texts: Why do American English speakers pronounce both syllables in "challah" equally?

texts:
I live in the US, and I've noticed that "challah" seems to be generally pronounced by Americans as something like /hala:/ (or possibly /ha:lə/), with either equal stress on both syllables or a slight stress on the first.

However, for some reason, I've generally assumed that the stress should be on the second syllable. Wikipedia seems to confirm this with [χa'la], and I seem to remember seeing similar pronunciation when watching an Israeli TV show.

Why is there such a discrepancy in stress? I wouldn't be surprised if American English speakers used something like /h/ in place of /χ/, but it's slightly strange that stress patterns have shifted. Is this just part of a normal shift in variation (similar to other treatments of foreign loanwords), or is there a deeper reason for this difference? (I would suspect so, but I lack the expertise to tell.)

Edit: Note: I am not exactly asking for something akin to "Why does American English have /dænts/ instead of /dɑːns/?" or "Why is there a discrepancy in the pronunciation of the English 'department'and the French 'département'?" One of the key things I'm interested is whether this might a result of variable pronunciation of חלה (and some Jewish groups being possibly more prominent in the US), similar to how there is variation in Hebrew pronunciations of religious terms (e.g. discrepancies between the Modern Hebrew, Israeli pronunciation and the traditional Ashkenazi ones, as far as I know).


texts: Another word for the phenomenon of not remembering dreams

texts:
I am looking for a word for the phenomenon due to which you are not able to remember dreams.

Example usage (in case the question is not clear) -
Person A : The dream involved elephants, Megan Fox and a pole but I'm not able to recall it correctly...
Person B : Damn You "Phenomenon Name"!!!


texts: "had me a blast" - what use of "have" is it?

texts: Reading the Summer love lyrics, the lyrics go as follows: "summer love, had me a blast". I know that "have a blast" means to enjoy etc. But I do not think I could say "it has me a blast".


texts: What's the difference between "good on you" vs. "good for you", with a sincere meaning something like "you've done a good thing"?

texts:
In the northeastern USA I usually hear "good for you," as in

You passed the test? Good for you! [congrats]
Good for you, for stopping to help! [you are a good person]

Online I often see the variant "good on you/good on ya" written, as in

You passed the test? Good on ya!
Good on you for stopping to help!

(I was able to find this discussion about the phrases, but there seems to be little agreement about which English speakers use which variant. We've also got a definition here of "good for you".)
Is there a difference in usage between the two phrases - are they used in different ways? Or, do they mean the same thing and are used by speakers of different dialects?


texts:
What synonym linker to 'As a result' can work here?

The busiest part of the whole center was the hydrochannel.
Investigations and tests were conducted 24 hours a day. As a result,
many floatplanes, speedboats, submarines, and torpedoes were improved
there.


texts: What is wrong in saying " I am feeling well right now"...?

texts:
The following sentences are frequently heard spoken by people if someone asks them about their well-being (especially when a doctor inquires about a patient's health!) :

I am not feeling well

and

I am feeling well

But yesterday someone prompted me saying that "feel, taste, smell, realise, etc" are verbs of perception and a continuous tense shouldn't be used.
Instead it should be:  I feel well.

Is this really so?

My question is, will it not give rise to an ambiguity situation if when a person wishes to express his current state of well-being he uses 'I feel well'? Couldn't he be misinterpreted as if he always feels 'well'?


texts: What word describes a house without anyone inside?

texts: If all occupants left a house for a short period of time (not longer than a day), how can that house be described?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the pronunciation of the possessive words that already end in s?

  “The Weasley twins’ friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for
  the match.”

Do native English speakers pronounce twins and twins’ the same way?
Or do they get said as /twɪnziz/ or /twɪnzəz/, and is this just an informal pronunciation?


texts: "Other" as a pronoun for uncountable nouns

texts:
I understand that using "other" as a determiner before an uncountable noun is correct, but I was wondering if it could also be used as a pronoun:

  Is there other accommodation available?

  Yes, there is other, don't worry

While I understand there are some other determiners that can be used instead, I am really intrigued about this one. Also, please let me know how natural you feel it is in daily speech.


texts:
My friend (Russian native) says that the word 'chill' is fully synonymous to 'cold'. She says it's like saying 'the common cold'

I googled the definitions and I'm sure that 'chill' is when you're shaking in discomfort, but it's not the same thing. Do you call the common cold 'chill'? Or 'chill' is just one of its symptoms?


texts: Meaning and usage of "Adjacent to refuse, is refuse"

texts:
In an episode of Seinfeld, Jerry says: "Adjacent to refuse, is refuse." Can anyone explain to me what that means? I found the script and give the context in what is was said.

JERRY: Was it in the trash?
GEORGE: Yes.
JERRY: Then it was trash.
GEORGE: It wasn't down in, it was sort of on top.
JERRY: But it was in the cylinder!
GEORGE: Above the rim.
JERRY: Adjacent to refuse, is refuse.

What does it mean, and how can it be used?


texts: Ways of referring the notion "in a rich way" to colloquial English

texts:
I'm not well-off at all and I decided to spend my vacation "in a rich (big) way", i.e. to indulge in throwing cash around, booking costly apartments, hiring private jets, dining at the first-class restaurants and so on.

I'd like to be in the know about the ways of conveying the idea of "in a rich way" in colloquial English or English spoken in different parts of the world.


texts: What do you call someone who whines about not getting 100% in an exam?

texts: When someone gets a 98% score and complains about it, what do you call them?


texts: Seeking origin (modern etymology) of a new (slang) use of the word "pixelation"

texts: It would appear that a new (abusive) use of the word pixelation has cropped up. Go to YouTube and enter "pixelation" and you will be barraged with a collection of stop-motion animation videos. Can anyone help identify where this new usage started (modern etymology)?


texts: Catchy phrase to express or mean "always in stock/no back orders etc"

texts:
I'm looking for a neat phrase to coin the message of 'we're never out of stock of a product' or 'We always ship all of your order, no back orders' etc.

Best I can come up with so far myself, is, 'Delivered In Full'.


texts:
Which suffix is in the word "precede": -ede or -cede?

I don't have an idea whether -ede or -cede is suffix in the words like precede, intercede, etc.


texts:
As an extension of my interest in Van Gogh’s severed ear from Jeffrey Archer’s “False Impression” that depicted mysterious odyssey of Van Gogh’s self-portrait with bandage on his left ear, I was attracted to read Adam Gopnik’s article titled, Van Gogh’s ear – The Christmas Eve that changed modern art, that appeared in New Yorker magazine (Jan. 4 issue).

In his article, Gopnik introduces Moral Luck (1976), the essay of Bernard Williams on the relationship of Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and their influence on modern art. Not only the title of William’s book, the words Moral luck are repeated four times in the following sentence:

  What Williams didn’t entirely register, though, was that Gauguin isn’t just one artist plucked at random out of time, a desperado in a line stretching back to Pygmalion. He’s not just an instance of moral luck; he is an inventor of moral luck. He is a model modern artist, and modern art is in many ways about moral luck, about the search for it, about raising the stakes to see if it can happen. Modern art makes its own moral luck.

I don’t understand the meaning of Moral luck. I checked the definition of luck with Cambridge Online Dictionary, which defines luck simply as:

  The force that causes things, especially good things, to happen to you by chance and not as a result of your own efforts or abilities. 2. Success.

Oxford Dictionary at hand defines it in the same way as 1. “Good things that happen to you by chance. 2. Chance. Period.”

I cannot even guess the meaning of Moral luck from any of the above definitions. To me, Moral doesn’t seem to sit well with Luck. Can you decode what Moral luck really means?


texts: What is the optional plural form of a word that ends in “‑y”?

texts:
I guess “optional plural” is the correct term.  I’m referring to things like

It can be found at the following location(s).
Please pick up your ticket(s).

But how do I do that to a word that ends in ‑y? Take category for example: “category(s)” doesn’t seem correct, because categorys is a misspelling.  But everything else I have tried looks ridiculous.

What’s the correct approach here?


texts: What definition of "will" is used in sentences like these

texts:
The word will has a lot of definitions as an auxiliary verb, but I can't pin down which definition it uses in sentences like the following:

  Even though the plot was awful, I'll admit that it was fun to watch.
  I'll concede that point, but what about my other argument?
  I will say, though, that I didn't hate the trip.
  Good effort, I'll give you that.

I find it hard to believe that will is being used to indicate future tense here because the quote has already been said and the speaker has no intention of saying it again at a later time.

For example, in "Even though the plot was awful, I'll admit that it was fun to watch," the words "fun to watch" have already been spoken with no intention of repeating them later.


texts: Is the sentence, “He’s too easily prone to pouts and feuds” grammatically right?

texts:
There was the following passage in the New York Times (January 30) article written by Maureen Dowd under the headline “Here’s the beauty of Trump.”:

  “He rejects the idea that he’s too easily swayed by compliments or
  slights, too easily prone to pouts and feuds.

  “Putin said Donald Trump was absolutely brilliant and would win the
  election,” he said. “My rival wanted me to disavow it. The head of
  Russia calls me brilliant and you want me to disavow it? What are you
  smoking?”

I took ‘pout’ and ‘feud’ for verbs after ‘prone to’ off hand, because I'm used to associate "prone" to "be prone to do" usage. Do we need ‘s’ after ‘pout’ and ‘feud’ instead of infinitive form?  Or else, are they nouns in plural form?

Additionally, what does “What are you smoking?” mean? Does it mean “Are you crazy because of smoking marijuana or drug”?


texts:
In that instant, xxx

or

  At that instant, xxx

I know that "at that instant" is the more correct way of saying it, but can "in that instant" work as well?

  At the instant that he jumped...

vs

  In the instant that he jumped...

Would both be correct in that case, if "that" and "the" were switched?


texts: Usage and origin of "sister" in expressions like "sister company, sister ship, sister site" etc

texts:
The term sister is often  used figuratively  to refer, for instance,  to a “sister company” for a company  within the same group, or to a “sister  site” for  sites that belong to the same family. This connotation as explained by the  Cambridge Dictionary means:

  belonging to a pair or group of similar and related things, such as businesses, usually owned or operated by the same person or organization:

  our sister company in Australia.

also, from Collins Dictionary:

  You can use sister to describe something that is of the same type or is connected in some way to another thing you have mentioned.
  ⇒ ...the International Monetary Fund and its sister organisation, the World Bank.
  ⇒ ...Voyager 2 and its sister ship, Voyager 1.

This usage appears to be common with things that are  regarded as feminine and are associated, as if by kinship,  with other similar things that belong to the same group. An early  usage example of this is the "sister" referred to  ships:

  the US battleship Missouri and her sister ship, the Wisconsin.

In other instances,  the "feminine" issue is less explicit as in the case of internet sites, so I guess this usage has to do with the fact that English is less gender specific when it comes to things or abstract entities.

Questions:

Does “sister” apply to whatever entity that belongs to the same group irrespective of its real or perceived gender? or could "brother" be used instead?
Where does this usage come from?


texts: Where vs when - a matter of place or one of... time

texts:
Educated by weaklings, idolators of stigmata, especially fragmentary ones, we belong to a clinical age when only cases count.

This is a quote from E.M. Cioran's book ''All Gall Is Divided'' (translated from French by Richard Howard), and I'm a bit confused because in the original version, that ''when'' is actually ''où'', that means ''where'', and my confusion rises from the question whether or not in English ''where'' is usually used while referring to places, locations, and space in general, with ''when'' being chosen while having time in mind, periods and ages, like in this example ''clinical age''.

For me ''when'' there just sounds odd, and I'd substitute ''where'' for it. Would that be correct, would it be grammatical?


texts:
I'd like to ask what the meaning of these two following sentences is:

I am used to smoking
I get used to smoking

It looks the same to me but what is the reason that we generate verbs by using “get”?


texts: British terms for shopping mall, shopping complex and shopping centre

texts: Is there any differences between shopping mall, shopping centre and shopping complex? Which term is more commonly used for British speakers?


texts: Why did "which" lose its L (it was "hwilch")?

texts:
It appears that the word which originally had an L in its spelling as well as pronunciation. But its modern pronunciation doesn't have an L.
Wikitionary has:

From Middle English which, hwic, wilche, hwilch, whilk, hwilc, from Old English hwelċ (“which”)

One of its Middle English form hwilc's pronunciation is /xwilt͡ʃ/ ([ʍiɫt͡ʃ]).

Its Old English hwelc's pronunciation is /xwelt͡ʃ/ ([ʍeɫt͡ʃ])

[Transcriptions from Wikitionary]

Etymology Dictionary also agrees on hwilc but doesn't explain the loss of the L.
This Google book shows some uses of "hwilc" and also records the spelling hwylc
The change from hw to wh is answered in this question (John Lawler's answer seems reasonable), but I didn't find any related question about the loss of the L.  I also didn't find any other source for it.
Why did it lose the L? Is there a good reason for it or is it a random loss?


texts: Term for 'going back to fight an old war'?

texts:
Is there any phrase that figuratively yet succinctly captures the meaning of 'going back to do something difficult that has been done in the past yet has never been resolved'?
For example, imagine a never-ending debate over some political issue. The two sides have temporarily decided to put the issue on hold but eventually go back at it again (although there is hardly any hope for resolution).
'Going back to fight an old war' (that I mention in the title) seems to be one way to say this.
'Going back to the old trenches' seems to be another.
But I am wondering whether there is an even simpler and perhaps commonly used way to express this in literature/ writing?
Edit:
Clarified that I am looking for a figurative expression and I added an example of a situation that would satisfy the expression.


texts: Why are the first letters in "Generation X" capitalized but those in "baby boom" not capitalized?

texts:
In the dictionary, it indicates that "Generation X" (including "Gen X" and Gen X'er) is capitalized.

Conversely, it indicates "baby boom" (including "baby boomer") is not.

What is the reason for this?


texts:
The killer is still at large.

Where does the meaning of at large (not captured; free) come from? Besides being big I know that large means also wide in range and involving many things. Is there any connection between that meaning and the idiom?


texts:
In the examples below, can 'some' be replaced with 'about', 'around'? And also, are sentences below a correct usage of the word 'some'?

  1) Some hundred people 2) annual production of some 35 million units
  3) In 13 months, I flew to 14 countries and gave some hundred talks 4)
  he found his teen pal some 50 years later5) annual production of some
  35 million units


texts: What does “Mercy within mercy within mercy" mean?

texts:
I saw a lot of articles in these couple of days about Pope Francis’ reflection of his style, influences and priorities as pope in the recent interview with La Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit journal in Rome.

In this interview, the words of Thomas Merton – “Mercy within mercy within mercy," was quoted, which appears in his book, “The Sign of Jonas” as follows:

  "I have always overshadowed Jonas with My mercy, and cruelty I know
  not at all.  Have you had sight of Me, Jonas My child? Mercy within
  mercy within mercy."

I understand it’s hard for non-Christian like me fully understand the meaning (Actually one of writers wrapped up his article by confessing he neither understand exact meaning of this phrase). But I would like to know at least basic implications of this phrase.

What does ‘within’ before ‘mercy’ represent for? If ‘within’ is replaced with ‘and’ with an aim at emphasizing, does it totally miss the point?


texts: How many legitimate uses of "could of" / "would of" / "should of" are there?

texts:
After some bad calls using search/replace, I'm curious how many legitimate forms of "could/would/should of" there are. I'm interested in uses that do not derive from, and cannot be replaced by "could have," "would have," "should have," or their contractions.

One could of course add a few commas to this paragraph to make it easier to read, but I'm not sure that would of necessity be the only correct way to punctuate it. I frequently see constructs like "of itself," "of course," "of her own volition," and so forth in print without being couched in commas.

Still, I wouldn't make as big a deal of that example as I would of this one.

What other legitimate patterns for their use might there be, and are there any foolproof rules for helping identify them? (e.g. Is it safe to say that "would of [verb]" is always wrong?)

Contrary to folk wisdom saying "should of" is always wrong, it's not always wrong. Some well-formed sentences contain "should of" without meaning "should've". I want to feed someone some exceptions to the "it's always wrong" rule, and if the exceptions are rare enough (unlikely, I suppose), a list of all the cases where it's proper to use "should of."


texts: Types of (plural) or types of (singular)?

texts:
Could anyone help me with this sentence, please?

  Weddings and graduations are two types of _______________. (ceremony or ceremonies?)

And also, could anyone explain to me when to use types of (plural) and types of (singular)? e.g.

types of tables or types of table
there are different types of dog(s)

Should it be dogs because we use are? Or is are + types instead of are + dogs?

Thank you!


texts:
I'm stuck on whether it's good style to use a comma to set off a participle by itself from the rest of the main clause:
e.g. Alice walked out of the burning school(,) crying, and joined the crowd of students, teachers, and police officers.
It isn't ambiguous here about whom 'crying' is referring to, which is why I'm wondering if both versions of the sentence are grammatical. However if I did set it off, does the participle need an object, or is it fine being on its own as an adjective modifying Alice?
Also, would it even be fine to write:
e.g. Alice walked out of the burning school, crying. She'd left her backpack containing all of her project notes in the library when she was forced to evacuate.


texts:
I wrote a sentence that I don't know is correct.

  The presence of the doctor after the incident matters to every patient.

I think "after the incident" is used as an adjectival phrase.

But there are phrases like day after tommorow, and day before yesterday...
so, is the sentence I wrote grammatically correct with the adjdctival phrase "after the incident"?

Reason I am asking is because I thought that whiz-deletion was used. And when I try to restore the original version if this sentence, it becomes presence of doctor (which was) after the incident, which sounds nonsensical to me.

Is the whiz-deldtion used, or is  it the product of other grammar structure?


texts: Pause (verb) in 5 minutes or Pause (verb) for 5 minutes

texts: Which one is correct? "Pause in 5 minutes" or "Pause for 5 minutes". I want to use PAUSE as a verb to tell somebody to stop his presentation in order for the listeners to have 5 minutes for discussion. Thank you.


texts: What is gender neutral for fraternity/sorority?

texts:
Is there a gender neutral form for "fraternity/sorority"? How about "brotherhood/sisterhood"?

Example: As in "If mathematicians were to form a fraternity of scholars, as in yet another alpha beta omega club, their hazing rite would be ...". Wikipedia article suggests such organizations are meant to be gender exclusive. So perhaps no words exist to suggest a club of both sexes which otherwise has chracteristics of Greek organizations.


texts:
It didn’t feel any more disjunctive than seeing Suzanne Lenglen rush the net in a full-length dress in say, 1916.

Hey guys! I did not get meaning of "rush the net" exactly. Any idea? Thanks a million.


texts: I'm googled it and cannot find an answer. I'm looking for a single word to describe multi opponent combat or multiple opponent training. Maybe even in the way of a skill. For example, a single person fighting multiple attackers at once. A single word....


texts:
Is is correct to say "I have assigned it to you now"?

To me 'now' and 'I have' seem to be clashing in this context.


texts: Single word/short phrase for 'discussion across ideological/political lines to understand a different point of view'?

texts:
Would there be a single word/short phrase to convey the meaning of 'discussion across ideological/political lines to understand a different point of view'
The type of conversation would be where people with different perspectives enter a conversation with the aim of understanding (as opposed to debating) an opposing viewpoint. A good example of an online forum would be Reddit's r/ChangeMyView.
I was thinking of 'non-partisan discourse', but that would indicate that the discussion itself was based on a common grounds.


texts: Can verb 'grant' be used with preposition 'with?'

texts:
Could someone explain to me if the word 'grant' can be used with 'with' and what it means?
(I checked with many dictionaries, but couldn't find an example used in that way.)

example sentence in an editorial today:

  Russia’s yatra is an opportunity for Kim to grant his country with a multi-dimensional defence and diplomatic perspective and open up to all those who wish to see a more interdependent and proactive communist state across the Armistice line.


texts: If , as John Lawler says, orthography is not part of language, how can these commas interfere with today's discussion about gun control?

texts:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I read an interesting article on The New York Times regarding the punctuation used in the amendment above, which today interfere with gun rights and gun control discussions.
Below I quote what I read in reference to what I'm interested to.

Nelson Lund, a professor of law at George Mason University, argues that everything before the second comma is an “absolute phrase” and, therefore, does not modify anything in the main clause. Professor Lund states that the Second Amendment “has exactly the same meaning that it would have if the preamble had been omitted.”
But, according to the journalist, Professor Lund is correct that the clause about a well-regulated militia is “absolute,” but only in the sense that it is grammatically independent of the main clause, not that it is logically unrelated. To the contrary, absolute clauses typically provide a causal or temporal context for the main clause.

Question is: Under a grammatical perspective is it correct to say that "absolute clauses typically provide a causal or temporal context for the main clause," so that eventually it is untrue that the Second Amendment "has exactly the same meaning that it would have if the preamble had been omitted.”?


texts: what do you call a place where someone thought of an idea?

texts: I'm working on a project about structures and their historical value. I don't need this information, however, I would like to know and/or have it exposed to people that have wondered the same question.


texts:
Eight dollars is the price of a movie these days.

Why dont use ''are''?


texts: Why and when are some clause fragments preferred to full clauses?

texts:
(1) Test complete. [= The test is complete.]
(2) Court adjourned. [= The court is adjourned.]
(3) Apology accepted. [= The apology is accepted.]
(4) Request granted. [= The request is granted.]

I often come across these clause fragments. Native speakers seem to prefer these fragments over full clauses that are shown in the brackets.
Why is that and when are these types of fragments preferred to their full-clause versions?


texts: Just wondering what the origin of this phrase is. When was it first used and by whom?


texts:
I often find myself putting excess commas and brackets (parentheses for all you US English speakers out there) into sentences, in hopes of rendering it more 'readable'.

The trouble is, I am never sure just how much is too much and often need to seek the services of an adjudicator.

However, this time no one could decide: how should the following phrase be punctuated?
Like this, without commas?

  During the Great Depression the Nazi Party gained a lot of popularity because they promised to make Germany great again and there was nothing the German people as a whole wanted more.

Or like this, with only one comma?

  During the Great Depression the Nazi Party gained a lot of popularity because they promised to make Germany great again, and there was nothing the German people as a whole wanted more.

Or like this, with two commas?

  During the Great Depression, the Nazi Party gained a lot of popularity because they promised to make Germany great again, and there was nothing the German people as a whole wanted more.

What option is the most grammatical and readable?


texts: Why 'mention graph' of genuflect is so steep?

texts: Google define genuflect you will got a 'mentions graph' of genuflect. It's very interesting that the graph is very steep while graph of other words, run for example, are very smooth. Any idea why this happens?


texts:
He jumped down, creating a cloud of dust.

I think it's just because the sentence is so short that it looks odd with a comma, but grammatically speaking, that comma is necessary, right?


texts:
Cruise ships can stay in one port for a short time only; which can be a problem if one wants to stay longer.

Can I use a semi-colon in this sentence of two halves?


texts: What do you call a person who goes home early?

texts: I want to use this word for describing a man who doesn't have the habit of stretching his time.


texts: I am looking for another way to say take something to the next level.


texts: What is the grammatical point of "have psychologists developed" instead of "psychologists have developed"

texts:
There was a reading test for my university entrance exam which contained this sentence: "Only in the past hundred years, though, have psychologists developed objective techniques" with "have psychologists developed" blanked and mangled as selections. The source is here if you google it.

My Question is about the grammatical tricky point of this form, why not saying "psychologists have developed".


texts:
I often hear folks say in behalf of instead of on behalf of, which sets my teeth on edge.

Which preposition is correct here, in or on?


texts: What would be the correct term for the recipient who's, "in care of" something for someone else

texts: This is usually seen when a letter is sent to someone but the abbreviation, c/o is used to indicate that it should be, in care of someone else. Just need a more formal term for a project I'm working on.


texts: Unnecessary pronouns: "The President he issued..."

texts:
Is it now considered acceptable to follow a proper noun ... or any noun ... with a pronoun? E.g.

  The President he issued a new executive order.


texts: What does someone not good at "faking cheer” mean?

texts:
There was the following passage in New Yorker's (March 25) article titled "A bad day in American-Israeli relations:

  “I talk to him all the time. He is representing his country’s
  interests the way he thinks he needs to, and I’m doing the same. This
  can’t be reduced to a matter of, somehow, let’s all hold hands and
  sing ‘Kumbaya.’ ” Obama has made this case before, in other
  contexts—for example, in response to complaints that, if he only drank
  more with Boehner, the Republicans would never shut down the
  government. He is not good at faking cheer, and, in this case,
  Netanyahu is not good at nurturing it in him.”

I think I can guess what “faking cheer” means by the context of the above sentence, but am not sure. Does it mean President isn’t very sociable? What is the exact translation of someone who is not good at faking cheer?

Google Ngram indicates that the words,"fake cheer" came into use in / around 1980 and is fast growing in its usage. Does it pass as a common turn of phrase today?


texts: I'm creating an application for the iPhone where the user has the ability to star an item, i.e. adding a star to the item. Now I am wondering whether I can also use unstar? Or should I go with something different - if so, what?


texts:
Should/can "native English speaker" be hyphenated?

"Native English speaker" vs. "Native English-speaker"


texts:
I've encountered a particular type of writing occasionally and it being, derp, in writing, it's hard to tell whether there's an accent behind it. The English used seems to me to be simply incorrect, but I can't help but feel that the following features are part of a dialect or a regional style of English.
One of the most glaring (and grating) features is the substitution of "saw" with "seen".

He seen him at the shop the other day.
I seen that you were looking for...
etc.

The use of "away (to)" is also peculiar, if not incorrect.

He was away to open the door when...
He was away to get what he had asked for.
etc.

I haven't come across these forms very often, and even then it was accompanied by otherwise mostly correct English, which is what makes me wonder what the hell. This is more intellectual curiosity than anything else.


texts: Does this sentence make sense? Correct use of the word constitute?

texts:
I was pretty sure this made sense but then I looked up the dictionary meaning of the word constitute and I wasn't so sure?

By continuing to use the website and/or the Services you constitute that you agree to
these new terms of use.


texts: Present Perfect and Past Simple in the this statement

texts:
I have a doubt concerning the following statement. Talking about the story of a family, which of the following statements is correct:

My aunt has found a new job in Melbourne so they moved there.
My aunt found a new job in Melbourne so they moved there.

As the fact of finding a job has effect on the present, I would say the first one is correct. On the other hand, there is a mismatch between the two tenses. Can you suggest which statement is correct?
Thanks


texts:
I partially understand based on the background and context, but I've never seen it used this way before.

Can someone provide the full meaning of carpeted in this context and also tell me if it is a new usage or something old and obscure.

From the news article: Joe Hockey carpets Liberal leaders

  OPPOSITION Treasury spokesman Joe
  Hockey yesterday carpeted Liberal
  Party leakers for undermining the
  opposition's bid to secure government.

  Mr Hockey condemned talk of leadership
  divisions stoked last week by a leaked
  email from chief whip Warren Entsch
  rebuking former leader Malcolm
  Turnbull.

  "I would say to people they should put
  their ambitions for the nation ahead
  of their own ambitions," Mr Hockey
  said.


texts:
I recently had to thank my hosts and said, "Thank you for the host-age." 'host-age' is obviously my own coinage and if one were to stick to the dictionaries, it is incorrect, as hostage means something entirely different.

Could someone provide me with a crisp alternative in "Thank you for the _"


texts:
Is it possible to use general "is" contractions with regular nouns?
Like "The car's white", or "everyone I know's cool". It seems like this could be a logical extensions of the normal rules of contractions, and informally online I find myself typing these out.


texts:
The British informal word for a child.

  I couldn't get any work done because the sprogs were running riot.

ODO has the following:

  1940s (originally services' slang): perhaps from obsolete sprag 'lively young man', of unknown origin

Anyone got any more on this?


texts:
I can't quite understand how to make a syntactic analysis of the following sentence:

  He decided that he would make sure that their promise came true.


texts:
The article "Jaw Implant"

  Fortunately, plastic surgery solves the lack of a properly sized jaw with the use of jaw implants, which augment the look of a patient’s jaw to create the proper proportions needed to have a beautiful face.

As the dictionaries state, "address" means that one begins to deal with a problem while "solve" indicates the removal of a problem.

If I changed "solve" to "address", how would the sense change in this text? Can't they be interchangeable here?


texts: Name for Jewish black suit and hat costume?

texts: Is there a name for the black suit and brimmed hat (Google Images) worn by some Jewish men? It is not mentioned in Jewish religious clothing (Wikipedia).


texts: What is it called when an interjection is inserted inside another word?

texts:
Typically (as far as I can think), the interject is something vulgar.

For example:

Radio-bloody-active (from an episode of Family Guy)
Ri-god-damn-diculuous
Un-fucking-believable"

What is the word for this construct?


texts: Do prepare for the presentation. Is this a correct phrase?

texts: Any suggestions? The actual message is "Please have a look on the presentation that I have uploaded on Dropbox. Please do prepare for the presentation".


texts: Parse: "of neither of which having any distinct perception at all can I have any idea of its essence"

texts:
This article introduced me to the
source: Point 6, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Chapter XXXI, Of Adequate and Inadequate Ideas by John Locke.

The particular parcel of matter which makes the ring I have on my finger is forwardly by most men supposed to have a real essence, whereby it is gold; and from whence those qualities flow which I find in it, viz. its peculiar colour, weight, hardness, fusibility, fixedness, and change of colour upon a slight touch of mercury, &c.
This essence, from which all these properties flow, when I inquire into it and search after it, I plainly perceive I cannot discover: the furthest I can go is, only to presume that, it being nothing but body, its real essence or internal constitution, on which these qualities depend, can be nothing but the figure, size, and connexion of its solid parts;
of1 neither of which
having any distinct perception at all2
can I have any idea of its3  essence: which is the cause that it has that particular shining yellowness; a greater weight than anything I know of the same bulk; and a fitness to have its colour changed by the touch of quicksilver.

1. To what noun does  of1 refer?
2. Where does 2 (an absolute clause) belong?
3. Confronted with so many nouns, how do you decide the antecedent of its3?


texts:
From this question, here is a quote from The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist by Conan Doyle, published in 1903:

  The landlord further informed me that there are usually week-end visitors—‘a warm lot, sir’—at the Hall, and especially one gentleman with a red moustache, Mr. Woodley by name,

Lexico says the word 'lot' is derogatory in British English:

  informal treated as singular or plural A particular group or set of people or things.

  ‘it's just one lot of rich people stealing from another’
  ‘he will need a second lot of tills to handle the second currency’

  1.1 British with adjective A group of a specified kind (used in a derogatory or dismissive way)
  ‘an inefficient lot, our Council’

The additional examples given by Lexico are predominantly you lot, us lot, that lot, &c., or else are made derogatory by the surrounding sentence.

I am BrE, and understand the Doyle quote to be informal perhaps, but generally jovial and not really derogatory.

I would agree that the dictionary quote, 'an inefficient lot', is derogatory - this I feel is mainly because of the adjective: a pleasant lot, for example is not.

Is this a case of context in each case, or has the expression 'an adjective lot' become derogatory more recently?

Things that would answer this question:

A comparison of older and more recent texts either proving or disproving my surmise.
A reputable authority's opinion on this.


texts:
I was writing an email yesterday which was about a rough draft of doc to be reviewed by a peer. There was just one part of the document which I thought needed improvisation.
What I wrote is →  "The only lack I feel is  ...."
After I sent the email, I realized the same sentence could have been framed better like this → "The only thing lacking in my perspective ..."
Although I try to avoid using the word "thing" within formal emails, I felt in this particular scenario, using the word "thing" would suit the purpose.
Would someone kindly appraise me if the sentence which I framed, "The only lack I feel is  ...." is grammatically correct or not?
Also, is the second sentence "The only thing lacking in my perspective ..." a correct fit to put forth my idea, or can it be framed better?
Any suggestions would be gratefully reciprocated _ /\ _


texts:
Is it state's secrets or state secret?

I am always confused when I try to put " 's " to things .

I have read answers about use of the possessive apostrophe but I am not sure whether this should be:

  state's secrets

  or

  state secrets

I think that the state does own secrets and I think  that the first one is right, is it? And please, I need a clear explanation for this.


texts:
I'm translating a text about electrocardiography (ECG) into English, and I can't think of an antonym for the word "rationed" or "portioned". For context, the sentence contrasts "rationed" physical activity ("rationed" in this context meaning limited by/through measurement, as in: physical activity where the person's heart rate cannot exceed a certain number), and "unrationed" physical activity, which is a simple 2-minute run. What word would you use in place of "unrationed"? Or can I use it, and it will be understood?

Other options I have come up with through research are unlimited, unrestricted, unmeasured and free. I found the term "free run" in the context of electrocardiography, but not "free physical activity".

(I'm only offering the word "rationed" for explanation and did not actually use it in the translation.)


texts: Does this sentence remain grammatically correct?

texts:
If I change this sentence

We could not communicate through the
phone.

to

Through the phone, we could not
communicate.

Does it still remain grammatically correct? Is it OK like that? What's the difference?


texts: Over the phone: "I know who that is" vs "I know who this is"

texts:
My dad is reading the novel Once Gone and there are several paragraphs as follows:

To her relief, Bill's voice came over the phone.
"Hello," he said.
Riley's heart jumped. She didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified to hear his voice.
"Bill, this is Riley," she said.
"I know who this is," Bill replied.

What we (my dad and I) learned was we should say "I know who that is," not "who this is."

Although I can't tell why, I feel "I know who this is" is also correct. It sounds like "who this is" focuses on the speaker (in this case, Bill). Although Riley was on the other end, when Bill was holding and talking to the phone in his hand, he was imagining the phone to be the representative of Riley. Because the phone was on Bill's side, it was OK for him to say "who this is".

So my questions are:

In most cases, do native speakers still say "I know who that is"?
Is it OK to say "who this is"?


texts: What is the best word for a menu item on a website for a page that shows how to get to the company offices?

texts:
On a company website one usually has a page which tells customers how to get to the company offices.

In German, the word for this menu tab is "Anreise" but both standard translations sound odd in English:

Arrival
Journey

What is a one-word menu title for such a menu item? The only one I can think of is:

Location

What is the best English translation in this context for Anreise?


texts: I want to title something based on Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent. The text would be about a movement that uses social media to fight against main stream media's attempt to manipulate information. Would "de-manufacturing consent" make sense? Other words that would convey the same idea and still reference the book title?


texts: Is the use of Simple Past correct in "Although I didn't study for the test, I got a good grade"?

texts:
As both actions refer to the past, shouldn't we use Past Perfect to refer to the action that happened first (or rather didn't happen in this particular case)? That is, I am thinking the appropriate sentence should be:

  Although I hadn't studied for the test, I got a good grade.

Am I wrong? Why?


texts: With all this I don't see the answer to which is the correct form "He rolled up his pant legs" or "he rolled up his pants legs."


texts:
I've just received a letter where the person says: "If you are interested in, I will be pleasured to tell you more about it."

Is this passive voice, insinuating that there is a 3rd subject that will pleasure her? Or is this a legitimate way of saying that she will feel happy to tell me more about it. Also if the first case is so, does that mean that her telling me about it is actually conditioned about her being pleasured?


texts: Is using "eager beaver" completely benign?

texts:
Person A uses the phrase "eager beaver" to mean an enthusiastic person. Person B chuckles. Basically my question boils down to who the weirdo is, so to speak:

A, because "eager beaver" is outdated and the sexual connotations are too strong to hope that one should understand the "normal" meaning
B, because "eager beaver" is a perfectly benign phrase with no sexual meanings whatsoever. Anyone who sees sexual connotations in this phrase is simply being immature.


texts: Adjective to describe a "friend from a long time ago"?

texts:
I you I: "My older friends didn't come either." It could mean a) my friends from a long time ago b) my friends that are older than me.

Is there an adjective that removes this ambiguity?


texts:
When I watch TV drams or movies, I sometimes come across the expressions “I got it” and “You got it” meaning “I will do as you ask”. I am wondering if there is any semantic or pragmatic differences between them. I think that “You got it” is often used when a man accepts the order from the boss. Is my guess correct?

  Hotchner: Take pictures as many as you can.
  El: You got it.
  — Criminal Minds, S1E2 (00:14:36)

  Mrs. Crawford: I would like a tiny bit of help, Mr. Crawford.
  Mr. Crawford: You got it, Mrs. Crawford.
  — Criminal Minds, S1E7 (00:00:52)

  Cole: Get me out there!
  Crewman: I got it.
  — Days of Thunder (01:37:56)

  SIMON: It has a proximity circuit, so, please, don't run.
  McClane: Yeah, I got it.
  — Die Hard with a Vengeance (01:00:17)

  Beaver: Jonesy, don't try to lift that stuff.
  Henry: I got it.
  — Dream Catcher (00:14:00)


texts:
The context is "Then there are those people who come to it who have had enough of the trauma of abuse, who have tried ‘everything’ to heal but to no avail– and who would be willing to bang two fishes above their head if they thought it might help!"

What does "bang two fishes above their head" mean? Is it an Australian slang? Because the author is Australian. Thanks a lot.


texts: Combining two sentence in one while ensuring grammar errors are not present

texts:
Since English is my second language, I have been trying to wrap my head around the subheading I am writing.

I feel like it would be better written if it was divided into multiple sentence, but I was hoping that the following sentence communicates well enough so i don't have to break it up and further elaborate.

  NAME is a community that helps each other code better by rating each
  other's efforts and helps managers pair with other fellow developers

Could anyone confirms that the above sentence makes grammatical sentence or would I need to break it up?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Is there any idiom or expression that would imply " It is hard to argue against such rationale"?

texts:
Is there any idiom, expression or saying that would imply "this is a rational idea and there is no room to dispute, so one has no choice but to accept it" (i.e. "It is hard to argue against such rationale")?

I have found "if the cap/ shoe fits، wear it", but it seems that it can be used in situations when that discussing (rational) idea is an acceptable criticism, so I don't know if I can use it also for all other rationally acceptable ideas or not.

I want to use it in:

  James and Alex were arguing over a hot political issue, but after 50 minutes of continous discussion, James told Alex something which seemd so rational that Alex had no choice but to accept it, so Alex ended their discussion/ argument by saying:

"Okay, you're totally right, ___(= I can't argue with that, because it is rational and makes sense to me).


texts: Is telling someone to wait basically the same as telling them to stop? And the other way around?

texts:
I know that stop can be a synonym for wait,btw. I know telling someone to wait means for someone to pause until a certain time. But telling someone to stop just means the person has to pause without a defined amount of time to resume (I hope this makes me sound smart haha). Here are some examples:

"Wait! I want to tell you more."

Would it be the same saying-

"Stop! I want to tell you more. "

I want to note, that I am a native speaker. I'm just a curious person and a thinker. :-)


texts: What are the effects of the passive voice other than changing emphasis?

texts: As this excellent answer points out, the passive voice can change the emphasis of a sentence from the subject to an object. That seems to be its primary function: this other answer provides an example of how the passive voice is used in academia to draw emphasis away from the author of a paper and towards the paper's findings. However, are there any effects of using the passive voice other than changing the focus of the sentence? If so, what are they?


texts: When someone says "I'll make due" what does it mean?


texts:
Is 'Regards by' term correct when we end an e-mail.
I have seen ending mail using "With Regards, Warm Regards, Regards" but 'Regards by' seems somewhere wrong, please correct me if I am.


texts: Is "my something of choice" the same as "something of my choice"?

texts: Would like to know if it's wrong to use "my something of choice"? Does the phrase have the same meaning as "something of my choice"?


texts: Open and closed final syllables in multisyllabic words

texts: Can a 2-syllable word have two open syllables?  Essentially, can the final syllable of a 2+ syllable word be open?  I know that an open syllable is one where it ends with a long vowel sound and does not have a consonant to "close" it in.  However, I have not been able to find out whether a final syllable that ends in "y" in a multisyllabic word (which would obviously make a long vowel sound) is open or closed.  For example, the word "trophy"...are both syllables open, or is the second syllable closed because it technically ends in a consonant (even though the "y" is acting as a vowel)?


texts:
What is the meaning of "candy striper" in the following paragraph?

  Samuel Beckett gets all the credit for being the darkest playwright — fail, fail again, etc. — but compared to Edward Albee, Beckett’s a candy striper. In Three Tall Women, Albee demonstrates that when it comes to death and dying, he’s as unflinching as the ward’s oldest hand, and a good deal more expressive.

(from a review on independent.com)

I consulted a number of dictionaries and found out that "candy striper" actually means "a young volunteer worker at a hospital," but I don't think this meaning applies to the word in the above paragraph.


texts: can the term "is when" be used in grammatically correct wtriting?

texts: I am trying to learn whether using the phrase "is when" ever grammatically correct in writing.


texts: What is the best way to avoid using 'people' in writing?

texts:
I feel like the word 'people' has become more and more trite from being over used unprofessionally, and doesn't really deliver its intended meaning.

For instance:

  "I often find it necessary to assert to people the fact that English has just become a second language for her."

There are no suitable synonyms for it either -- I've checked everywhere.

Is there any way to rewrite the sentence above?
Any suggestions on an alternative would be appreciated.


texts: "He acted expectedly" is correct, but is "He acted expected" also correct?

texts:
For some reason, I doubt the second form. I would rather use the first one. Googling for acted expectedly and acted expected shows that only the former is used.

But expected is an adjective, just like strange and disorganized, and it feels okay to say He acted strange and He acted disorganized.

Is there a rule that guides which adjective compliments act can take? Is this perhaps because expected has the adverb counterpart expectedly?


texts: Why does "not a one" sound incorrect, but "not a single one" sounds okay?

texts: To me, not a one sounds incorrect, but not a single one sounds okay. Is there any grammar to support why my ears weep at the sound of the former phrase, but not the latter?


texts: What is the female version of "forefather"?

texts: I might say "My forefathers were Irish".  Is there an equivalent for mothers?  Could a woman say "My foremothers were German"?


texts: Why is "romaji" so frequently spelt as "romanji"?

texts:
Why is the word "romaji" so frequently (mis-)spelt by a fairly large number of people (including past-self) as "romanji"?

I tried searching for "misspelt "romanji"", but mainly got hits about things written in romaji being misspelt, not about the word "romaji" being misspelt.


texts: Word/phrase for something that succeeds in first attempt

texts:
You are a creator. You are fearless. Though you lack expertise at the moment, your work has the ability to be decent most of the time. You tinker, you fail. You keep failing and start seeing the light.

There are moments, though sometimes short lived, where you create a masterpiece and it becomes an instant hit. A wild hit, where your inner self knows it has a hit in the pocket.

This can be a photograph, a dish or an ingenious solution to a difficult problem.

How would you define such moments? Is there a phrase or a word to describe this situation?


texts: Is "chutzpah" used by non-Jewish English speakers?

texts:
Chutzpah is a term common to both Hebrew and Yiddish, and has been imported into English, at least for Jews. It means approximately audacity, nerve, insolence.

Is chutzpah also used by non-Jewish English speakers?

I think I have only seen it once outside of Jewish publications / communities.


texts:
Verity and veracity have similar spellings and meanings. Why?

What exactly is the difference between them that warrants the need for these two separate words?


texts: Simple present exercise - Rohan and Sania - Is the subject considered plural?

texts:
I'm doing a simple present tense exercise, but I've come across a problem.

Rohan and Sania_______(like) to play card games.

Being native speaker I know that 'like' sounds (and probably is) correct. However, when I was looking at the rules for simple present tense it says that if the subject is singular noun or pronoun then the verb ends in -s. Are Rohan and Sania considered singular nouns? If so, should 'like' not end in -s?


texts: Is it wrong to say "I work at a hospital" if I mean that I work in a specific hospital unknown to the person I am talking to? How is it different from the more common "I work at the hospital"?


texts: Short way of stating the 'amount of time the player spent playing the game'

texts:
I'm developing a timer application that keeps track of duration of board game and also time spent by each player. I'm not sure how I can in a short form mark this time on the charts and in other places.

Should it be "player time" or "player play duration" - the latter being quite long for the chart axis title. Or maybe something else?

I appreciate any help.


texts:
Given a particular idea, is there any scientific word, or an elegant way to describe in once sentence, that I am pretty sure there is no method not based on this particular idea? For example, when writing a scientific paper, I am pretty sure I read every paper on the topic, and there is no mention of any other idea for a method, how would I then write:

  All methods to date are probably based on idea xyz.

or

  To the best of knowledge, all methods to date are based on idea xyz.

I find above sentences to sound like I didn't have the motivation to search long enough or just didn't care.


texts: Provide a paraphrase for the following quotation from “Where are Humans’ Close Cousins?”

texts:
What does this quote mean?

“For the disappearance of our close relatives, we should consider another potential culprit: our ancestors.”


texts:
Suppose that I bought an old house, and changed walls and windows, repainted the house, used new wallpaper, bought new sofa, table, etc...
For this kind of thing, which word is more appropriate, "decoration" or "remodel" or "upgrade"?


texts: Re: Subject + verb ("intended") + infinitive phrase. Could the phrase function as an adverb (vs. direct object)?

texts:
First, to save time and effort, I do understand simple explanations such as this (owl.purdue.edu):

  We intended to leave early.

  The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb
  intended.

  to leave (infinitive)

  early (adverb)

But I can't imagine how an infinitive phrase following the verb intended could function as anything other than a direct object.

I don't see the difference between that example and this one (grammar.yourdictionary.com):

  Joshua intended to write a novel during his sabbatical. (modifying
  the verb "intended")

This example is listed under Used as Adverbs. There is a discussion at the bottom of the page:

  Q: Joshua intended: Doesn’t the infinitive answer what?

  A: It answers when--read the rest of the phrase!

I realize that no one should rely on any online discussion (or dictionary) for grammar tips, but I think I'm missing something in this case (perhaps the big picture).

As I mentioned, I don't see the difference, so I would break it down like this:

  Joshua intended to write a novel during his sabbatical.

  The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb intended.

  to write (infinitive)

  a novel (direct object, infinitive's own)

  during his sabbatical (adverbial PP; when to write)

Questions

Is that breakdown accurate (at least traditionally), and if not, would you point out my errors (or major issues), please?

Also, from the title, could the verb intended (or any transitive verb, if you wish to elaborate) be followed by an adverbial infinitive phrase (or clause) versus one that functions as a direct object?

Thank you.


texts: I'm trying to find an abbreviated statement/word for "reminds me of" in my following sentence:   - this reminds me of my life motto, which is "there but for the grace of God go I".


texts: Specific meaning of term "nail-biters" in context of mid-1970s America

texts:
The phrase in question revolves around a rather odious quote, so I beseech all reading to please suppress your political leanings and focus instead on the meanings of the phrases employed.

In around 1977, Anita Bryant, singer and vocal celebrity advocate of the "Save our Children" campaign aimed at curtailing the freedoms of American LGBT citizens, stated:

  "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters."

My fascination focuses on the last part of her sentence - what on earth constitutes a "nail-biter"? Surely Anita Bryant didn't hate onychophagists quite that much?


texts:
Do I need a comma after the speech tag?

"Tell me about it," he said, as he climbed the stairs.

"Come here," Danny repeated, when his wife didn't move.

I use them if there's a present participle after:

"Why won't you let me pass?" he yelled, punching his math teacher in the face.

But are there more rules for when I must use them or when I shouldn't


texts: Is there a difference between "continual" and "continuous"?

texts:
They are very close in meaning, I know, but I want to know if there are any subtle differences.  Let me give you an example of a subtle difference in meaning between synonyms:

  Deceitful vs. deceptive

At first glance, these seem to be perfect synonyms.  However, in putting them into sentences, one finds a pattern - deceitful is almost always used of persons, and deceptive is always used of situations or things.  So the "perfect" synonyms cannot always replace each other.

My question is: is there a similar subtle difference between continuous and continual?


texts:
My question is when you do the so+adj+that structure, do you have to remove the pronoun ? Like in this example, should i leave 'it' out?

The milk is very hot. The baby can't drink it now.
--> The milk is so hot that the baby can't drink it now.

Please tell me if the transformation above is correct or not. Thanks in advance and sorry for the bad English.


texts:
What is the meaning of this expression in the following contexts?

1.    “I think we have too many clothes on Sammy.”  Sam nodded and pushed Dean off of him, shucking his pants as quickly as he could, Dean getting undressed hurriedly right in front of him.  Sam watched him hungrily as Dean's body was revealed to him, and Sam reached out and pulled Dean to him, their naked bodies finally pressing against each other, all hot skin and needy hands.
Dean grinned as big as you please as he touched his forehead to Sam's.  “Whatcha gonna do with that mouth of yours Sammy?”

2. I'll never forget how Petey looked, setting up there on that stool as big as you please. She was flirtin' with that guy for all she was worth. She pulled out that ...

3. “Men,” it said in bold letters as big as you please. Damn. She had walked straight into the men's room. How utterly embarrassing. She turned and fled into the ...

4. From rowdy Creole and Cajun feasts to romantic dinners with sparkling wines, you can go as big as you please (but we hope you have your dinner ressies for ...

From what I can understand, this makes no sense, at least to me, with a literal meaning. So this might be an idiom. In the forth context it seems that it means "as you please". Although they all seem to have different meanings.


texts: "I have a friend VISITING me." Participle vs entire Direct Object Clause

texts:
"I have a friend visiting me." Which part of speech is "visiting" specifically?

Even if "a friend visiting me" is an entire direct object clause, what is the breakdown:

Is "visiting" a participle?
Is "me" a direct object of visiting (since friend, the original direct object, is engaging in a transitive verb)?
Or is "visiting me" an adjectival phrase? (i.e. "a friend [who is] visiting me")

Additionally.. "I have a friend visiting."

Is "visiting" still the same as above, but simply omitting the presumptive me? Or does this change anything?

I understand that "I have a visiting friend." would involve a clear participle.

Edit: I have a friend visiting. (The word "visiting" is a participle. Which though not a part of speech per se, functions as an adjective.)

I have a friend visiting me. (The words "visiting me" form a participial phrase. Very similar to an adjectival phrase in the sense that it functions as an adjective and modifies friend. The word "me" would indeed be a direct object nested in the participial phrase.)


texts:
"Unlike my specific ancestry, he is a biracial individual with roots in Asia and in U.S."

I'm having trouble especially in the first section, where I am trying to show that my friend's background is different from mine. I also have to be formal, and not use any conversational language.
Any suggestions to make this a clearer and better sentence?

Thanks!


texts: Studying vocabularies, I am very confused about the meaning of those words. In the view of a learner, those seem very similar to me, but I cannot find the relation of them. Is there any relationship between those words, or they have independent meanings?


texts:
henpecked [hen-pekt]
adjective
1. browbeaten, bullied, or intimidated by one's wife, girlfriend, etc.:
a henpecked husband who never dared to contradict his wife.

What is the wife of a henpecked husband called? (word or phrase) (in regards to her browbeating/bullying, her husband)

It might not be henpecker since henpecked seems to have the etymology of "pecked by the hen".

Sample sentence:

  That woman is a henpecker.


texts:
I grew up thinking this word was pronounced HALK-YON, having learned it from books and never hearing someone speak it.  I recently heard somebody mention it for the first time, and they pronounced it HAL-SEE-ON.

Any insights?  Wiktionary says maybe it is Latin for kingfisher.


texts: How would I call a surface of equal energy?

texts:
There are already several terms I know to denote surfaces on which a certain quantity is constant:

equipotential surface: a surface of equal potential energy
isobaric surface: a surface of equal pressure

How would I denote a surface of equal energy without falling back on equi-energy surface?


texts: Is “bescumber” transitive or intransitive?

texts:
Behold!

Did my lawn mower bescumber my neighbor's fence (transitive), or did it bescumber on my neighbor's fence (intransitive)?

Or should I switch to passive voice and say my neighbor's fence was bescumbered by my lawn mower, and avoid awkward questions?

Indeed, is it possible to avoid awkward questions at all when discussing bescumbering?

I realize to bescumber does not typically involve grass clippings, but I wanted to keep my post reasonably family friendly.


texts: Is there a linguistic term for the phrases, which describe a noun, with subjective value (below)

texts:
a pitted excuse for a road
a big bear of a man
a gigantic furious beast of a man
a wisp of a boy/girl


texts:
I have a question about scientific English. I wonder when to use the article "the" when you refer to a physical quantity or to a formula. I promise that I have looked into so many manuals, but I am still terribly puzzled.

As I compared many textbooks and scientific articles, let's start from the cases I am sure about.

One always reads:

"the function f(x) is defined as ..."
"the functions f(x) and g(x) are defined as ..."

but, on the other hand, one (almost) always reads:

"Point A is defined as ..."

"Points A and B are defined as ..."

Now, both "point" and "function" are countable nouns and, moreover, by saying "f(x)" and "A" you refer to a specific function or point.
So, why do I use "the" in one case and zero article in another?

Another puzzling case is uncountable nouns such as "conductance" or "energy". You, basically, can find whatever situation. I take the next examples from the same article written by native English-speakers (and supposedly corrected by a language polishing service):

"the values of conductance are..."
"the dependence of the conductance at the neutrality point is..."
"The conductance G(E) is determined in a standard way..." (notice the attribute G(E))

Can you help me to rationalize all this?

Finally, when you refer to a Figure/Table/Section/Equation/Chapter you always use zero article:

"As seen in equation 5 ..."
"..., which was shown in Section 3 ..."
etc.

Am I right?


texts: Issue with the subject-verb agreement in the nonrestrictive clause?

texts:
Reading was very important to John's parents, both of them firsts in their families to go to college.

Is the nonrestrictive/relative clause "both of them firsts in their families to go to college" correct and has correct punctuation?

Or should it be "both of them being the firsts in their families to go to college"?

Should it be "first" instead of "firsts"; what rule governs it?

Another example:
X and Y are the firsts in this town to do Z

edit: fixed; posted the other Q separately.


texts:
What is the difference between replicable and reproducible?

I want to know which word should be used to indicate whether a technical problem or error can be repeated by following a defined set of steps.

However, when I google for the difference between these two terms, I get lengthy articles discussing these terms in a scientific context.


texts:
As title says: Is there difference between acne and pimples?

As far as I know "acne" is skin condition, meaning that there are number of various "pimple" types on and under the skin.


texts: Is 'below-listed' a word & if yes can it be used with a noun to indicate its position

texts:
Is 'below-listed' a word & if yes can it be used this way?

"The below-listed information is for guidance purposes & might change with time, so read the T&Cs attached with the product at the time of ordering for the current information"


texts:
Not sure if this is the right place to ask on, but it's been bothering me for a while now. Do you still make a dark L before consonants like W, Y.
For example - I'm all yours tonight. Will the L in "all" be a dark L?


texts: Using or replacing "fixed" as in placed firmly, without causing confusion or making the sentence longer

texts:
I'm translating a punch list into English and wondering if "fixed" in sentences would cause confusion.

For example, the sentence in the original language is

  Some devices are not fixed.

, whose actual meaning is

  Some devices are not fixed (firmly) to the rack.

, not

  Some devices are not repaired.

With the context I guess readers would know what "fixed" means in the sentence, but I cannot be so sure. Then, I don't want to make the sentence too long to elaborate.

So, how should I use "fix" in those sentences or other words to replace it with?


texts: The guy sits in in meetings or The guy sits in meetings.

texts:
Which is correct?

Using:

sitting in; to attend as a guest.

How about:

The guy sits in in a meeting. vs The guy sits in a meeting.


texts:
Which of the following is correct, and why?

I was an atheist till I realized I was God.
I was an atheist till I realized I am God.

Quite a few individuals have pointed out the ummm..., role of God in the sentence. The reason is simple. I bought a T Shirt which had (or has ? I guess it is had) the phrase printed on it ("was God") and go around wearing it. Some guys pointed out that it should be "am". I have always felt "was" was better.


texts: "We make an identity for ourselves" or "We make identities for ourselves?"

texts:
“We make an identity for ourselves”

or

“We make identities for ourselves?”

Which one is better? Why?


texts: Are there specific terms for "point up" and "point down" pentagram?

texts:
Pentagrams can have virtually any orientation but the two most common are "point up":

And "point down":

Is there a more appropriate term used to distinguish between these two variants?


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?

  I have someone like you to rescue me.

According to my knowledge it should mean that the speaker is referring to someone who he has, and he believes that that someone will rescue him. So it implies that action of rescuing will be done by the person speaker is referring to.


texts: Having the best of both worlds (i.e. methods)

texts:
I want a phrase for the main title of my academic poster for a general audience.

Context: "In microbiology, our proposed [method Z] combines the [advantages] of [established methods X and Y]."

Some ideas from Alternative colloquialism for "Best of both worlds"? are:

"best of both worlds" - I don't want any allusions to Hannah Montana

"kill two birds with one stone" - not good for this context, sounds too violent

Any other suggestions?


texts: A word that means beneficial for the individual or few but bad for everyone if everyone is doing it?

texts:
I came across this word/concept when reading a philosophical book but I cannot remember where.
It basically means if only a few people do something its ok, but if everyone does it it becomes bad for everyone.

For example a good fishing hole.  If only I or a few others go there, everyone benefits.  If everyone goes then there are no fish and everyone loses.

The word has a meaning to do with reaching some tipping point.  If a few are firemen, that's great, but if everyone was a fireman that's bad as nothing else will get done.


texts: When describing something's colour, would you hyphenate the words? Eg, "blood-red" versus "royal blue"

texts:
Generally, as a rule, I always hyphenate words to make them into a single adjective, so I've been putting "blood-red", "forest-green", "royal-blue" and the like, but the moment I typed "royal-blue", my instincts kicked in.

It didn't look right to me. Perhaps it's because this is an official colour or the fact that the word "royal" is unrelated to blue, but I'm not sure.

What do you guys think?

P.S. I'm using British English, if that helps.


texts: Is there a word that encompasses the tobacco, cannabis, vaping and alcohol industries?

texts: I'm trying to start a website that shows jobs in the more "shunned" industries like smoking or alcohol but I'm having a hard time thinking of a word that sums up all of them. Is there a word for these industries?


texts: Why doesn't the verb need to have "s" in this sentence?

texts:
He has never seen his mother make a cake.

Why is make correct? I got corrected because I wrote makes.

Why isn't "He has never seen his mother makes a cake" a correct sentence?


texts:
Which is the correct way of saying this in English?

  I haven't got any money.
  I don't have any money.

If both are correct, which is the difference between them?


texts:
When two nouns are combined, the stress is usually on the first noun, as in MILK bottle, DOG house, DOORknob, and POTATO salad.  However, if the first noun denotes a place, the stress seems to be on the second, as in kitchen LIGHT, Osaka STREETS, and city GOVERNMENT.  Time also seems to have this effect, as in morning NEWSPAPER.  Why is this so?  Is there any comprehensive rule to tell which noun is stressed when I meet a new noun-noun phrase?

What confused me recently is how I should pronounce university names.  Most university names consist of a non-place, proper noun + university, as in Harvard University.  Some university names have a place noun in their name, as in New Castle University, or in Tokyo University.  Where should I put a stress when I pronounce these university names?  Should I say HARVARD University, and Tokyo UNIVERSITY?


texts: Are meals classified by time slot or sequence?

texts: I've heard that breakfast is the first meal of the day, but I have also heard it is a meal in the morning. Lunch I understand to be the meal that takes place between eleven and one. Assuming I do not eat anything until eleven, when I finally eat, is it considered breakfast because it is the first meal of the day, or is it lunch because it takes place during lunch's time slot?


texts: Word for towering, but in the other direction

texts:
I could be standing at the bottom of a canyon, and admiring a towering cliff face.

  I had slowly crept to the edge of the cliff and was now staring into a ____ abyss.


texts:
Is it appropriate to say that the person I'm having a conversation with is my
conversation-partner, or do I have to say conversational partner? And if "conversation-partner" is Ok, what about conversation-mate?

I will give a concrete situation: Let's say I have a radio program, and I say: "Today we are going to talk about Physics. My conversation-mate is John Doe". So in this situation, which expression is better?

Last note: This question is not a duplicate. There is no question about "converation-mate". Also, I don't want to use less common words like "interlocutor" or "conversant".


texts: What is a common adjective to describe a guy with a nice physique?


texts:
The context I am thinking about is a sport competition or league, along the lines of

GM's Tennis Competition (settled)
Premier league will be (settled) this weekend
The football game was (settled) last week

"Settled" sounds a bit like some legal dispute that is over.

Any ideas of good synonyms?


texts:
Say when I'm reciting a password to someone I say something like:

  capital a b capital c d capital e

Is there any way to pronounce upper case letters without having to say capital in front of the letter?


texts: What should be the correct auxiliary verb, did or do?

texts:
Which one is correct, “if you ever did it again?”  or “if you ever do it again?”
The act has already been done once by a character A, much to character B’s dislike. Now, if B warns A not to repeat the act anytime in the future, what would be the correct way?
Here B tries to warn A for the future. Like a child being scolded by a mother not to spill the sauce on the carpet ever again.
Also, I would like to know how and in what context the two differs. When should one select the one of the two, are there any rules for that?
I hope that clears up a bit!


texts: Would it be proper to say "Here is a picture of my cousins and I".  Is it improper to say me instead of I?


texts: What is the verb that means to capitalize the first letter of a word?

texts:
The word I'm looking for means to capitalize the first letter of some words, but I want to use a single verb since I need to say this many times, as in "*** all the words that appear in the table headers".

Is there such a verb?


texts:
●Source: p 249, Zizek's Ontology ..., by Adrian Johnston

●●Source: p 65, L'Odyssé d'Homère: tr. en français, Volume 2, translated by Dugas Montbel

  ● Bruce Fink helpfully compares the French ne explétif [hereafter abbreviated as NE] to certain employments of the English
  word but
  (as in, for example, "I can 't help but think that... " or "I cannot deny but that . .. ")
   Fink contends that the French ne and the English but are each means of expressing an attitude of ambivalence toward the meaningful content of the sentence uttered (an attitude coloring the
  position of the subject of enunciation) without, for all that, disrupting or repudiating ♦  the literal meaning of the sentence per se  as the sense established in the form of an utterance.29 Philippe Van Haute claims that the occurrence of the NE makes for the difference between, in its absence, the "impersonal" phenomenon of a simple assertive sentence in
  which the subject of enunciation 's intention-to-signify coincides with (or
  collapses/fades into) the thus-established position of the subject of the
  utterance, and, in its presence, the "personal" phenomenon of indicating, through the ne, an affectively inflected distance between the speaker
  (i.e., enunciation) and the significance of what the speaker spoke (i.e.,
  utterance).30 ♦  The signifier ne or but marks, within the uttered sentence,
  the enunciator's unease with what he or she uttered.

Although I didn't understand the long sentences surrounded by ♦ , I include the above should it help anyone. Negatives still trouble me, but I cancel the double negatives in Fink's comparisons:

  1. I can[not] help but think that... "   = 1.1. I think that
  2. I cannot deny but that  = 2.1. I deny that

Q1. In 1.1 and 2.1, there's nothing negative. So  where can the French adverb « ne » possibly lie?

I exemplify a verb requiring the NE with redouter (which I arbitrarily chose):

  ●●Si vous tardez en vous armant contre ce
  rocher, je redoute que, s'élancant de nouveau,
  Scylla
  n' engloutisse autant de vos compagnons qu'elle a de
  têtes.

  My translation: 3. ...I dread that, soaring up again, Scylla swallows as many of your companions as she has heads.

Q2. In 3, I never used Fink's double negation? So what does he mean?


texts: Why need to use past tense in this sentence?

texts:
This is the sentence I found it in one of the sentence.
From the user's perspective:
"I am a young working professional trying to eat healthily, but I'm struggling because I work long hours and don't always have time to go grocery shopping and prepare my meals. This makes me feel frustrated and bad about myself"

I am wondering why the "frustrated" here needs to use in past tense form and not in infinitive form??


texts: What is the origin of the use of "hate" with the preposition "on"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Origin of “hating on”

Recently I've noticed an increasing use of the phrase to hate on [someone].

From what I can tell, the addition of on implies a jealousy or dislike for another person's talent or status. It doesn't appear that to hate and to hate on are directly interchangeable; one wouldn't say "I really hate on the taste of fish" for example.

The verb to hate was previously sufficient as far as I was aware, so where has the addition of the preposition on come from? My guess is America, but does anyone know where and when this originated?


texts: Usage of preposition with the word 'employed'

texts:
1.my sister is employed in/on/by/with the railway.
What is the correct usage .If all are possible could you tell me the difference.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Should I use 'that' 'which' or 'who' in this sentence?

Should I use "who" or "which"? I'm leaning to "who", but I'm not sure...

  If you're not one the people who already made their mind up about

or

  If you're not one the people which already made their mind up about


texts: question tags with or responses to "Seldom/Rarely/hardly" statements?

texts:
We have had questions and answers here and elsewhere about how to properly question-tag or respond to normal statements like

  I go to the store on Tuesdays
  I hate mushrooms

and to "negative-polarity" statements like

  I never go to the store on Tuesdays
   I don't hate mushrooms.

There are also claims that hardly is a negative-polarity indicator, particularly at To What Extent is Hardly a negative Adverb?

However, as noted at that question, hardly is a strange word, and in particular, I suddenly have cause to wonder how hardly (and its compatriots in strangeness, rarely and seldom) work with tag questions and agreements.  Beyond the stated links (and some of the links out from those), however, I have found precious little information on dealing with these words, and precisely nothing on how they affect tag questions and responses.

To my ear, all of these sound wrong as tag questions/responses:

  He seldom goes there, ?doesn't he?
  He seldom goes there, ?does he?

  He seldom goes there.  ?—neither do I/Me neither.
  He seldom goes there.  ?—so do I/Me too.

  He seldom goes there.  ?—But I do.

(You can substitute rarely or hardly ever with the same effect in those examples.)

So, is there a correct tag question or simple response form for these sorts of statements?  Is my ear wrong, and some of these formats are accepted?  Or is my default reply of "Same here" or a full-sentence counter (e.g. "Oh, I go there pretty regularly") the norm?


texts: Use of personal pronouns in technical writing and possible alternatives

texts:
I'm currently in the process of revising my graduate thesis in Computer Science. One section of the thesis specifically addresses design decisions I made and changes I made based on test results. In this section I describe the actions I took in a first-person active voice.

Example:

  In this chapter I present a cognitive walkthrough of the interface
  based on the criteria Polson et al. originally presented. I also took
  further direction from suggestions for performing cognitive
  walkthoughs which the same authors later presented in the form of a
  practitioner's guide(citation).

My faculty adviser has approved my draft, but one of my committee members said that he doesn't think personal pronouns should be used in technical writing. There are some cases where I can easily eliminate the personal pronouns and maintain an active voice (e.g. the first sentence in my example.) However, there are cases where I can't see how to do so without reverting to a passive voice.

Is it really bad form to use  personal pronouns in technical writing? I have seen it quite often in conference papers. What alternatives do I have if I want to maintain the active voice? Is it better to use the passive voice than use personal pronouns?

I'm particularly confused because my technical writing instructor taught me that one should always describe the author as doing or presenting something rather than the paper.


texts: A wife who knows and accepts her husband's infidelity

texts:
What do you call a wife or woman who knows their spouse or partner is unfaithful but pretends either to (1) not care  or (2) to not know?  In this scenario it's important that the cheating spouse or partner believes his wife or partner hasn't found out. That he is having one or more love affairs without being caught.

I did manage to unearth an archaic term wittol, which The Chambers Dictionary defines as
a man who knows his wife's unfaithfulness, and accepts it.

The Collins English Dictionary online says:

  wittol (ˈwɪtəl)
  a man who tolerates his wife's unfaithfulness
  [C15 wetewold, from witen to know (see wit²) + -wold, perhaps from cokewold cuckold]

I'm curious if there is a modern-day female version. I can't think of any off-hand and yet I'm sure we all know someone in our lives who has knowingly accepted their partner's infidelities be it for religious convictions; a sense of loyalty; pride; love; fear of loneliness; fear of hardship or merely motivated by social status.

A modern literary example:

In Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl, although the beautiful  pro/antagonist Amy Elliott Dunne is fully aware her husband has been cheating for over a year, she pretends not to know and is far from being acquiescent. Only the reader is privy to that information.

(I realize it doesn't match the description perfectly, but it's important that Nick Dunne is unaware of his wife's discovery.)


texts: health experts foresee/predict the novel coronavirus spreading in the U.S

texts:
One of the top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans on Tuesday that health experts foresee the novel coronavirus that has killed thousands spreading in the United States.

If we change foresee to its synonym predict, spreading is not possible.

Can someone explain the different usage?


texts: Curriculum vitae: Proper qualifiers for skills

texts:
I am updating my curriculum vitae, and there is a section where I list my experience with several technologies and programming languages. I would like to group my experience in two categories; namely, technologies with which I have long experience, and those with which I have relatively basic (yet, not elementary) experience.

Currently I am listing my experience as follows:

20+ years of experience with X and Y
Some experience with W and Z

However, some experience sounds ambiguous and I think gives the impression that my experience with W and Z is quite elementary. I do have some experience with W and Z but not enough to call it "broad". What would be a good or proper qualifier for such skills?


texts: Name for a business model where you get free 'basic' packages

texts:
I'm looking for a term for a business model that includes free base packages and charges you for the amount of service you require.
Some examples:

Unity, pay once you make 100'000
Google Drive, Dropbox, ..., pay for more space
Free webhosting and one database, pay more for better stuff

Is there a name for this kind of business model?


texts:
I'm trying to find a word for a 'self assessment' type card.

It has to mean something along the lines of "mark I thought I would receive" or "mark I am confident that I will receive".

It will be used something like this: "[word] Mark" or "Mark [word]" above a column showing a fraction or percentage mark. This will be alongside "Mark Received".


texts: Origin of pluralisation of verbs and nouns in English

texts:
From this question, I was just wondering why plural nouns use the ending -s, while the exact same ending is used for the third person singular form of verbs.

How did we get into this weird situation? Why don't we use the same plural ending for both nouns and verbs?


texts: Does the American English hesitation sound “uh” imply ignorance, like “d’uh”?

texts:
In British English, a pause in speech is usually marked by the word “er” or “erm” and means something like “let me think”, or “what’s the word”. There is no implication of anything other than hesitation.

The same is used in American English, but most often it seems to be transliterated as “uh”. Because of the existence of “d’uh” and “d’oh”, which imply a stupid mistake or a facepalm situation, I wonder if “uh” has an added implication that the speaker is stupid or ignorant? This seems possible because an intelligent and practised speaker will often be able to construct a speech without hesitation or filler words like this.


texts: Capitalising when starting sentence with digits

texts:
This might be more a typography related question than actual language question, but I didn’t know where else to turn.

First of, I am perfectly aware that it’s generally considered bad form—regardless of style guide—to start a sentence with digits.  However, therein lies the problem; it’s a date

The style guide in question specifies that in this instance, one should use digits.  So what does one do in such an instance, where you have to start a sentence—for whatever reason—with a digit.

The options, as I see them, are;

Capitalise the date, lead with a titling figure and keep the rest in text figures.
Use only text figures, and breaking the rule about starting a sentence in the wrong case.
Use only titling figures and make your body text look silly.
Toss the style guide and avoid the problem. (Albeit a perfectly valid option, I don’t want to do that, mostly because I really want to know how one should capitalise digits.)

The date format in question, using today’s date: 21 October 2013.

For the sake of argument, let’s exclude the “prefixing the date with ‘the’,” option, shall we?

Edit: Examples illustrated as per request, in order mentioned.


texts: Does this sentence use acceptable English?

texts:
Today our class had a listening comprehension in which there was a statement that read

  It's very surprisingly that the British could control such a big
  country as India.

To me, this sounds wrong. I would write this statement like this "It's very surprising that the British could control a country as big as India". Is the original sentence grammatical English? Is my sentence proper English?


texts: Is it correct to say Win-win lottery? It is meant the kind of lottery where you will get a prize anyway.


texts: Word for someone who engages in transgression because it is transgressive

texts:
I'm trying to communicate the difference between an iconoclast (someone opposed to and intent on destroying established icons) and someone who engages in transgression because it is transgressive. Forbidden fruit, etc.

For the first, destroying the icon is a victory, for the second, a disaster.

Is there a single word for the second person?


texts:
I have been seeing the following post making the rounds on social media today:

How old were you when you learned that the game TAG stands for "Touch and Go"?
I was today years old...

Now even at first glance this raised my eyebrow. So I did some quick research and nothing is said on the Wikipedia page and it would seem the game even has its own unique definition in the dictionary

A children's game in which one chases the rest, and anyone who is caught then becomes the pursuer.

which would seem to come from the primary definition

A label attached to someone or something for the purpose of identification or to give other information.

since you yell "Tag, you're it" as part of the game.
My question is, is there any evidence that tag is an acronym for "Touch and Go"? Is is possible this is technically another game, and not the centuries old children's game? Or is this just another case of "Everything you read on the internet is true. - Abraham Lincoln"


texts:
What does this expression really mean and where did it come from?

I'm assuming that it means you are just hanging upside down.

Maybe it means that your head is always hanging low and you are sad, but when you change your attitude, you're now looking up to the sky; holding your head high.


texts: Is there a difference between the meaning of the words prophecy and vision? could they be the same thing? If not what is their difference?


texts: A Word To Use To Describe A Person's Non-Physical Presence

texts:
What word could I use to describe a person who is dominating not only physically but also in knowledge, experience, and comprehension? Someone who has a vast amount of experience?

Example of a sentence:

Dominating the room with his physical and ________ presence...


texts: What is the difference between contravene, contradict, and controvert?

texts:
All three words seem to have similar meanings, but I am assuming the difference is that each may be more appropriate in different contexts.  I am particularly interested in their use when talking about evidence, principles, or in the context of an argument, like:

"Contradictory evidence", "Contravening arguments", or "Controverting a position."

Here are the definitions I found (which may explain why I am confused about appropriate usage):

  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contravene
  1. to go or act contrary to : violate "contravene a law"
  2. to oppose in argument : contradict "contravene a proposition"

  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contradict
  1. to assert the contrary of :  take issue with "contradict a rumor"
  2. to imply the opposite or a denial of "your actions contradict your words"

  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/controvert
  1. to dispute or oppose by reasoning "controvert a point in a discussion"


texts: percent or percentage on variable name suffix?

texts:
Which is more suitable for putting suffix which stands for '0~100%'?
int CrashRatePercent;
int CrashRatePercentage;


texts: When is it acceptable to use "I've" by itself?

texts:
I have a friend from a foreign country who for years has used "I've" in a way that sounds funny to me. He often writes sentences like "I've an exam tomorrow." Is he correct in this usage?

I have always used "I've" but only when speaking in the past. For example: "I've never seen someone like that." Basically, I don't use "have" as the lone verb in the sentence. Thanks!


texts: Is there a single word for "tomorrow night?"

texts: I am looking for a single word to express the concept of nighttime tomorrow like how we already have "today," "tonight," "tomorrow," and "overmorrow."


texts: Is the usage of plural correct in this sentence?

texts: Articulate an idea or a concept so that your content preempts questions


texts: What does the phrase "laying pipe" mean?

texts:
In the movie Dead Poets Society, there is a line by Robin Williams:"We are not laying pipe, we are talking about poetry."
I have checked it up on Urban Dictionary and according to the top scoring post the phrase means "fucking the hell out of a girl".
Obviously, this doesn't suit the context here. So what does the phrase really mean?

YouTube excerpt


texts:
In the TV show, How I Met your Mother, I can't understand what the following words in bold type means

Barney: How long has it been? (without sex)
Ted: Fifty seven days
Barney: Fifty seven days!! Ted, you are in a slump.
Ted: No it's not a slump. It's an intentional hiatus from girls. A slump is when you strike out every time you step up to the plate. But I'm off the roster, baby. I'm in the locker room sitting in the whirlpool and (I'll tell you something), it feels pretty good.


texts: Relationship between paper and pencil markings on it

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes the relationship between a piece of paper and pencil marks drawn on it. Ideally, the word could be used to describe the same type of relationship between a canvas and paint, photograph paper and ink, and so on. However, the word should not imply containing — it should be strictly for things on the outside of these objects. This word should not be used to describe the relationship between a computer and its software or stored data, and the relationship between a VCR tape and its stored data.

Example Sentence:

  "All files, documents, or other written, photographic, or other tangible material __________ proprietary information, shall be the property of the Company."

[ __ NOT ‘containing’__ ]

Alternatively, if there is no word that can describe this relationship, I'm looking for a different phrasing that would allow such a description.

The best I can come up with is hold. Does the paper hold the pencil marks on it? Does a canvas hold paint? It still doesn't sound quite right.  Contain is a synonym of hold, but that doesn't sound right either.

Related: Does the usage of "material" imply that this is only for things that are most similar to paper or canvas, and can be written on, as opposed to "storing" information, thereby limited the application of this word to things other than complex technology?


texts: "Insecure" or "unsecure" when dealing with security?

texts:
Which is the appropriate word to be used in the sentence:

  The system we were testing was determined to be insecure/unsecure.

The usage is in the context of security, specifically a lack thereof.

I've always said insecure, because I didn't believe unsecure was a word (although unsecured is).  Even as I type this, I'm getting a spell check complaint about it.  However, I was laughed at once when I called a particular device "insecure."


texts: "Try one's hand at something" -- why is it not hands?

texts:
I came across this phrase today

  Try one's hand at something

Why is it not hands since we have a pair of hands?

In addition to that, I have also noticed both

  pleasing to the ear

  pleasing to the ears

are commonly used. Are both version grammatically correct?

The closest match I can find in dictionary is music to ears which is plural.


texts:
Someone sent me something and then checked back with me writing:

  I would like to ask you that have you received my gift?

I myself thought this sentence was really uncommon (I have not heard it before). I discussed it with my friend and suggested that the correct way should be

  I would like to ask if/whether you have received my gift.

He said both should be okay. Google gives more than 27 000 000 results for "I would like to ask you that have you" (maybe many people are incorrect?).

Since I am not a native speaker, I cannot prove that it is wrong.


texts: Is it correct to say "In this paper we will prove that..." in academic papers?

texts:
Is it correct to say "In this paper we will prove that..."?
I think in academic papers we should use "be going to" instead of "will", because "will" is used to describe something at the moment of speaking, not to describe something which has already been planned or arranged.


texts:
A student asked me tonight why we say "something caught my eye," and not "something caught my eyes."  This is not just limited to eyes but also:

"lend me your ear." "Can I give you a hand?" or "an eye for detail."

Is this because we are not thinking of the actual body part but it's function?

This question was asked before but the answer and comments do not address the question very well.  Why does “something catch my eye” but not “both my eyes”?


texts: What is the right word for this sentence?

texts:
"I'm just remembering how ... I am about this guy"

I don't know what to say. I need a word that describes either when you don't know what you think about a person or when what you think about the person changes.


texts: To whoever wills ... Vs. To whomever wills

texts: So, is it "whoever" because it is the subject of the predicate "wills", or is it "whomever" because it is the object of the preposition "to"?


texts: One, two or even three exclamation marks are often added, especially in e-mail, to convey emphasis to phrases such as Thanks!, or No problem!.  My problem is that in British English, you could also use the exclamation mark to convey sarcasm such that Thanks! could just as well be interpreted as Thanks a bunch, why on earth did you have to do/say that!.  Is this just a simple regional difference?  I make a point of suggesting workmates use the exclamation mark with great caution! (emphasis intended)


texts:
It is correct to write : "If there are tickets available, I would like to buy it one?"

And, in case is correct, what type of conditional would be?


texts: What is difference between targeted protein degrader and protein-targeted degrader?

texts:
My question is: Does the position of the word "Targeted" change the meaning of these phrases: targeted protein degrader and protein-targeted degrader?

Also, please explain what is the meaning of the word "hits" in this sentence: targeted protein degrader hits the clinic.

Thank you.