texts: Commas with nested subordinate clauses both of which are restrictive (essential to the meaning)

texts:
I have been grappling with the question below for a while now, so hope that you can shed some light on it.

Do we need the first comma (the one in brackets below) in the restrictive nested subordinate clause (adverbial, noun and relative clauses -- all 3) that is embedded right into another restrictive subordinate clause after a subordinating conjunction and if yes, could you please explain why?

See example sentences below (please ignore the actual sentences; I just want to understand the logic of the punctuation for the 3 types of nested subordinate clauses - so for the sake of argument, recasting or modifying these sentences is not an option):

  1) This is the country where[,] if you work hard, you get rewarded. (relative clause)

  2) We need to talk because[,] if we don't, we will be in trouble. (adverbial clause)

  3) London is where[,] when I was young, I used to live. (noun clause)

  4) Give me a call if[,] when you are at the station, it rains. (adverbial clause)

  5) It is useful when[,] if it rains, you have an umbrella. (awkward adverbial clause)

  6) She is the person who[,] if she is faced with difficulties, can handle them very well. (relative clause)

  7) He said that[,] if all goes well, he will call. (noun clause)

The thinking here is that the first (bracketed) comma should be dropped as the embedded subordinate clause is restrictive / essential to the meaning of the main subordinate clause (e.g. in the first sentence, for instance, you only get rewarded if you work hard) and in this case treated as an introductory clause to the main subordinate clause with one following but not preceding comma (just as if the main subordinate clause was in the beginning of the sentence before the independent main clause).

If the comma is retained, however, the embedded subordinate clause is read as parenthetical / non-restrictive clause, which, for the sake of these sentences, is not intended (the clauses are intended to be restrictive on purpose).

The partial confusion lies in the fact that some style guides like Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition in 6.32 says in the cases like this:

  6.32 “And if,” “that if,” and the like
  When two conjunctions appear next to each other (e.g., and if, but if), they need not be separated by a comma.

  They decided that if it rained, they would reschedule the game.

At the same time, many of subordinating conjunctions in the embedded subordinate clause are also relative adverbs or pronouns and fulfil either an object or subject roles in the main subordinate clause, which then makes the embedded subordinate clause interrupt object / complement - subject (sentence 1 and 3) and subject - predicate (sentence 6) relationship in the main subordinate clause, requiring commas on both ends (just as if the main subordinate clause was inserted between a subject and verb, or verb and object of the independent main clause) - in which case it conflicts with introductory clause logic and CMOS guideline above (actually, do subordinating conjunctions in sentences 2, 3 and 5 have adverbial functions, in which case the embedded subordinate clause acts as interrupter as well, in which case commas, again, are required on both ends?).

Hope this makes sense - any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I am not really after how to punctuate these exact sentences - more just to understand the logic of punctuation (and especially, if it conflicts like sentence 7 that is similar to CMOS example vs other sentences)

Also, would be good to understand if different embedded subordinate clauses are treated differently depending on their relationship to the main subordinate clause.

Thanks,
Paul


texts: The words once, twice, thrice describe the number of repetitions in a series of such repetitions or possible repetitions. I have searched several authoritative dictionaries & thesauruses without finding other examples. Does anyone know further single words in this sequence?


texts: Difference between obfuscate and obscure?

texts:
I see the words used in the same situations. Is there a particular difference that would help me understand when each one should be used?

Etymology Obfuscate
Latin fuscus for dark

Etymology Obscure
Latin obscurus for dark


texts: What is the difference between the sentences - He was taken ill and he is feeling sick.


texts: Why do we refer to car manufacturer as 'Make'?

texts:
When I first encountered it years ago, I was pretty sure it must be a mistake. Although I got used to it, it still does not feel right.

What is the reason for that? Is it something specific to the automobile industry? Are there (maybe) historical reasons for it?


texts:
The State Police Have Busted the thief or The state police has busted the thief?

According to me,
It is Have because police is a group of people. So police is plural noun.


texts: Is prepwork a real word? What is the proper form if so?

texts: Is prepwork a real word? What about any of these variations: prep-work or prep work? I cannot find any of those in a dictionary.


texts: Examples of using "dead" to mean directly

texts:
I'm looking for more examples that use "dead" to mean directly. Some I already have include:

1.) "It's dead ahead. You can't miss it."
2.) I looked him dead in the eye.

Or perhaps to mean exact/exactly:

3.) "Dead on! Absolutely correct!"
4.) This town is the dead center of the country.


texts: Difference between Expert at & expert in

texts:
I am expert in speaking English

Or

  I am expert at speaking English

Which one is correct?


texts: Where does the expression "get in her/his pants" come from?

texts:
Did people in the past wear super loose pants that could fit 2 people in there or something? Didn't people back then remove their pants before doing it? Did they have some sort of ritual where they would wear the other person's pants before doing it?

Where does the expression come from? It doesn't make much sense to me.


texts:
I am wondering about the correct use of lesser/smaller in the following phrase:

  This library has a smaller/lesser number of books than the National Library.

I did find another thread on nearly the same question, where one answer states: "As a general rule, 'smaller' is used for size, whereas 'lesser' is used for quantity." In this particular example, however, I am not quite sure how to approach this, as 'number' in this sentence refers to an amount, which you could argue has a size, and 'smaller/lesser number' as a whole only refers to a quantity.

To me, 'a smaller number' sounds better, but I am not a native speaker and I can't make out a clear reason for choosing one over the other.


texts: Is there a word or phrase, that accurately describes this: When someone tells you about something, or talks about something off the cuff and describes it as repulsive, or derogatory as a way of ensuring that you don't think they have anything to do with the said topic. Say, someone that hasn't come out, and constantly describes homosexuality as disgusting, or someone who watches tv soaps but constantly moans about how much they despise tv soaps and think people that watch them is hopeless, or your partner describes something they find intolerable yet are themselves avid instigators of such acts? I guess what I'm asking is what is the word of openly admitting guilt to mask involvement?


texts: "Happen to know" vs. "came to know" vs. "got to know" vs. "came across"

texts:
Can anyone give use cases and examples for

Happen to know
Came to know
Got to know
Came across

I always gets confused in their uses.


texts: I am looking for an over all word to use describing the leader of a church? Example minister, pastor, priest, bishop

texts: An example would be I know this person is religious but that is all I know. What generic term could I use to talk about the religious leader of their church?


texts:
What is the idiomatic way to describe an action by which a person puts their eyeglasses back if they are a bit off down the nose (and does that often as a habitual unconscious move)?

(I mean something along the lines of Russian "поправлять очки", if that helps).


texts: a better expression for 'percentage divided by 100'

texts:
The function f(a,x) returns the value in the array a specified by x, where x is a percentage of the length of the array, divided by 100.

(i.e. x can be any number between 0 and 1, corresponding to a percentage between 0% and 100%)

Examples: if a = [1,2,3,4,5], then f(a, 0.5) = 3; f(a, 0) = 1; f(a, 1) = 5;

Is there a better way to express that some variable is a 'percentage divided by 100'?

Preferably I am looking for a single word.

Alternatively a phrase, and a single word that can be used later on to reference that phrase.

My first idea was 'fraction', but I am not sure whether that conveys the concept.

Update based on long's answer:

I am looking for a term for the first item in this list:

?, [0-1]
?, [0-10]
percent, %, [0-100]
per mille 0/00 [0-1000]
basis point, permyriad 0/000, [0-10000]


texts:
I came across "factitious" in this quoted sentence:

  One can, however, come up with a factitious principle to underwrite the latter argument.

It seems to me that one could equally well have used fictitious instead. So are they perfectly synonymous or are there circumstances where you would use one rather than the other?


texts: What is the meaning of "house" in the following context which may be a game?

texts:
To play the game, one of the players—either the user or the
  program—has to go first. Alternatively, we can use a probability to make the choice. For example, we can give the same choice for two players, i.e., 50/50 odds by default. Or, we can give the program a better choice of going first, i.e., giving the house a slight edge.

So in the above context, what is the meaning of house? I can't understand the usage of house here.

Sorry for my poor English to adapt the original for the above context.
Thanks in advance.


texts: Can a number be given the attribute 'physical'?

texts:
This question initially arose while translating a technical document from German. The original text was 'physikalische Heizzonenummer', literally 'physical heating-zone-number'.

My immediate reaction was to think of heating zones which are numbered 1 to n but which can be addressed in other 'logical' ways. However, the German does seem to mean that the number itself is 'physical'. For me, a number is a concept and cannot be physical (except for those digits you can screw on to your front door). You can have a group of physical apples or heating zones but a number allocated to each one is surely in itself not physical itself.

Am I wrong here? Perhaps the original German is a bit clumsy and imprecise but it just set me wondering about the concept of numbers. I would be interested to hear other opinions :-)


texts:
I think I may nearly have got commas, but am not sure.

Should a comma be used whenever it resolves an equivocation?

What about the following:

She got angry with him, ignoring his stupidity

The possible equivocation seems obvious. And I can't think of it meeting any definition of a parenthetical phrase. But I'm not sure if the end phrase is ungrammatical so needs a rewrite instead.


texts: Is 'but rather' considered grammatically correct?

texts:
Is this comment that I made here grammatically correct?

In Latin, when a group of males and females is combined, the neutral plural form is not used, but rather the masculine is.


texts:
Checking how adjectives related to time are created, I see:

year → yearly
month → monthly
week → weekly
day → daily

Why has “day” been derived into “daily” with an ‘i’ instead of “dayly” with a ‘y’?

In the Online Etymology Dictionary I don't see information related to this ‘loss’ of the ‘y’ in favour of the ‘i’:

  daily (adj.)

  Old English dæglic (see day). This form is known from compounds:
  twadæglic “happening once in two days,” þreodæglic “happening once in
  three days;” the more usual Old English word was dæghwamlic, also
  dægehwelc. Cognate with German täglich.


texts:
If tidal constituents with frequencies of one, two, three, and four cycles per day (respectively, periods of one, a half, a third, and a fourth of a day) were to be termed systematically based on numeral prefixes, would any of the following sets be internally inconsistent:

diurnal, dudiurnal, tridiurnal, quadridiurnal (Latin cardinal)
diurnal, bidiurnal, terdiurnal, quaterdiurnal (Latin multiples)
diurnal, duodiurnal, tridiurnal, tetradiurnal (Greek cardinal)
diurnal, diplodiurnal, triplodiurnal, tetrapodiurnal (Greek multiples)
diurnal, half-diurnal, third-diurnal, fourth-diurnal (English fractions)
diurnal, semidiurnal, trientdiurnal, quadrantdiurnal (Latin fractions)
diurnal, hemidiurnal, tritodiurnal, tetartodiurnal (Greek fractions)

So far I've only found inconsistent sets, even in authoritative texts:

diurnal, semidiurnal, third-diurnal, quarter-diurnal 2
diurnal, semidiurnal, terdiurnal, quarter-diurnal 3
diurnal, semidiurnal, third-diurnal, fourth-diurnal 4
diurnal, semidiurnal, terdiurnal, quaterdiurnal 5

The inconsistency arises from: mixing Latin, Greek, or English prefixes; and mixing the half-day period with the two-cycle per day frequency.

Thanks.


texts:
"As Mr Trump’s opponents called this a disaster, his supporters lambasted their criticism as hysterical—wasn’t everybody saying a year ago that it was sinister to have so many generals in the cabinet?"
What does it mean by "wasn’t everybody saying"?


texts: Should I use a semicolon or a colon to introduce a question at the end of a sentence?

texts:
Which of the following is punctuated correctly?

  My question for you is: how do I do that?
  My question for you is; how do I do that?

Or should it be something different altogether?


texts: Words pronounced with stress patterns like in "politics", "lunatics", etc.?

texts: Could anyone please give a list of words pronounced with no primary stress immediately preceding the suffix -ic, such as in "politics", "lunatic", "arithmetic"? Also, is there an absolute stress pattern in words ending in -ical (the primary stress always precedes -ical)?


texts: What is the origin of the word 'mug up'?

texts:
What is the origin of the expression mug up?

How did it originate? Does it give any meaning to its actual definition?


texts:
I read the following lines somewhere on the Web:

  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will suffer defeat.

  If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

After reading those lines five times, I still don't understand what the writer is exactly trying to say here. Could someone please explain the meaning of these lines in simple words?


texts: How do you write the expression of disgust that sounds like "er"?

texts:
My daughter said to me this morning (the context is irrelevant):

  Er, it's all wet!

The interjection I have written here as Er was synonymous with Yuck. Its wetness did not cause great happiness.

But what's the right way to write it? The problem with the way I've formulated it above is that it looks like the Er of (genuine or mock) hesitation, synonymous with Um. In fact I think that would be as natural a reading of the sentence as the Yuck reading. This would significantly change the overall understanding, and change the response from disgust to something like confusion.

I could try Err, but I don't think that's any less ambiguous. And of course I could write Yuck, which would convey the right sense, but direct quotation ought to respect the original wording.

(I have a feeling that this is a British expression, so I'm tentatively tagging as BrE, but I'm uncertain about this. It's supported by noting that the answers to this question don't mention Er at all.)


texts: When and how do we use the different kinds of brackets/parentheses — (){}[] — while writing English (not code)?


texts: Am I using 'thus' correctly in this paragraph?

texts:
I'd like to confirm if the use of 'thus' is correct in the following passage.  If it's not, please explain why, and what an alternative would be.

  I believe the most important mission of a healthcare provider is to
  deliver the most effective and safe medical services to patients. Thus
  it would be the basic principle that all the strategies and activities
  of a healthcare provider should be patient centered.


texts:
I have often heard that advice is uncountable and shouldn't be prefixed with an article. So I often force myself to say "a piece of advice". But I've seen it used with an article on a number of occasions. For example: BBC - Health: Domestic violence support contacts. (See archive.org for a copy of the original article.)
In some cases it's even pluralized as advices. For example:

Our latest advices from Santo Domingo state that the Spanish troops have almost entirely abandoned the island.
New York Times

Any idea?


texts: Proper address for married couple when husband is a Jr

texts:
I have been unable to find a complete answer to my question in any source I have consulted.
I want to make a donation in memory of my deceased parents.  I would like to use both of their first names if possible, and my father was a Jr.  Should the proper format be: John and Mary Smith Jr. or Mr. John Smith Jr. and Mrs. Mary Smith? I believe the Jr. is restrictive and so I have omitted the comma.


texts: Relative pronouns and Like doing or Like to do?

texts:
Hi everyone :) Please help me figure out these two questions below. I'm quite confused about them.

  1. Choose the best answer:

  The princess was happy during the years _ she lived with the fairy.

  A. when
  B. in which
  C. where
  D. that

I think A is the best choice but the key answer is D. I don't know why because I think in this situation "when" acts as an relative pronoun to express the period of time "she lived with the fairy" that made her happy.

  2. Choose the one that has the most similar meaning with the initial sentence

  I don't like anyone to tell me what to do.

  A. I don't like being tell what to do.
  B. I don't like being told what to do,
  C. I don't like to be told what to do.
  D. I don't like to tell what to do.

This one, I think both B and C are correct but the key answer is B.
So what is the differences here?

Thank you for your help. I'd highly appreciate that. =)


texts:
Is it correct to use "anniversary" to commemorate a sad event or is it better to use "memorial". Or is there, in fact, a better term?

For instance, "observing the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide" vs "observing the 20 year memorial of the Rwanda genocide?


texts: Is "can it" used to express meaning like "shut up"?

texts:
I'm reading Peter Orner's The Raft and find a sentence as this

I told the boy to can it.

From the Chinese translation, it seems "can it" means "close your mouth" just liking "shut up". Is it truly? And what is the difference of "can it" and "shut up"?


texts:
Comments on this question considered whether the verb be could be modified by an adverb. This seems a question worth pursuing in its own right, so may I ask what completely modifies in the following sentence, if it doesn't modify be?

  Whatever you choose to be, be completely.

Edit: And how about these?

  He is almost a doctor.

  Finally he is a doctor.


texts:
A friend and I were discussing a past event and she said:

  "I don't know when you left yesterday"

but I thought she ought to say:

  "I don't know when you leave yesterday"

Please tell me which one is correct?


texts: Does "it is not the case that it is likely" mean it is unlikely?

texts:
I'm reading Meaning and Argument and in one exercise of symbolization, there is a sentence which reads "That Jack ever slept here is unlikely."

The symbolization provided is:
"Negation: ~J (J: It is likely that Jack ever slept here)".

Such that the symbolized sentence would read: "It is not the case that it is likely that Jack ever slept here."

But if it's not the case that an event is likely, does it necessarily have to be unlikely? What if the probability of that event happening is 50%?

I understand that if you say that an event is "not likely", then it is unlikely, but I'm not sure it has the same meaning as "it is not the case that it is likely."


texts:
I couldn't clearly understand the phrase "credential mongering" as used in an article in the New Republic about the Ivy League. The extract, from "The Trouble With Harvard" by Steven Pinker, is as follows:

  Admission to the Ivies is increasingly seen as the bottleneck to a pipeline that feeds a trickle of young adults into the remaining lucrative sectors of our financialized, winner-take-all economy. And their capricious and opaque criteria have set off an arms race of credential mongering that is immiserating the teenagers and parents (in practice, mostly mothers) of the upper middle class.

Is it to do with attaining qualifications by any means? Or is the phrase itself imprecise? Thank you!


texts: "Have to split" in the film "The Running Man"

texts: In the film The Running Man (1987), Arnold Schwarzenegger cut a man into two halves. His name was Buzz Saw. Then another man said: "Where did Buzz Saw go?" And Arnold Schwarzenegger said: "He had to split." In the cinema people laughed to hear this, but I don't understand why.


texts: use of ellipses at the end of a paragraph

texts:
When a quote ends a paragraph, essentially trailing off, one (generally) uses three ellipses points such as the following:

"I'm not going to humor that suggestion! There is no way ..."

Even if the end of the quote completes a sentence, if it's an incomplete thought, it may retain three points

"I'm not going to humor that suggestion! There is no way I can ..."

But what about

Mars, the red planet--but to the Romans, it is the God of War! Herein lies the story [?]

A period just doesn't seem to cut it. So the question is, three dots or four? And if four, what should the separation be? I realize this is a bit of a style issue. THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE, which I use, only advocates four equally spaced points if it indicates the removal of paragraph(s) in quoted material.


texts:
I teach presentation to companies, and a common sentence at the end of a presentation (for my ESL students) is "Thank you for your listening," or "Thank you for your coming," or "Thank you for your attending."

I always correct this and tell the students to omit "your."  If I don't and am working with a colleague (from Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc.) they will always catch this and correct it...none of us has ever disagreed with each other about this.  We have disagreed as to why you can't say this.

So my question is, "why can't you say ...your + gerund?"


texts: Is there any idiomatic meaning of 'it can be a real pig'?

texts:
In the Terry Pratchett's book, 'Reaper Man', there is a passage:

  Most species do their own evolving, making it up as they go along, which is the way Nature intended. And this is all very natural and organic and in tune with mysterious cycles of the cosmos, which believes that there's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone.

  This is probably fine from the species' point of view, but from the perspective of the actual individuals it can be a real pig, or at least a small pink root-eating reptile that might one day evolve into a real pig.

I'm reading this book in English, in Polish and in Russian at the same time. And I didn't really think of this phrase while reading in English, but then I noticed that translators understood it differently. The Russian one took it literally. But the Polish one translated this bold phrase as something like a 'dirty trick'. I couldn't find anything about this being an idiom, though.

What do you think? Is one of the translators wrong or is it just possible to understand it in both ways? Thanks for any help.


texts:
I have been doing some reasearch on the proper usage of the phrase "would rather", when there is a change of subject. Most websites I have found suggest that, in that case, "would rather" must necessarily be followed by a past simple clause (a.k.a. unreal past), but some others state that "would rather" can also be followed by the subjunctive form of a verb. For example, consider the following sentences:

I would rather he played with Tim.
I would rather he play with Tim.

Which would be an example of the correct use of "would rather"?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I have searched both in various websites and in my grammar books about this matter, and although mostly every one of them states that the use of unreal past is mandatory when the subject changes, I am trying to figure our whether the subjunctive form would also be correct. That said, I would really appreciate it if you could cite specific quotes or grammar rules along with your reply, so that I can have a well-documented answer to my question. Thanks again!


texts:
Is there any neutral alternative the expression "bless you!"?

In other languages you can just use "health" ("salud" in Spanish and "Gesundheit" in German, for instance.

So I'd like to be polite in English without renouncing my atheism.


texts:
Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

  the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW, 273.16 K and 0.01 °C)

Now, "VSMOW" refers to "Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water", while "273.16 K and 0.01 °C" refers to "the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water". To me, the writing here seems to be in error: one shouldn't combine parentheses like that if they refer to two different things. Either use

  the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW) (273.16 K and 0.01 °C)

or (preferably) recast the sentence. But maybe I'm wrong: maybe standard practice is, or usage guides suggest, that such 'sylleptic' (if you will) parenthetical explanations are fine to use. Does anyone know?


texts: Can I say "I am glad hearing from you" or it is wrong?

texts:
I am glad hearing from you.

Is it correct?

And does it have a real meaning or it doesn't?


texts: Non-restrictive clauses / Correct comma use

texts:
I'm not sure which of these sentences is best:

'There are a large number of alternative, sometimes dangerous interventions being performed on children with ASD.'

'There are a large number of alternative and sometimes dangerous interventions being performed on children with ASD.'

'There are a large number of alternative, and sometimes dangerous, interventions being performed on children with ASD.'


texts:
I want to talk about things being either “laminodental or apicodental”, but would rather avoid repeating “dental”.  Omission of the second part of hyphenated compounds is straightforward (e.g., “user- and hardware-friendly”).  But I’m not mad about the asymmetric hyphenation of:

  lamino- and apicodental

nor do I want to have hyphens in both places:

  lamino- and apico-dental

given that I would normally write “apicodental” without a hyphen.

My go-to style guide, the Economist’s, is silent on this point.  Is anyone aware of any established practices in this regard?


texts: Words like bank, bat, bear, fine, fair, number, row, etc., each have multiple meanings but are pronounced and spelled in the same way.  How can one word mean different things?


texts:
Another teacher came to me with a potential test question.  In the text, she uses "optimum" to refer to the fastest route for a lifeguard to save a swimmer.  I forget the exact wording.

"The optimum, in order to reach the swimmer quickly..."

I told her I didn't think this was a correct usage of optimum but she disagreed.  Any thoughts?


texts: What are the differences in nuance/meaning between I hope you will spend some time with me, and I want to spend some time with you

texts: Could anyone help me understand differences in nuance/meaning between 'I hope you will spend some time with me', and 'I want to spend some time with you'.


texts: Is 'hypothecate' anything to do (in origin or meaning) with 'hypothetical'?

texts:
I had never come across the word before but apparently a hypothecated tax is one in which ring-fenced funds are collected by taxation to pay for a specific government expenditure. This kind of tax is being suggested in the UK in order to fund the National Health Service in the future.

The OED appears to be defining the verb 'hypothecate' in a way that is definitely different in meaning to 'hypothetical' :

  trans. To give or pledge as security; to pledge, pawn, mortgage.

'Hypothetical' is from 'hypothesis' which the OED tells me comes from Greek : ὑπό under + θέσις placing. So a hypothesis is an argument 'placed under' a statement.

The OED gives the etymology of 'hypothecate' as :

  hypothēcāt-, participial stem of medieval Latin hypothēcāre , < hypothēca hypothec n.: see -ate suffix3. Compare French hypothéquer.

But this all seems a bit muddled to me both in the origin (would not 'hypothecate' have a Greek etymology, intially ?) and in the present English meaning (is not the ring-fenced tax an opposite of a hypothetical tax ?).

It is especially odd when the OED then offers a second meaning for 'hypothecate' as :

  trans. = hypothesize v. 2.

thus implying either the same origin or the same meaning for the word as 'hypothetical'.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts:
My girlfriend and I were having a conversation the other day about sexual euphemisms and I told her about the following I'd seen on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update by Tina Fey

  According to a report released Tuesday, female inmates in the United States have been victims of sexual misconduct by corrections employees in every state, except Minnesota. So ladies, if you wanna rob a bank, but you don't want your cooter poked, head to beautiful Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes.

It can't be that old, Ben Jones on Dukes of Hazzard played a character named Cooter and nobody thought anything of it. I've heard it used in this context many times since I saw that.

I checked etymonline and it only talks about turtles and a vague reference to an obsolete use of the word coot. Clearly, that is not from where the connection came since its use as I've described is recent.


texts: Having had nobody stood up for me -correct?

texts:
I'm not sure about the following:

  Having advised to many of your colleagues (and yet having had nobody
  stood up for me when the shit hits the fan), I have decided not to
  discuss your issues anymore.

or

  Having advised to many of your colleagues (and yet having had nobody
  stand up for me when the shit hits the fan), I have decided not to
  discuss your issues anymore.


texts: How to use proper punctuation in this sentence?

texts:
What are the proper punctuations to use in the sentence below? Or would it be better to just separate it into two sentences?

  What doing nothing can do is help you know what you really want; is it roses, or gladiolas, or redwoods, or none of those, so that you don’t end up with a beautiful garden of what you don’t want.


texts: Term for a laugh that is a short and dry reaction when hearing something unrealistic

texts:
Is there a verb to express that short expulsion of air through the nose while you smile a bit? It isn't really a laugh, but more of a reaction. It could be something you do when you hear something you don't agree with. Like imagining a situation and then thinking

  Yea, like that's gonna happen.

I initially thought scoffed, but I'm not sure anymore by the definitions I've read.

Would it make sense to use it as follows:

  She's a strong girl. I couldn't help but scoff at the thought of
  someone hurting her.


texts: Can we use freshwoman to refer to a girl in her first year in college, or is freshman acceptable?


texts:
I’m trying to decide which preposition to use to complete a statement about Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. I am describing how a hysterical woman sees things in her wallpaper. Over time these things become the image of a woman. To introduce the situation, I have written the following:

  She was hallucinating [preposition] the wallpaper.

Oxford Dictionaries gives a usage example wherein hallucinate is used transitively with no preposition:

  I don’t care if they’re hallucinating purple snakes.

This to me sounds like people are seeing purple snakes that are not there. I'm looking for the best way to say that a woman is looking at real wallpaper and seeing it move.

An ngram search produces a lot of hits for hallucinate about, but those also largely represent that a person sees something that isn’t present. For example,

  His last days were spent strapped down in a hospital bed hallucinating about snakes and people who wanted to hurt him. [emphasis added]

Is there a correct preposition to use with hallucinate to mean that a person sees something unreal happening inside something real? Or is this improper usage of the word?

Two prepositions I considered are:

hallucinate over (similar to suffer anxiety over)
hallucinate on (similar to trippin’ on)


texts:
As a non-native speaker I am curious about the everyday usage of more poor in contrast to poorer. The dictionary dictates poorer as the correct form, with some allowing both forms.

According to Google Ngram Viewer poorer is more common in books by an immense factor of 100.

Is more poor a colloquialism? If so, are there cultural differences? Or is it simply due to some people's lack of effort? Are there situations where you would favor more poor?

Particularly this uncontested response on answers.com got me pondering.


texts: Genitive - singular/plural noun after genitive

texts:
In the phrase "the boys' rackets", is it implied that each boy has one racket or more than one racket?

Should each boy have one racket, how would this be expressed/written?

Should each boy have more than one racket, how would this be expressed/written?

Another doubt regarding a similar phrase would be:

"the boys' mind/minds" - only one mind is possible per boy, but were we to use the plural word "minds", would this imply (grammatically) that each had more than one?


texts: What is exactly "This sounds like barn door statistics!"?

texts:
This sounds like barn door statistics!

What does this phrase? mean?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a name for inverting word order to accomplish a different meaning?
  “Some champagne for my real friends, some real pain for my sham friends.”
  Style of this sentence

I recall once knowing a name for a statement like "I love to hate and hate to love." What is the name? I am also interested in other examples of this from popular poetry, music lyrics, etc.


texts: What are some synonyms for relationship which encompass how something fits - like how a couch fits in a room, or how a building fits on a block, or how a neighborhood fits in a city. Its "fitting-in-ness", or ability to properly fit into a place and even improve it because it fits so well


texts:
Looking for a single noun that describes a person or group who is charming, gets in to trouble, but would have more positive than negative sentiment.

They were a bunch of ____.


texts: Is it OK to put last name before first name if the name comes from a culture with such a feature?

texts: I have recently noticed that my first name goes after my last name in my Stack Exchange account. In my native language (Russian) it is OK to put them in any order. How shall I put my name in English (I’ve never heard last name being used before first name in English)? By rules of which language/culture shall I abide?


texts: Looking for an adjective describing an easy programming language style

texts:
I am looking for an adjective with regard to computer programming, which says that a program language is not abstract, but very clear and intuitive or even overly "non-computerish".

I saw this word once in a blog post regarding the logo programming language, but cannot find it anymore. By the way, English is not my native language.

For example, C++ would be like:

#include <iostream>

 int main() {
     std::cout << "Hello, world!\n";
     return 0;
 }

While logo would be:

Say "Hello World!"

Maybe it is a term used in programming and someone perhaps know which adjective I mean!?


texts: You are myself, you are I, or you are me?

texts: I am translating a text from Arabic about a woman talking to the ghost of her dead husband and saying something that translates literally to ''You are I.'' I would like to know the difference between the three forms mentioned above and if any of them is grammatically wrong.


texts: Why is there a period after the roman numeral in a royal title?

texts: In The Wealth of Nations, whenever a royal name appears, there is a period after the roman numeral. Why is this, and why has the practice been discontinued? If you search this online copy for a royal name ("George", for example) you can see what I'm talking about.


texts:
What is the difference between the following sentences if I were to use "off" instead of " out of" ? It seems like the usage of "off" an alternative. Are both acceptable?

  1.But within psychology, the concept developed out of a growing emphasis
  on research on the interaction of emotion and thought. (original sentence)

Source :http://eqi.org/salov2.htm

  2.But within psychology, the concept developed off a growing emphasis on research on the interaction of emotion and thought.

Examples I found which apparently have similar structures, but they use "off" as follows:

  3.The concept developed off the idea that whatever it was you were
  looking to do or whatever problem you needed to solve, the answer or
  solution could be found at the center.

  4....a creation and concept developed brilliantly off a popular episode
  of the old "Make Room for Daddy" show with Danny Thomas...


texts: This is from high school English test in South Korea

texts:
The question  is “ what is the writer’s feeling?”

I’m a Korean English private tutor.
I want to get a lot of opinions about the correct answer from native speakers?

Thank you in advance!


texts:
I am somewhat familiar with the word "amortize" which means gradually depreciating the value of an asset.   I could have sworn there is also a word "amartize" which has to do more with proportioning.

For example, if I want to figure out the true cost of driving a mile in my car I need to take my total maintenance and insurance costs and then divide them by total miles.  I thought I could describe this as "amartizing the insurance and maintenance costs," but Googling has me convinced that amartize with an 'a' is not a real word.

Am I just making this word up?  If so, what is the correct way to phrase that proportioning?  Can I use "amortize" that way?


texts: Difference between "patrimony" and "heritage"

texts:
I'd like to know if there's a difference in meaning and usage between the words "patrimony" and "heritage".

I've noticed there's some overlapping between the two, but it's not clear to me how they differ. If I understand things right, heritage is not necessarily related to wealth. There's cultural heritage, historical heritage, natural heritage. I suppose the word "patrimony" isn't fit for these contexts, right? But when we are talking about wealth and money being inherited by someone, is it correct to use both terms? Are they interchangeable or is there a difference?

Thank you!


texts: Word when two people use two different languages in a conversation

texts:
Is there a word that describes or denotes a type of conversation in which two speakers speak two different languages.
In our country, Pakistan, there are approximately 75 languages, from which Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi are common, excluding English.
So today I found two women speaking two different languages. For example:
Speaker 1 has Urdu as their mother tongue.
Speaker 2 has Sindhi as their mother tongue.
Speaker 1 and 2 spoke their own mother tongue, which are different (Urdu and Sindhi) but both can understand each other's language.
I thought that this is known as "intermingling conversation," or a "code switching." In my opinion, we can't use such words because code-switching refers "shifting completely to the other language for a word, a phrase or sentence, and then revert back to the base language."
Example sentences:

They were in a bus and had [adjective] conversation.

They were in a bus and had [noun or noun-phrase for such conversation].

I agree that the question (which is suspected as a duplicate one to this question) is really a duplicate, but its single answer still doesn't satisfy all. In that question, the phrase "bilingual dialogue" was suggested, which I (and others may) think that this refers to the code switching as well, which I don't want here. Some words confuse the readers which sense do they mean.
I would also love to quote the comment of @Lambie regarding the term "bilingual" over here:

"Bilingual refers to one person. Not two people each of whom has a passive knowledge of the other's language but do not speak it well enough to use it actively."


texts:
I'm from Korea, a non-English speaking country.

I recently had my mid-term on English.

In the test, there was a question asking us to put words in order and make them into a full sentence. The sentence was slightly changed from its original version on the test paper. The original sentence was:

  "We could say appearance was important to men in the past and it certainly is to men in the present."

The changed version was without "certainly", like below:

  "We could say appearance was important to men in the past and it is to men in the present."

Instead I wrote:

  "We could say appearance was important to men in the past and to men in the present it is."

for my answer.

I know this sentence (#3) is a bit awkward, but I believe quite much that this sentence is not grammatically totally wrong. Is it?

I used inversion to give extra emphasis on the last part of the sentence.
Could it be wrong to place "to men in the present" in such order in the sentence?

Please, please help me. I am so, sooo worried now. No one could help me in my off-line, Korean world.

*Just for notice, the question required us to use only the given phrases, not to add any other additional words to clarify the meaning.


texts: Is the term 'quasi-count-noun/usage' used in a grammar or articles?

texts:
In a previous thread, BillJ used the term 'quasi-count-noun' to describe what I consider to be a very rare (and fascinating) feature of a very small number of nouns.

Checking in the CGEL conceptual index, I didn't find the term. Google searches turned up another relevant article by Bill on EnglishForums, and an irrelevant nonce usage by myself on WordWizard (that I've now adjusted).

The behaviour of nouns displaying what Bill refers to as quasi-count [usage] is that the nouns involved may be used as count nouns for larger (round) numbers but not for smaller.

Thus

  200 cattle [were involved]  ...................... *2 cattle

  200 police [were present]  ...................... *2 police

This usage is certainly met with, but may perhaps be regarded as disputable, or perhaps as headlinese.

Has anyone seen the term 'quasi-count' in an authoritative reference?

Has anyone any information concerning the acceptability of say '200 cattle' rather than '200 head of cattle'?

I'd ask for further examples if I wouldn't feel obliged to close-vote.


texts: Origin of phrase "Fruit-loop" meaning crazy person, isn't complete and therefore unclear

texts:
Googling thro' little information about origin of usage of phrase "fruit-loop"(supposedly means crazy person) mostly leads to the dead end. Because, even if the individual words "fruity" or "loopy" does mean crazy/deranged person, it doesn't make sense, why the need/urge to combine those words like that and not just work with the individual counterparts.
And, if it seems to be originated from previously popular breakfast cereal "Froot-Loop" and mispelled when using, then it raises this question with same curiosity: "Why that breakfast cereal is defamed in calling any person crazy ?", I mean "what did that poor cereal do to anyone ?"
Can anyone clarify in details and thus provide closure to this ?


texts:
Why do some people pronounce the word "Punjabi" as "Poonjabi"?

It's not a dialect issue, but it's strange because

"pun" : "a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings." is always prouncuned pun, not "poon".

So why the word Punjabi as "Poon"jabi?


texts: Syntax: "But what it was I had forgotten"?

texts:
I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.

This is a sentence from The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. The clause after the but kind of confuses me--it looks not that familiar to me, the way it's written. It's the very first time to see structure like that. Is it for some literary effect? Like emphasis? It would be more familiar to me, if it were written as . . .

  but I had forgotten what it was long ago

or

  but it was what I had forgotten long ago

What might have been the reason for F.Scott Fitzgerald to write that way?


texts: Mark: outstanding (as in: not yet known)

texts:
I’m updating my tabular CV for an application and I’d like to include my master thesis even though it’s not yet finished (soon!) and marked. So I’d like to write that the mark is still outstanding but I fear that if I simply write

  Master thesis: ‹topic›
  Supervisor: ‹supervisor›
  Mark: outstanding

this could be misconstrued to mean that the result is in, and that it’s outstanding (as in: spectacular). What can I say here instead? It should be as salient as possible, single word preferred. I specifically want to avoid writing half a sentence.


texts: Is "fortune favors the bold; cheek brings success" a popular idiom or proverb in English?

texts:
I want to express the idea that:

If you want to be rich, you have to have guts and take a big risk.
If you want to achieve a high position in your society, like becoming a doctor or lawyer, you need to have a strong will (strong will is enough, not necessarily taking risk).

Does "fortune favors the bold; cheek brings success" express those two ideas?

Is it a popular idiom in English?

If not, what is another way to express those two ideas?


texts:
Is there any difference between the two standalone statements below:

She sat on my chair

She would sit on my chair

I emphasise standalone because it is clear to me what a statements such as "I knew that she would sit on my chair" means; it is expressing a future from the perspective of the past.

It is also somewhat easier for me to comprehend the meaning of a statement such as "She would have sat on my chair", which is a modal perfect statement; it is expressing an action (of sitting) that would have been completed just prior to the statement's construction in a hypothetical present.

But I don't get the difference between the simple modal and the simple past, and to me, they seem largely interchangeable. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Word Referring to a Space that Is Larger on the Inside than Allowed by the Outside

texts:
I'm almost certain that there is a word for this kind of paradoxical space. But no matter how I phrase the question and enter it into search engines, most results that come up are related to Doctor Who, and those that aren't still don't help.
Does anyone know it is?


texts: Non-derogatory word to describe for someone who likes to talk / chat?

texts:
Is there a single word to describe someone who loves to talk/chat about lots of different things? The words I've found are all derogatory and I'm looking for a word that means it in an endearing way.

thanks :)


texts: "Each" in potential subject position in compound sentence always pronoun?

texts:
This question is related to: "Each" — pronoun or adverb

The sentence in that question is:

  M and W are letters and each has 4 strokes

In that sentence, how do we know that “each” is a pronoun and thus requires “has” rather than “have”? With another adverb, it would be “have”:  “M and W are letters and individually have 4 strokes.”

I'm specifically asking now about "each" in the following position:

  [ (Subject 1 and Subject 2) (plural verb)], and [(each) (singular
  verb?/plural verb?)]

“Each” can be a pronoun or an adverb. My question specifically relates to the position in a compound sentence where "each" could seemingly be either a pronoun or an adverb.

  Bob and Bill each work in Boston.

Here, “each” is an adverb because the subject is “Bob and Bill.”

  Bob and Bill work in Boston, and each goes fishing on weekends.

Here, how do we know that “each” is a pronoun, and thus requires a singular verb, as opposed to an adverb, which would continue with the plural verb? Is it impossible for it to be an adverb here?

In the sentence below, “individually” is in the same position as “each” above but is necessarily an adverb.

  Bob and Bill work in Boston and individually go fishing on weekends.


texts: Single word or two or any substitution for "collection of movie titles"

texts:
I am writing software to manage movies and TV shows which contain the list of titles seen by you. I need some name for it resembling something like:

"list of movies"
"personal movie collection"
or "a place where you keep your movie collection"

Can anybody help me to find the correct phrase for it or the tell me where else to search for this?

Thanks


texts: 'warrant' in the sense of guarantee, proof or confirmation

texts:
[I have edited my question: the formulation I first read and asked about was apparently paraphrasing a sentence from a book by an American scholar. Having used the footnote to find the original text, I replaced the citation with the original one, hopefully it could help].

  These [two] labels refer respectively to experiences of present
  self-authenticity as warrant for a self claim to an intrinsic
  identity, and to actions of self authenticity as warrant for a self
  claim to a moral life.

I am not sure, whether this use of warrant is grammatical, and what it means exactly, I've looked for it in the dictionary and found that warrant can be used in the senses of guarantee, proof or confirmation. Yet, another native-spaeker friend insisted that this sentence makes no sense and must be a typo or a mistake. Is it possible to use it this way?


texts:
It is possible, as we all know, to say those sentences below.

  It was given to me by a kind woman.

  I walked on the top of the building with my friend under a moon light.

One common point between those sentences is that the prepositional phrases are not connected by a conjunction.

It feels and sounds natural to me to hear and write those sentences, but when I apply my logic to it, it always feels that there should be a conjunction between those prepositional phrases as below.

  It was given to me (and) by a kind woman. = It was given to me and
  given by a kind woman.

  I walked on the top of the building (and) with my friend (and) under a
  moon light. = I walked on the top of the building and walked with my
  friend and walked under a moon light.

It seems that all those connected prepositional phrases are the product of coordinate ellipsis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_(linguistics)

So why isn't the conjunction used? Is certain grammar rule applied to it?

It is from ELL website, but as it was impossible to get an answer or even an comment, and I was kind of getting impatient/desperate, I am posting it here.


texts: Is 'surface street' specific to southern California?

texts:
In Los Angeles, California, the US, the phrase surface street is in common use.  It refers to an ordinary city street, as opposed to a controlled-access freeway.  Presumably the word surface comes from the fact that these streets are at ground level, whereas freeways are often elevated.

I suppose I first heard this phrase somewhere in southern California, but assumed it was a standard term that I just happened to be hearing for the first time.  But I have now seen claims that surface street is specifically local to Los Angeles and the vicinity (example from the LA Times).

Is the use of surface street localized only to southern California, or is it in general use anywhere else?
Are there other common terms (either widespread or localized to other places) for a street or road which emphasize that it is not a freeway?


texts: "France" pronunciation; /æ/ vs. /e/ in American accents

texts:
Native North American speakers! Please, help me understand one thing:

I thought I understood the difference between the /æ/ and /e/ sounds, but now I doubt that anyone can. Please listen to the US version of France in the Cambridge and Oxford online dictionaries:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/france
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/france?q=france

What about the second? To me it sounds exactly like /e/ and nothing like /æ/. I searched for similar words like fresh and french and only confused even more.


texts:
Something could be carved in stone, or etched in stone. Or it could be set in concrete or set in mortar.

But if someone asked me to set something in stone, I wouldn't know how to do it, since stone doesn't set. Is there another meaning of "set" that means to carve or etch? Perhaps related to the word "type-set"?


texts: Is there a special meaning for "this has to go"?

texts:
One of my friends told me "when you wanna say something is obsolete, you can say..well this has to go". Is this true?

Then if I'd like to dump my t-shirt, can I say "this t-shirt has to go"?

Thank you for your help.


texts: Why might the author have used "to be" instead of "is" in this sentence?

texts:
...thinking it to be in the green box when it is really in the yellow box.

The to be does seem to suggest that the green box does not actually contain it. Is to be, as used in the quotation, a subjunctive construction? If it is, then is that construction the most appropriate subjunctive construction; why or why not?

Thank you.


texts: What is the difference between "launch" and "release" ?

texts:
I have doubt in differencing "launch" and "release".
I have seen many softwares. Some of them uses "launch" and rest uses "release".
Someone help me to figure it out.


texts: What is the past tense of this phrasal verb (double down)?

texts:
Blackjack players can "double down" after receiving their initial two cards.

What is the past tense of 'Double Down'?


texts: I am confusing with phonetic symbols between /iə/ and /ɪə/. I know that /ɪə/ is a diphthong vowel, combining between /ɪ/ and schwa /ə/. But what is /iə/? Is it /i:/+/ə/? How different are they pronounced?


texts: ... there is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right that he would grant others over himself

texts:
This is a little section from Rousseau's Social Contract,

"Finally, in giving himself to all, each person gives himself to no one. And since there is no associate over whom he does not acquire the same right that he would grant others over himself, he gains the equivalent of everything he loses, along with a greater amount of force to preserve what he was" The Social Contract, Book I, Chapter XI

I wonder what the bolded sentence actually means, as the grammar here is a bit complicated.

Can anyone provide a breakdown for the sentence-structure used here?

(this is a discussion on social agreement, associate here is an individual of an association, the right referred here is the right granted for being an associate)


texts: Difference between "On your mark, get set, go" and "Ready, steady, go"

texts:
Watching Kipper with my son tonight, I was struck by the phrase "Ready, steady, go!"  I don't often hear this sequence.  In my upbringing, it has been mostly "On your mark, get set, go!"

I had thought the difference might be between British English and North American English, but when I search for "Ready Steady Go," I get a whole lot of unrelated hits related to music.

Is there a regional preference in the usage of these phrases to start a race, or are they perhaps associated with particular sports?


texts: The Difference Between "Cream" and "Creme"

texts:
I've always wondered whether to use cream or creme. I know, both are used, but when and how? From my understanding, I think of creme as a dessert.

  She pressed down on the lever to shoot out a mound of whipped creme.

Though, I don't know about the cream. Multiple times, I've had people come up to me and say, "It's c-r-e-a-m, not c-r-e-m-e, when I'm talking about whipped creme. Then again, I'm 12.

The point is, does creme have multiple uses? So far, I only think of the dessert as that.


texts: Can the word "cloister" be applied to a Buddhist monastery?

texts: My mother told me she visited a Buddhist monastery (before I was born), simply because there were so many of them in China, and it couldn't hurt just to visit one and check it out for fun. She didn't exactly use the term "Buddhist monastery", because she described a place where Buddhist monks and nuns bow down to the Buddha with incense sticks. I inferred that she went to a Buddhist monastery and went to Yabla Chinese to search for the appropriate English words. Anyway, is it appropriate to call this building a cloister, even though it may not have a cloister? Or are cloisters only referring to a specific type of monastic building that was prevalent in Medieval Europe?


texts: Is there a name for the type of noun is produced by adding the sufix 'ness' to an adjective?

texts:
Is there a name for the type of noun is produced by adding the suffix 'ness' to an adjective?

For example: Greedy - greediness

lonely - loneliness


texts: What is the accepted use of exclamation point in greeting on a letter or email, "Hi! Kim," or "Hi, Kim!"


texts: What does 'scale' in this sentence mean?

texts: "...The relationship between nonprofits and government is a marriage that can't end in divorce. Government needs us to deliver our services, and we need government to scale our services to meet our mission. There's no way we can privately fundraise our way out of this..."


texts: Better words for "open-ended" and "multiple choice"?

texts:
I'm writing documentation for some code at work and I am trying to describe some parameters that must be specified by the user.  Some of the parameters are specified with one word from a list of possible choices (e.g., "true" or "false"; "ags" or "wms"; "json", "xml", or "text").  Others are more "open-ended" and the user specifies anything they'd like (parameters like this include name, identifier, URL, etc).

I'd like to describe each of these two types of parameters.  Are there words that describe one as open-ended and one as multiple choice?  These descriptions I'm using don't seem to do it justice.  They also seem to imply there is some kind of question involved when there isn't.

Does anyone have any ideas of what words I could use in my documentation to describe these two types of parameters?


texts:
"I will commit myself to acquiring a new skill."

I saw a sentence like this one (same structure, same verb form) on Cambridge Dictionary's website. But I checked it on Grammarly, and it said that the verb form is wrong. I don't understand why.


texts:
More than 1 person has stumbled on this line in a draft report here:

  "...such that the considerations outlined in Section 1.2 are maintained"

Can you maintain a consideration?

Yes, the considerations are actually maintainable.

I wrote it, so it works for me, but if others are clunking on it, I wonder...

Other iterations include 'suggestions' in place of consideration, and 'upheld' in place of maintained.

(Would that make a difference?)

...usually, I'd just change it - no point being correct if people aren't getting the intended message - but it's interesting anyway.


texts: Some of my colleagues use the word "Notations" as the title of a section of a paper which defines their terms.  I think the proper word is "Notation".  I could not find notation on any list of words with the same plural as singular (but I did find the phrase "marginal notations," which I believe is correct, although not commonplace).  Is "notations" an acceptable plural for "notation"?  Same question for "informations".


texts: What part of speech is "another" in this sentence?

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

  In the early part of the modern English period the vocabulary was enlarged by the widespread use of one part of speech for another and by increased borrowings from other languages.

What does it mean? Can you tell me why another was used rather than other or the other?

I'm aware another is used for countable, singular nouns, but that doesn't illuminate for me why it was used in this sentence.


texts: What is the real difference between dilation and dilatation?

texts:
In the medical profession we use the terms dilatation and dilation with great frequency.  Dilatation is defined as a region of dilation, an area of abnormal enlargement, or the surgical enlargement of a region (noun describing the verb). Dilation is defined as the act of dilating (stretching out), the state of being dilated, and confusingly:  dilatation.  Both definitions cross-refer to one another.

And, yet I've never gotten a sufficient answer as to why we use one vs. the other.  Some, try to claim that dilatation is an active process (like dilatation and curettage), and dilation is a passive process.  But, we dilate people's pupils by giving medications.  Or using balloon angioplasty we dilate a stenosed blood vessel.

Other sources claim that dilation is a uniform enlargement compared to dilatation.  And, other sources claim that there is, in fact, no difference between the two.

In research of this question I sought out clues from the etymology And, I found that dilatation is the older form.  That dilation was a mistaken assumption in the 1590s that -ate was the Latin Verbal suffix (and not part of the root).

So, my question:  Is there really a difference between the two terms?  Or are they truly interchangeable as the etymology would suggest?  Has there been a shift in meaning within, say, the Engineering world?


texts: "To be an influence" or "to have an influence"

texts:
Is there a rule for when one has to say to be a positive influence on... or to have a positive influence on...? For example,

  The practice of singing songs is/has a positive influence on people.


texts: The meaning of "stocks" in “…successfully increasing stocks, whether by seed…”

texts:
What do you think the meaning of "stocks" is in this particular sentence:

Knowing how plants function and understanding their life cycle are vital to raising and maintaining healthy specimen, and to successfully increasing stocks, whether from seed or by other means.
Source: The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants

I think the meaning is "varieties, species", but I'll appreciate your comments. Also, to me, the plural form seems interesting because I thought that "stock" in the sense of "origin, descent" is uncountable noun.
Thanks in advance.


texts: “recce” — the reck which a reckless is lacking

texts:
While thinking about good antonyms for reckless, I noticed there’s no reckful nor any reck in English, for that matter. So, what would that reck be?

Etymonline offers the following scrap:

  rece, recce “care, heed” from reccan “to care”

A very pretty word, and I’d love to learn more about it. When did it die out? Did it differ subtly from care as careless differs from reckless, with special connotations? How was it pronounced? Did it function just like care or did it have its own set of prepositions for use in various contexts?

Could it be used in role of “tender care”, related to love? “I recce for thee”?


texts:
While speaking, when they want to highlight some difference, people often do it by stating where they come from.

Which of these phrases is correct:

From where I come from
Or
Where I come from

I guess the second one is correct but I have also heard the first phrase too. That's why I am confused.


texts:
Instead of using "I got tense", can I use "I got tensed"?

On a similar note, instead of using "The angrier you get, the tenser your body gets", can I use "The angier you get, the more tensed your body gets"?


texts: Term for "changing lots of things to try and fix one thing"

texts:
I am looking for a term which succinctly describes the age-old problem when someone is trying to fix a problem, and tweaks and changes many different things to try and fix it. When they finally do see that the problem is fixed, they are no longer sure (or are misled) as to what change or even combination of changes actually fixed the problem.
Does such a term exist? My initial thought was an XY problem, but when I looked up the definition it's not really what I'm looking for.
Here's an example: you are debugging some computer code, and to try and fix it you remove a line of code and re-run the programme. Each time you remove a line, and run. When the programme finally runs properly, it is not necessarily the last line of code that you removed which fixed it. It could be any combination of the removed lines of code, or even something unrelated in the environment.


texts: what does "I can promise you the one but not the other " from Memoir of Sherlock Holmes (the final problem)

texts:
What does this statement imply "I can promise the one but not the other " from the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ("The Final Problem"),
at this link:

"'...It has been a duel between you and me, Mr. Holmes. You hope to place me in the dock. I tell you that I will never stand in the dock. You hope to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you.'
"'You have paid me several compliments, Mr. Moriarty,' said I. 'Let me pay you one in return when I say that if I were assured of the former eventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the latter.'
"'I can promise you the one, but not the other,' he snarled, and so turned his rounded back upon me, and went peering and blinking out of the room.

This got me thinking who or what could be the "one" and the "other" it's frustrating that even now I haven't been able to figure it out. Guys your aid is sought on this .


texts:
Is a deverbal noun with at least two adjectives plural, or can it be?

An example sentence (from research regarding medical monitoring of vital signs):

  Continuous and automated monitoring is...

In this example, the monitoring is both continuous and automated at the same time, i.e. it is one thing (albeit having two properties), thus the singular form is is used.

Could or should this be written as:

  Continuous and automated monitoring are...

?

In the latter example the use of are refers to continuous monitoring and automated monitoring as being two types of monitoring, i.e. two things, thus the plural form is used.

Another example with different meaning:

  Fast and slow driving is/are...

In this last example, are is probably better, because driving can't logically be both fast and slow simultaneously. This is a clear example of the subject being plural. In general however, the subject can be singular and have two or more adjectives, am I correct?

I'm not a native English speaker, but I have a feeling both situations could be used correctly. What are the differences in both semantics and grammar?

And am I correct about monitoring being a deverbal noun in this case, instead of a gerund? I've looked up what kind of word it could be and differences between verbal and deverbal nouns and I came to the conclusion it was the latter.

On a side note: can automatic be used instead of automated?


texts: Is there a word for the feeling you get when you reflect on a past relationship in which you are now strangers?

texts:
I'm not sure if there is a word to describe the feeling I get when I think about a past relationship were we once were deeply connected and now we are simply strangers.

I was hoping to get some words that can express this feeling.


texts:
Now he was beginning to have the waft of an old man who hadn't bathed for several days.

The meaning of the sentence is absolutely clear to me, since the second part of the sentence explains the meaning.

But I have only a rough perception what the exact meaning of a waft of is.
I found this explanation of waft:

  To cause to go gently and smoothly through the air or over water.

And to waft means:

  to move, or make something move, gently through the air

But at this point I stuck and I fail to figure out the exact meaning. It sounds like it means the smell itself in an foul-smelling way, but then it would be rather uncouth.

Am I headed in the right direction or has a waft of a deeper meaning?


texts: Is the usage of "exact same" a redundant phrase?

texts: Is the phrase "exact same" proper?  It seems redundant; if something is the same, isnt it identical?  Or, is it a pleonasm, which raises the question: should pleonasms be avoided?


texts: What does "doing five to ten for one thing or another" mean?

texts:
I came across the following:

  I've seen ... women on their way to visit boyfriends who are doing five to ten for one thing or another.

What does "doing five to ten for one thing or another" mean in this context?

Google was distinctly unhelpful to me.


texts: What is the word for toilet stick (if there is one)?

texts:
Before toilet paper (or any paper in general) comes around, some people would use sticks or similar things instead. Is there a general term (slang is fine but prefer dictionary) to describe those sticks? If so what it is?

P.S.
I had read it over internet a couple of years ago but I can't find it anymore. It could had been an invalid word.


texts: Can words of frequency like "always" and "sometimes" be used with the gnomic aspect?

texts:
In sentences such as "birds fly" and "people die," the sentences don't talk about habituality but have the gnomic aspect instead. Can words of frequency like "always" and "sometimes" that are usually associated with the habitual aspect be used with the gnomic aspect? For example, is

  Bob always cries at funerals, which don't happen habitually.

valid, in that it doesn't necessarily mean that Bob cries at funerals habitually?


texts: What's the missing preposition in the following sentence?

texts:
I could tell she was older than me. Maybe four years [...].

I can't think of the article that I should write in the last part of the sentence (the one that refers to older).

Any suggestions?

(Maybe it  should be Maybe for X of years?)


texts: When did the phrase "above your paygrade" come into use?

texts: I heard this phrase in the current movie "The Post" and suspect it is an anachronism.  Was this phrase in use in 1971?


texts: Word starting with pre- meaning "enabled" or "set the foundations for"

texts:
The collapse of clear chains of responsibility can be seen as one of the most important factors which pre_______ the company's bankruptcy.

It's not preceded, because that simply means "came before".

But I am looking specifically for a word that means

enabled
laid the foundations for
allowed X to happen
set up

With a more negative (or at least neutral) connotation.

I guess this word can appropriately be applied to the constituents of any "perfect storm".


texts: Word that describes "allowing someone to identify with (it)"

texts:
If I work on a strategy and want to highlight that the resulting process (sustainability management) needs to be designed such that it allows people to identify with it, what would be a single word describing this?

More specifically, it should be likely for a participant in the process to feel that the goals set forth in the process are their own goals.

Something in replacement of the single quotes in "The process needs to be 'identifiable with'"

The word occurs as a replacement of X in the sentence: "The process needs to be informed, adaptive, effective, X".

I haven't figured out a suitable thesaurus search that would get me close, and instead got stuck with irrelevant words such as "referable", "traceable".


texts: hyphenation in compound adjectives, like "in demand" skills, "on-call" service

texts:
I always thought "in-demand", "on-call", when used in the adjective position before a noun should be hyphenated for sheer readability if nothing else, but just checking as I see these used without the hyphen:

"Coding has become one of the most in demand professional skills...".
Thoughts, anyone?


texts:
In Underdog, a song by Kasabian, I have some difficulties to understand the meaning of

  Kill me if you dare

ok

  Hold my head up everywhere

Is it an ellipsis for "I hold my head up everywhere", meaning that I won't look down
or is it "Kill me and hold my head up", meaning you kill me and you show my cut head on a spike, like in medieval age?

  Keep myself right on this train

What does this mean?


texts: Does the word 'law' need to be capitalised?

texts:
I'm currently writing my personal statement for my university application in the UK. Because I am applying for courses in law (or Law?), I naturally need to use the word 'law' in my statement. Note that this statement is sent to 5 universities so does not refer to a specific law course. I have used the word in the following sentences:

The breadth of study for a law degree would provide me with the knowledge and experiences to determine the shape and direction of my career.

My interest in law also stems from its interdisciplinary nature...

I feel that I don't need to capitalise 'law' here because it's talking about the subject in general, and so it's not a proper noun. However, my advisor has given me feedback and suggested I do need to. Thoughts?


texts: What's the meaning of groupies and throwing stars in this paragraph from Rework by Jason Fried?

texts:
I don't understand the meaning of groupies and throwing stars means in this paragraph from Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson:

A lot of companies post help-wanted ads seeking "rock stars" or ninjas." Lame. Unless your workplace is filled with groupies and throwing stars, these words have nothing to do with your business.

Actually, I don't understand the concept of the last sentence. What does authors want to say?


texts: someone who willingly "mishears" stuff to support their view?

texts:
Not the best example, but this should hopefully get the point across:

Lets say you have this one friend, who really hates some journalist, maybe a movie or game critic or something. He says something like:

"This guy has no idea what he's talking about! He thinks a game/movie deserves only a 5/10 because of this one thing!"

Even though the journalist gave a very reasonable list of complaints he had with a game/movie and it was not just because of "this one thing!".

What do you call such people?


texts: Equivalent to 'avec mention très bien' in English

texts:
In order to translate my resume to English, I found a problem in translating the expression "avec mention très bien" to English, I found some equivalents such as:

  with honors, using google translation.
  with high honours, in some forums.
  with Honours, in other forums.
  High Distinction.
  with grade A pass, in collinsdictionary.

I know that sometimes academic "grades" can vary from institution to institution. And certainly from country to country. However I would like to find the closest and the best one to use.


texts:
What does "smartass out" mean?

This is a verb? (I know that "smartass" means, but)

I guess it means that "He pretends to be smart, and tries to show it in all ways". Yeah, im right?

Can you give more examples with a similar meaning (words with 'out' at the end) ?

found it in this comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxXJEUoVqlo&lc=UggcoBUmM13hA3gCoAEC

Full text:

"These are also quite big pieces of paper!
A1 double the size of A2.
A2 double the size of A3.
A3 double the size of A4.
and so on

Smartass out!"


texts:
In a software meant to be used internationally, should I use "post code", "postal code" or "zip code"?

As most of countries have some sort of implementation of this code, I'm after the term that would be best suited for international usage.


texts:
My children have become most concerned with monsters, especially since discovering Scooby Doo. Other than Gila monsters, are there other animals containing the word monster?

Note: I have done typical web searches and online taxonomy resources. I have also seen every episode of Wild Kraats at least twice.


texts: How to construct grammatically correct sentences containing the word "want"?

texts:
Is there any difference between these three sentences? Which one is correct or sounds more naturally?
1. You wanted us to get caught.
2. You wanted us to be caught.
3. You wanted to get us caught.


texts: Is there a word that can replace the slang "broken"?

texts:
In various internet contexts and games, being "broken" means that you/something somewhat defy common sense by being stupidly powerful. Is there a more "proper" word that is equivalent to "broken"?

ie:

  That sword was so broken because it killed everyone in one hit.

Is there a certain word that can take the place of "broken" in the sentence without changing how the sentence is structured?


texts: Continuing to do something just because it was done before, without knowing why

texts:
How would you describe someone that continues to perform and action solely because they have observed someone else performing that same action, but do not know the reason. Or, they perform an action in a certain way and do not change to a better method, only because they believe the current method must be the best way to do it because it has been done that way previously.

What word/phrase/expression would you use to describe this scenario?


texts:
He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall.
...He rolled to his feet like a snake raising its head on its body to strike.

It's a quote from the book. I suppose it means the same as "stood up" . Is that correct or does it differ somehow?


texts: What does Sontag mean by "...wheeled-up words like blood-brain barrier"

texts:
I'm reading The Way We Live Now by Susan Sontag, and have a problem with this paragraph:

  The one thing I'm sure I couldn't take, Jan said he said to her, is becoming disfigured, but Stephen hastened to point out the disease doesn't take that form very often anymore, its profile is mutating, and, in conversation with Ellen, wheeled up words like blood-brain barrier; I never thought there was a barrier there, said Jan.

I can't understand the bold part. What's the meaning of wheeled up words?


texts: Word for a person who cries easily over anything

texts: When someone cries easily over anything, what do you call this person?


texts: Various terminologies pertaining to measurements

texts:
I am trying to find appropriate names for various components related to measuring something. For instance, given the following sentence:
100 kg of flour
I am able to come up with the following:

100 represents quantity/amount
kg represents a unit of measurement/measure unit
100 kg represents a metric

But I struggle with appropriate naming for:

Weight/mass -> the thing being measured
Flour -> the thing undergoing the measurement

What is good, concise vocabulary to denote such terms?
Kindly take note that I am looking for vocabulary that applies to as many different contexts of measuring as possible. For this purpose, I am coining the following examples:

A person undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. This evaluation on an abstract level can be said to measure the sanity of a person. In this case; we have the following meta components:

Patient -> The person under evaluation; e.g. the thing undergoing the measurement
Patient's mental state -> the thing being measured
sane, insane, depressed, traumatized -> the qualitative scale representing the metric involved
Psychiatrist -> The assessor/evaluator/measurer

A person taking an IQ test. This is supposed to measure a person's intelligence; or more specifically the g-factor. Again, the components on an abstract level would be:

Person taking the test -> the thing undergoing the measurement
g-factor of a person -> the thing being measured
score -> a relative metric

A doctor testing out the effectiveness of medication on a volunteer. Again the components here are:

Patient ---> the thing undergoing the measurement
effectiveness of the medication --> The thing being measured

Kinematic viscosity of oil

Oil -> the thing undergoing the measurement
Kinematic viscosity  --> The thing being measured
centiStokes ---> Unit of measurement

In all of the above different scenarios, we can abstract away from the specific context of a psychiatric evaluation, IQ evaluation, medical evaluation, oil quality evaluation to that of the general context of measuring something. In all of those instances; as applies; we can map specific terminologies to:

amount/quantity/magnitude
unit/measure unit
metric
The thing being measured
the thing undergoing the measurement

What are good, concise names for 4 and 5?
PS:

I may have made some mistakes in any of the above mappings; if so then kindly guide me accordingly in the comments.
I was motivated to ask this question here by: Terminology for expressing the scale of a measurement system. However, it could be that in the general English vocabulary that there are no suitable terms to speak about 4 and 5 in a more concise way than I already employed. In such a case, I would be willing to borrow technical terminologies. My assumption is that scientists have developed their own specific vocab to denote the above. If you have knowledge of such specific vocab then that would be welcome as well.


texts:
Is there a word to describe something that is not our own?

For instance:
The thoughts I was having were not my own, they were _______.

A possibility I thought of is alien.


texts: Do you write "AT 123.com", or "ON 123.com"? US English

texts:
US English

I have read other answers on this very question, and no one seems to be able to come up with a clear cut grammatically correct solution.

For a website/platform is it:

A) At 123.com, you can read articles, listen to music, and much more.

OR

B) On 123.com, you can read articles, listen to music, and much more.

I would appreciate it if someone could provide an answer, "A" or "B", and why your choice is correct.


texts: An expression for fictitious words becoming widely adopted in reality

texts:
Occasionally, a fictitious (sometimes deliberately so, sometimes as a new word to describe a new concept) word finds popularity in the real world.

Famously, Shakespeare introduced a number of such previously-fictitious words into the English language, including "elbow," "eyeball," "mimic," and "arouse," which had few recorded appearances before their debuts in his works.

Less prominently, the TV show The Simpsons introduced the words "cromulent" and "embiggens" as part of a self-referential gag in the early 90s, and these words are now appearing with their presumed meanings in various places around the internet. While the adoption rate's pretty low and I haven't been keeping track of all the appearances of these words, an Ars Technica article has a reference to cromulent in the caption of an image:

  D-Link's DI-514 802.11b router. It was a perfectly cromulent router for its time... but those were dark days, friend, dark days indeed.

Does this kind of permeation of made-up words into the real-world vocabulary have any kind of associated expression?


texts:
Can someone explain to me what booty-trap means in this sentence?

  We moved back in there, setting up booty traps. Each man booty-trapped his own home.


texts: When to use "than" and "of" in comparative sentences

texts:
The self-storage industry has three times the footprint than McDonald’s.

Or:

  The self-storage industry has three times the footprint of McDonald’s.


texts: Is it fine to use "the second largest" when comparing 3 things

texts:
Let's say, if there were 4 cities, A, B, C and D

  1,000 people live in city A.
  2,000 people live in city B.
  3,000 people live in city C.
  4,000 people live in city D.

- The second largest number of people lives in city C.

The sentence above would be considered fine.

What if there were only 3 cities, A, B, and C, where now we could use the word "intermediate".

  1,000 people live in city A.
  2,000 people live in city B.
  3,000 people live in city C.

1) The second largest number of people lives in city B. OR

2) The intermediate number of people lives in city B.

So the question is: which one is better?

Or if there's a better way to express the intention, please suggest it.

Thanks :)


texts:
Can we use "a" after "many"? What does it mean, then?

Example:

  Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. source


texts: What does ‘Democratic sharpies’ mean? Is the usage of ‘sharpie’ as a political figure well-received?

texts:
Mark Helperin’s column titled ‘Snapshot’ in Time magazine (August 15) begins with the following sentence:

“Here are the two data points most compelling to me:

(1) Many Democratic sharpies now think if unemployment doesn’t go above 9%, Romney is done and dusted.

(2) Speaker Boehner is reportedly having to calm the conference over the selection of one of its own to join the national ticket."

From the context, I suppose ‘sharpies’ here means ‘hard-liners, hawks, or persons fervent in their principles’ But I don’t find such meanings in any popular dictionaries:

Cambridge online dictionary has no entry of this word.

Oxford online dictionary defines ‘sharpie’ as

A sharp-plowed, flat-bottomed New England sailing boat, with one or two masts each rigged with a triangular sail.
(informal, chiefly North American) another term for sharper.

Merriam-Webster simply defines it as
a long narrow shallow-draft boat, with flat bottom, plus ‘sharper’ as an ‘exceptionally keen or alert person’ which seems to me pretty close to my interpretation of ‘political sharpies.’

Wikipedia defines ‘sharpie’ only as
an American manufacturer of writing instruments whose products are sold in over 20 countries. Originally a name designating a single permanent marker.

In net, none of dictionaries I’ve checked registers ‘sharpie’ in political connotation.

Is ‘sharpie’ a received English word? What does it exactly mean?


texts: What does ‘It’s one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it backwards’ mean as a metaphor to John Roberts' ruling?

texts:
There was the following sentence in June 29 issue of Time magazine titled “Roberts Rules: What the health care decision means for the country” dealing with Chief Justice of Supreme Court, John Roberts’ ruling to go forward with so-called "Obamacare."

  “The fact that Roberts had to squirm like Houdini to reach middle
  ground only enhanced the bravura of the feat. As the saying goes, it’s
  one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it
  backwards in high heels. Philosophical purity is easy — the
  blogosphere is lousy with it — while pragmatic solutions to difficult
  problems are as rare these days as virgins on Jersey Shore."

The sentence is full of metaphoric (and nostalgic) proper nouns such as Houdini, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Jersey Shore, whose meanings are difficult for non-Americans to decipher at first glance.

I’m still not clear with what “It’s one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it backwards in high heels,” exactly means in specific reference to the Chief Justice‘s rules.

I guess the author is likening Ginger Rogers’s backwards steps to Mr. Roberts’ unexpected, but critical turn in upholding the Obamacare at 4-4 split votes. If we eliminate all proper nouns from this sentence, how can we paraphrase this line?

The author says ‘As the saying goes.” Is “It’s one thing to dance like Fred Astaire, but Ginger Rogers did it backwards in high heels,” a popular expression?

I know Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as a septuagenarian, but do today’s youth remember them and use this phrase in their conversation by saying ‘as the saying goes’?


texts:
I found this phrase in the Vogue article:

  His style, with its healthy punch of dork factor, is of the now in a
  way that is similar to Post Malone’s very self-aware, disheveled,
  sleazy look.

Isn't phrase "of the now" used with nouns, e.g. 'music of the now', 'artist of the now'?
I googled it and found 17 matches, which I do not trust entirely.
Does it sound natural to you to say "is of the now"?


texts: Is or Was when talking about a historic figure in the present?

texts:
If I ask someone the question "Who is Martin Luther King Jr." is that correct compared to "Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?"

Which one is the correct sentence and how?


texts: "Disguised Conjunction" -- What's going on here?

texts:
I've been reading Brian A. Garner's The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation and have been running through the section on conjunctions. I am confused by one of Garner's passages, which I've quoted below.

  275 Disguised conjunctions. So-called disguised conjunctions are participles that have been long been used as conjunctions--e.g., barring, considering, provided, regarding, speaking, and supposing. A disguised conjunction does not have a subject, while a verb does {considering the poor road conditions, we traveled swiftly [considering as a preposition]} {we traveled swiftly, considering the poor road conditions [considering as a disguised conjunction]} {the committee is considering a budget increase [considering as a verb]}. The key distinction is that a conjunction does not take an object but a preposition does.

Specifically, can someone help me understand how "considering" functions as a conjunction in his second example (i.e., "we traveled swiftly, considering the road conditions")?
Also, with his example, Garner explains that one distinguishing characteristic of a conjunction (as least as compared to a preposition) is that is doesn't take an object. But then, grammatically, what is the function of "the poor road conditions" in his second example?


texts: Single word for someone who doesn't let anyone walk all over them (antonym of 'pushover')

texts:
She was caring, and yet she was _______

What I'm tring to say is that although she cared for others, she was strong enough to not let them dictate her actions. In other words, she did things for people because she was a good person, but it didn't mean she would do anything for anyone just because she was told to do so.

A single word is preferable.

Currently, what I have is 'she was no pushover', which is very close, but maybe not the best fit here. Kind of looking for an antonym of pushover which suits my case better.

(Thesaurus.com and Oxford don't list any close antonyms, btw.)


texts: Is final /n/ sound reduced / nasalized in American English?

texts:
When my 6-year old daughter spells words phonetically, she regularly drops final 'n' at ends of syllables, after vowels, like "rabo" for "rainbow", "lach" for "lunch".

This made me wonder, are we all dropping the distinct /n/ sound in these words?

Is this a regular phenomena in American English, and what's the name for it?


texts:
Let x1, . . . , xn be a collection of mathematical objects.

When I refer to them, do I have to say the xi’s or just the xi?

Edit: In this article (written by an American mathematician), one can read

  ... is the set of all x's which have the form ...


texts: Which is correct, "you and I" or "you and me"?

texts: When the phrase is used as an object, why so many native speakers are saying "you and I" instead of "you and me"? I'm not a native speaker but I thought "you and me" is correct. Not sure if this falls into the same category, but "Just between you and me" sounds more natural than "Just between you and I".


texts: "Unicorn Sequin Pillow Cover" -- is it right?

texts: I sell a product that I've named Unicorn Sequin Pillow Cover. Did I write it correctly? It is a pillowcase made from sequins with unicorn printed on it.


texts: "Occupation" and "professional occupation (plus calling and career)" vs. "vocation" and "professional vocation"

texts:
Is "professional vocation" an acceptable alternative to "professional occupation", and to "professional calling or career" also?

You might want to consider the following sourced examples for this:

  What is your current vocation? How many years have you been currently involved in... source

  What is your current vocation? High school English teacher at Westfield High.
  source

  While her vocation is teaching school, one of her hobbies is baking amd more often than not she makes cookies. source

  John began his professional vocation as a teacher. source

  Johann Graff started his professional vocation as a butcher...source

  Mickey Cottrell (Producer) began his professional career as a repertory actor.source

  Judge Ramirez began his professional vocation as a civil servant, commencing his career as an attorney...source

If indeed "vocation" is a valid option to meaning "a specified occupation, profession, or trade", and to "a calling or career" also, is any ambiguity unlikely with its second meaning, i.e. "a certain feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation"?


texts:
What is the difference between:
He was walking along the street,
and
He was walking down the street ?


texts: What does 'the little bit to where' mean here?

texts:
Hugh Jackman: I always say when I lift something heavy, I remember that is
  Wolverine. The little bit to where you're going to want to drop it and then you go, "No way," that little bit is Wolverine.

I saw this in Hugh Jackman's interview.
He was lifting some heavy weights in his exercise time and he tell this.
What I'm curious about is two parts.

The little bit is meaning some sort of time or distance?
Why he used 'to' in front of 'where'?


texts: What’s a good phrase or idiom similar to "going in blind" or "jumping in the deep end"?

texts:
A while ago I had a conversation with a colleague of mine, and
we’re talking about an applicant who applied for a position
that he does not have any background knowledge of, no experience
with the said field and completely unaware of what he is getting
himself into.

He had not even done any research beforehand and so did not
understand even the name of the position.  I said that he was
“point blank” with my colleague and we continued our discussion:
none of us noticed I had used the wrong idiom/phrase.

Later tonight, I felt that something was wrong and remembered
the phrase I used wrongly, so I tried to think of that specific
phrase that I meant to say but had failed to do so correctly.
It’s supposed to mean something like “going into a gunfight
empty-handed” or “taking an exam without studying”.

Google not seem to help, and I don’t know any native English
speakers in real life.

I posted this on reddit, and got some really close answers like
“Jumping in the deep end” or “Going in blind” which are close to
what I was meaning to say cause it supposed to sound like going
to recklessly commit yourself into something while being
ignorant of the things you’re about to encounter, or something
like that.

But it still doesn’t sound right; can you help me find the phrase
I’m looking for?


texts: "On a (...) scale" or "at a (...) scale"?

texts:
First of all, a core sample is a small piece of rock obtained from the subsurface. The reservoir in this question refers to an oil reservoir.

So here's the question. Is the following statement correct? Or should the word "at" be replaced with "on"?

  "You should not try to investigate the effect of that heterogeneity at a core scale. You have to capture the heterogeneity at a reservoir scale."


texts: semantic difference for the forms: "x of y" vs. "x of the y" vs. "y x"

texts:
As a non-native speaker, I have a problem understanding the difference in meaning of the following forms:

"… of …"
"… of the …"
"… …"

To be more specific, let me give some instances:

"theory of mind" vs. "theory of the mind" vs. "mind theory"
"theory of activity" vs. "activity theory"
"theory of action" vs. "action theory"

While writing, I naïvely notice that there is a difference in nature between my first example and the two latter… I fail to understand exactly why, either… I don't know why, but while "theory of the mind" sounds understandable to me, "theory of the activity" or "theory of the action" sounds less correct (maybe because we can speak about "the mind" as a generality, while "the action" or "the activity" needs to be specified?).

Any help would be much appreciated,

Many thanks


texts: What's the exact meaning of 'showstopper'?

texts: I encountered many times that my prospects asked for some must-have features as some 'showstopper' features. In those cases, I understood a showstopper is a mandatory requirement. But on the hand, I got the explanation for showstopper in Merriam-Webster as 'an act, song, or performer that receives so much applause that the performance is interrupted', which seems is talking about a very good but not necessarily mandatory thing. So how do we use the word showstopper?


texts: "She sees in the mirror" vs. "she will see in the mirror?"

texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  She will grow up hating what she sees in the mirror.

Or should it be:

  She will grow up hating what she will see in the mirror.

I think first one is correct, I just want to know why and the rule.


texts:
There's a quirk that I keep seeing in Worm :  Whenever the author wants to draw attention to very short, dramatic statements, he refers to them as being "two and a half words."

Examples:

  I'm sorry.
  He's here.

I would call them two words, but maybe that's just me.    I was taught that a contraction turns two words into one.

Is it a Canadian difference in contractions?  (The action of the book and first person narrator is from the U.S., but the author is from Canada somewhere.)  Is it just a quirk from Wildbow (J.C. McCrae), the author?


texts: Let's imagine there is some law (for example, gambling prohibition law) and malefactors try to find some workarounds to continue their business (for example, pretend like this is not gambling but lottery). What are these law workarounds called in general?