you are intentionally developing yourself towards their example ...
What would an appropriate word be for someone that demonstrates to you what not to do, and that you are developing away from their example?
The closest example dichotomy I can think of is hero v, villain.
Edit-
Perhaps a better word for comparison is "role model"- in that you may not know them personally, but you are actively pursuing their example.  The antonym I'm looking for describes someone who you do not want to be like- however this does not necessarily mean that they are a bad person, so these terms don't seem to fit;
https://www.powerthesaurus.org/role_model/antonyms


texts: Which term is more appropriate: Rate plan, Pricing plan or Tariff plan?

texts:
We are the provider of certain (on-line) services and we have different pricing for different user categories, depending on their volume of operations. Currently we use "tariff plan" as a term for pricing plan, but I think this term may be less common in the US than, say, "rate plan".

So, my question is: which term is more appropriate to describe a price plan for the consumer of online services, especially in American English. I personally tend to call it a "rate plan". Please advise.


texts: Is there a rule for "some time" vs "sometime"? For example: Don’t trust your memory to recall noteworthy situations and events some time (sometime) later.


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase "cut five sides in [something]"?

texts:
I was browsing the Elvis Presley page on Wikipedia when I read a strange sentence:

  During a two-week leave in early June, Presley cut five sides in Nashville.

I've never heard this phrase before. It doesn't really come up on Google, except in copies of the Wikipedia article. In context, it seems like it could mean something similar to "went on a whirlwind tour", but I'm not sure.

I would like to change the sentence to use a more common phrasing, so it can be understood by a wider audience, but I can't change it if I don't know what the original thought was!


texts: Help to understand a sentence, structured as "By [noun] [sentence], and those as [noun], [noun]"

texts:
I have question on a sentence from Newton's book: Opticks.

Specifically, I'm asking about the sentence Newton puts in italics:

By the Rays of Light I understand its least Parts, and those as
well Successive in the same Lines as Contemporary in several Lines.

I have some queries about this:

I understand its least parts.
Does it mean that Newton fully understand some part of light? or does it mean that Newton partly understand light?

those
Does those match with least parts? or the Rays of Light? (those comes after and. That's why I wonder.)

Successive
Is it correct to capitalize first letter in the words Rays, Light, Successive, Lines, Contemporary?

Here are my guesses:

Newton understands the smallest parts of the Rays of Light.
Successive, Lines, and Contemporary are all used as nouns.
Newton understands that the Rays of Light are Successive and Contemporary (There is no and after same Lines, so this guess probably wrong)
The structure of sentence is "By [noun] [sentence] and those as [noun], [noun]"

Am I right?


texts:
I scanned this because I don't know how to format 2 columns here, or add color. I Googled "completion of comprise" and found just 4 results, and 2 were from this book.

Stacie Strong. BA English literature (UC Davis 1986), MPW (USC 1990), JD (Duke 1994), PhD Law (Cambridge 2002), DPhil (Oxford 2003). How to Write Law Essays & Exams 5 Ed 2018. 221.


texts:
Here's the context:

A dying man has guilt, and one of the voices in his head is claiming he will experience hell, if he dies with it (the guilt). One voice hints that 'hell is a hoax', and the other then replies:

  Only if he has no guilt, which he doesn’t.

Should that have been phrased:

  Only if he has no guilt, which he does.

To indicate that the dying man does actually have guilt, which he mustn't.

Thanks!


texts: What types of titles do you underline and what types of titles do you put quotations marks on?


texts: "Guess What am I cooking" vs "Guess What I am cooking"

texts: I'm really confused between these two. Please help.


texts: Starting a sentence with "If making ..."

texts:
How do constructions of the type If + verb(-inf form)

  If making the right choice ...

seem to native English speakers? Some suggested to avoid such constructions and use instead, "If we make the right choice ...".

What do you think? There are many such examples not only at the beginning of the sentence.

Any advice (on the usage of such forms) will be highly appreciated.


texts: Is it correct to say "I was able to enjoy the experience vicariously thru skype," rather than saying virtually

texts: Is it correct to say "I was able to  enjoy the experience vicariously thru skype," rather than saying "I enjoyed it virtually thru skype."


texts: Someone who exploits your feelings for them to take advantage of you

texts:
I need a word or idiom for someone who takes advantage of you because they know you like them. In relationships, I heard the word "user", as someone who uses their romantic partners for material gain.

More specifically, I'm thinking of someone who guesses what kind of people you like and then acts like that until you like them and start offering yourself to help with various things they need. Edit: for this one I could do with a name of a famous character from a novel.


texts:
I would like to write something like:

  In cases of the A and B models, the run-time analysis of the algorithm
  is shown in Figures X and Y, respectively.

I mean:

A model -> Fig X
B model -> Fig Y

Is it correct?
I would like to say it in one sentence if possible.


texts:
I'd like a single word to ask someone whether something happened 'before or after' whatever it is we're talking about.

Occurring comes to mind but then you always say, did this occur before or after that?

When is too descriptive and asks for a specific time.


texts: How would one describe the relationship of next-to-adjacent?

texts:
In other words, say there are three or more objects, how would you describe the relationship between object one and object three?

For context clarity, I am referring to the lateral positioning relationship of teeth. I am discussing the relationship between tooth number 7 and tooth number 9. Number 8 in this situation would be the adjacent tooth. What would number 9 be?


texts: What is the difference between “here goes” and “here it goes”?

texts:
I’m wondering what the difference between here goes and here it goes is. When something is going down and I want to express my feeling of “I’ll make it!”, which expression is correct?

For example, when my job interview is going to start, would I write the first or the second?

  I got ready for the interview. Here goes!
  I got ready for the interview. Here it goes!

If these expressions are same, please tell me which expression you natives often use.


texts:
By the end of the year, I would have attended this school for five years.

Of course, the "most" correct way of writing this would be:

  By the end of the year, I will have attended this school for five years.

...but I was just wondering.


texts:
Is it possible that old philosophical writings don't follow our modern grammar rules? Thus, we have to get the meaning of a sentence following the context, not the structure of that sentence?

For example, I was reading following lines, written by John Locke :

"Though the odd opinions and extravagant actions enthusiasm has run men into, were enough to warn them against this wrong principle, so apt to misguide them both in their belief and conduct ; "

Which one is the main clause with main verb? What is the subject of were enough ? (Please note the semicolon)

The odd opinions and extravagant actions can't be the subject of were enough as the meaning would be contradictory.


texts: What's the word for using a general argument that upon inspection does not apply?

texts:
Examples, some are ridiculous:
Someone refuses to buy a lab grown diamond because 'all diamonds are blood diamonds'.

We cannot buy a sports car because 'the trunks of sports cars are too small', even though this sports car has a larger than average trunk.

Someone refuses to drink wine because 'wine comes from France', even though this particular wine is from Chile.


texts: Idiom for trying and failing, falling short and being disapproved

texts:
In one of my native tongues, there's an idiomatic expression, the semi-literal translation of which is "the 'being close' of yours won't shoot the hare". In another, there's something along the lines of "one can't strike down a bird with an 'almost'".

Both expressions are used to comment on someone's failure followed by a presentation of an excuse aiming to explain said failure as being so close to a success that it might as well be regarded as the such.

Expressing disapproval by the observers can then be carried out by pointing out that being close to success or almost succeeding isn't actually being successful.

I.e. one doesn't get the hare by shooting close to it and one doesn't get the bird by almost striking it down. The animals will most likely take off and the only thing one sees is their butts decreasing in size.

Correspondingly, getting a score of 499, when the number required to pass is 500 or more, can be seen as being close to a success but still, strictly regarded, admitting the examinee to the same group as other failures. If such person tries to point out that they were really, really close to passing, a disapproving recipient could point out that they'll still have to retake the exam, independently of how close to a success they were (c.f. by how little they have failed).

What is the idiomatic way to express that in English, if such exists?


texts: I wrote 10 articles in ABC Magazine vs. I wrote 10 articles for ABC Magazine

texts: I want to include my past work experience in my resume and am not sure about the right preposition for the sentence above.


texts:
Certain grammar websites describe type 1 conditional sentences as the ones in which the time is the present or future and the situation is real.

Examples given are:

If I have time, I'll finish that letter.
What will you do if you miss the plane?
Nobody will notice if you make a mistake.
If you drop that glass, it will break.
If you don't drop the gun, I'll shoot!
If you don't leave, I'll call the police.

I wish to ask "In what circumstances the above sentence examples can refer to present time as defined above since they all appear to be referring to the future"?


texts: Are there historical examples of "unchartered territory" used correctly?

texts:
People have been mistakenly saying "unchartered" instead of "uncharted" when speaking informally, but now even major news networks are doing it.  E.g.:
CTV News — 'Unchartered territory': Ont. adds 4,227 new COVID-19 cases, second-highest ever - YouTube.
Since "unchartered territory" does have a real meaning, it made me wonder, are there any historical uses of this expression being used correctly?


texts: When talking about many things that all have one thing, do you use the plural or singular?

texts:
If you have something like:

  Get the name(s) of all users.

Should name be singular or plural?

The way I see it, each user has only one name, so it could be singular, but you will be getting many names, one for each users, so it could also be plural. Anyone know what is the proper way?


texts:
To get rid of something according to OALD means to make oneself free of someone or something that is annoying. One can get rid of old useless
things by throwing them away or of bad habits.

There is also a verb to rid. etymonline has to rid, ca. 1200, meaning to clear (a space), to set free, to save. A connection is drawn to a verb in
Old Norse that means to clear land of obstructions, old variants of
Germanic languages are given, but modern German Land roden meaning to prepare a field or a path by eliminating trees is lacking.

According to the dictionary the expression to get rid of something is younger, dated around 1660.  My view is that rid in to get rid of something is connected with the verb free and the form freed, past participle or adjective
which we also have in modern German befreit.

One may imagine that a form like rid can develop from freed by dropping
f and shortening the vowel.

I would not connect the expression to get rid of something with the idea of
clearing land as in German roden, I think a connection with freed is much
more plausible. But I think the derivations of the two word families free
and to clear land (as in German roden) have become so similar that in
English a separation is very difficult.

Question: What is more probable, the idea of clearing land or a connection with freed?


texts:
I've come across the adverb 'later' in the past tense to refer to something that takes place at a time following an earlier time

e.g. "He resigned two months later"

I  wonder if we can also use it in the future tense. I know we can use it alone in a sentence like "I'll talk to you later", but what about its use with a time scale in a sentence like, "He will resign two months later"

I've generally heard native speakers say something like this: "He will resign in two months"

Can we use them both to refer to the same thing, or does the former not make sense at all?

Thank you in advance


texts:
Are two prepositions allowed along with one another in the English language?

For example:

  An opportunity will happen on through any doors


texts: In the collocation "baby girl" is "baby" an adjective or a noun?


texts: What does “Serve red meat to the crowd" mean?

texts:
I found the phrase “serve up red meat to the crowd” in the following sentence of Washington Post's article titled “Michele Bachmann steals the show in Iowa”:

  Michele Bachmann served up red meat to the crowd at the Iowa conservative principles conference Saturday, slamming President Barack Obama as a Jimmy Carter retread, dissing the Mitch Daniels "truce" call for social issues, and saying she wants a "waiver" from the last two years of White House leadership.

And I saw “serve red meat speeches" for breakfast in the following sentence of an article in the Buzz (http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/gop-candidates-serve-red-meat-breakfast)

  At the Brokaw-McDougall House in Tallahassee early this morning, Republican candidates served red meat speeches for breakfast at the kick off for the whistle stop tour through North Florida.

What does “serve red meat” mean exactly? Obviously it’s not ‘meat that is dark brown in color when being cooked” as defined by COD. Is this day-to-day usage or political jargon? What is the origin of this phrase?


texts: Word that describes a dramatic change that is visible through similar events

texts:
(This might spoil some of the plot from Bridge of Spies, so Spoiler Warning!)

In Bridge of Spies, when the main character is on a train in Berlin, he sees people try to climb over the Berlin wall, but are shot down by patrols. At the conclusion of the story after he returns home, he is also on a train, and sees some children climb over a chain link fence, but they are not shot down.

What is the literary device to describe this change? The device seems significant because it shows a change by using two similar events that have different outcomes.


texts: What is the meaning behind "bloody jerry"

texts: I've heard this term in a pirate movie or video game, not sure where. Since, I've been wondering what real meaning this sentence have.


texts:
Although might may have become the main exponent of epistemic
possibility in every day spoken English, it is generally not
synonymous with may, as the following example, borrowed from Charreyre
(1984: 55-56) illustrates:
in Just look at the sky! There might be a storm soon, uttered in front
of a threatening sky, it would be contextually less appropriate,
Charreyre suggests, to use may instead of might, while will would be
perfectly acceptable. May would convey very little information and
simply express the logical, theoretical and objective possibility that
such a sky is likely to bring about a storm, which is obvious. Might,
on the other hand, carries some appreciation on the part of the
speaker that, although a storm may not be wished for, yet it must not
be ruled out.
-- Towards a contextual micro-analysis of the non-equivalence of might and could by Stephane Gresset

Claude Charreyre is a French linguist, but I'm not sure his assessment on might vs. may can represent how a native speaker of English would think about it.
Do you think his conclusion was stretching it? Why?


texts: Why is it “Who do you help?,” not “Whom do you help?”?

texts:
I happened to watch a lecturer was explaining word order of English in the beginners’ English learning course in NHK’s - Japan’s largest and publicly-owned broadcasting network – educational TV program (aired on July 23rd). He showed four cubes, each of which showing the word, “Who”, “You” “Help” “Do” placed at random, and asked students to put the cubes in the right order:

Right answer: Who Do You Help?

I was comfortable with “Who do you help (speak / give / write, and so on) too, but a question arose:

Is “Whom do you help?” grammatically wrong or, obsolete? If so, why is it wrong, how and around when it became obsolete?

I’ve never seriously thought of such question as the declension of a dative pronoun in interrogative form until I hit upon the above TV scene. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I ventured to post a beginner’s question.


texts:
In the following noun phrase, is the prepositional phrase from Lloyds complement or adjunct/modifier?

  even all the preposterous salary from Lloyds that Bill gets

The Cambridge Grammar of The English Language (by Huddleston and Pullum) marks the PP as complement in the following tree diagram, but I'm not sure.

[Edit]
The reason I'm not sure about it being complement is twofold. Semantically, the noun salary doesn't seem to license the PP. Syntactically, the PP is a sister to N' (= Head: Nom) and a daughter to N', which means that the PP is an adjunct (a modifier in CGEL) in X-bar theory.


texts: What is the difference between 'Beer' and 'Beers'? Which is correct?

texts:
Thank you for coming.
I want to ask  you "what is the difference 'Beer' and 'Beers'?"

I had a job creating ads for foreigner.
So, I made this sentence
→"50% discount on All Beer."
However I had some questions , like "All beer or All beers?" or "Which is correct grammar?"
When I research that on website, I could find a lot of opinions but some of them were divided among native speakers
I am not Native English speaker.
So, I want to know Which option I should use.

How do you think this "50% discount on All Beer" ?
correct ? or wrong ?
If you have some advice, Please tell me.