texts: Phrase about purity of a solid substance

texts:
Most high-purity deposits occur within the Carboniferous Limestone of the Peak District, the Mendips. Large areas of the Chalk outcrop also contain high-purity resources.

Is it possible to rearrange the phrase most high-purity deposits to make it sound like

  Most deposits having the highest purity occur within the Carboniferous Limestone of the Peak District, the Mendips.
  ?

Do you refer to ‘high-purity’ natural substances as resources or deposits having the highest purity?


texts: The train commenced its journey - Is it bad word choice?

texts:
Commence means -begin,start.

  The train commenced its journey...

Is the usage of commence flawed?
What is the most striking difference between the three forms:
Commence,start, and begin?


texts: How to colloquially express indifference other than "I could take it or leave it?"

texts:
I've recently seen "I could take it or leave it" as a way of saying "it's not that important to me."  For example,

Q: "I love the taste of pumpkin pie. How do you feel about it?"
A: "I could take it or leave it."

But I'm much more accustomed to hearing "take it or leave it" used in the form of an ultimatum, especially in a negotiation setting -

Buyer: "How much for the shoes?"
Seller: "$100."
Buyer: "Will you take $50 for them?"
Seller: "I'd rather not go below $75."
Buyer: "I'll give you $60. Take it or leave it."

You know when you can't remember the name of that one guy in that movie, but you know that you know it?  In the same way, I'm certain there's another (more correct) colloquial phrase to convey indifference without saying "I could take it or leave it" (and I've heard it before), but I can't remember what that is.  Can anyone help me out?

It really just seems like "take it or leave it" has been improperly co-opted as a means to express indifference.

EDIT: After all of your inputs, I think I've remembered the statement I've been looking for.

"I could survive without it."

This may express more of a negative opinion of the thing in question than a neutral opinion, but it's definitely the phrase I have been seeking.  Thanks all for your help.


texts:
There is a question on here asking why women is pronounced 'wimen', but what intrigues me is why is it spelled with an 'o'?

If wi was the original pronunciation for both singular and plural, why weren't both words spelled wiman/wimen?


texts:
My question how can you describe it in a few words when you incline with your head that the person to leave without saying a word.
Thanks!


texts: Parapharese "I will never get used to living in a village."

texts:
I will never get used to living in a village.

paraphrasing this sentence? what ideas?
"get used to" the meaning and never synonym?


texts:
I'm used to using "giving a damn" in a negative sense. Merriam-Webster defines the phrase as meaning:

  give a damn: to care at all about someone or something —used in negative statements —.

So, easy examples include:

He doesn't give a damn what people think about him.
Nobody gives a damn about us.
I don't want to hear about her problems. I just don't give a damn.
They don't seem to care a damn about their future.

 The following use of the phrase (widespread in the US I think) is confusing to my English ears.  The context suggests (to me) that she doesn't care, but the affirmative usage suggests (at least to me) that she does?

  She was middle-school teacher, and her husband was a firefighter. She could give a damn about Edmund Burke and the New York Post.  She was not a crunchy con, and she found her brother annoying.

— Rod Dreather's Monastic Vision by Joshua Rothman for the May 1st 2017 issue of The New Yorker, p. 46


texts:
It's quite likely you've read a P.G. Wodehouse book. Well, then you'd also know about Jeeves, and something he says quite often:

  Very good, sir.

Jeeves is a butler. And he isn't the only one to reply with those words, whenever asked to do something. I've heard many butlers (all in TV shows, or movies, or books) say it. Where did it originate from, though?
Very good in its literal sense is a phrase to indicate approval. How did it come to imply acknowledgement of orders? I tried online, but all I got was usage, not origin.


texts: Is there any guideline on the plural form of loanwords from Japanese?

texts:
I just saw a trailer of 47 Ronin. My first thought was "that doesn't sound right". We have 12 Monkeys and 13 Warriors. Why 47 Ronin? Then I recalled that there is a movie titled Seven Samurai.

I checked the words ronin and samurai with Google, and found that the plural form of ronin can be either ronin or ronins. But the plural form of samurai is samurai.

Is there any guideline on the plural form(s) of loanwords in English, especially those from Japanese?


texts: Can say that "I over-ordered" food in a restaurant as a client?

texts:
Imagine that I go to a restaurant and I demand too much food.
Would the following sentence be idiomatic?

  I over-ordered food.

I am just seeking to know if this sentence would be accepted by a native English speaker. I am not seeking replacements.


texts: One word for either Income (credit) or Expense (debit)

texts: What word better denotes a money transaction: debit or credit?


texts:
I was watching a history lecture recently, and the professor stated that after the Greek "dark ages," during which their previously used written language was lost and forgotten, a new written language was developed by essentially stealing the pre-existing Phoenician alphabet and assigning sounds to each of the letters.

This is the earliest documented use of a phonetic alphabet in history (that I know of), and it occurred to me that the words "Phonics" and "Phoenician" might be related; in fact, this relationship makes it seem extremely unlikely that there is no relationship between the terms.

Can anyone explain the similarities between these words, and determine whether my guess is correct?


texts: What is this type of sign called in English?

texts: It's at the entrance to my apartment. What is this type/style of signage called?


texts:
Can the adverb "every day" be used in Simple Past Tense? I've seen plenty of online journalists writing articles by putting "every day" in the Simple Past Tense's sentence.

So.....Is this correct?
If yes, then how should we construct a Past Tense sentence with the adverb "every day" in it? (Give plenty of examples, please)

Thanks a lot
David


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  User’s Guide vs Users’ Guide

When describing, for example, a bicycle for boys as "a boys bicycle", should it be "boy's" or "boys"? The phrase is not implying ownership but the type of bicycle, in the same way as one for either sex might be described as unisex.


texts:
The title of this article is "Building to New Super Mario Bros."

Is "building to" a typo or an idiom? What does it mean if it's not a typo? I've never come across that phrase before.


texts: Expression that means "Ruin something by publicizing it"?

texts:
I was wondering if there is a colloquialism or phrase for when you ruin something by documenting it or publicizing it.

For example, if a journalist were to do a story on a beautiful, lush, undeveloped region, and the buzz created by the story resulted in a bunch of ugly hotels and vacation homes being built there, thereby ruining the natural beauty of the area.

That is just one example though. It could be ruining anything, not just nature. It would be like a combination of "shouting it from the rooftops" and "blowing its cover".


texts:
There are accepted alternate spellings for English words and phrases, example: pajamas -> pyjamas.

This is an assumption, so please correct me if I'm wrong:

The editors of the OED and other dictionaries do accept changes to spellings, meanings, and word usage. The acceptance is primarily based on "the commonly used" criterion.  I think this means 'extensively used and understood' equals  'primary criterion' for inclusion or modification of items.

Cartoon character Homer Simpson's "doh" is an example of a recent OED addition.

In Albuquerque New Mexico the State Department of Transportation has erected billboards with 3m high letters consisting of single words:

"DNTEXT", "ENDWI"

This campaign is aimed at young drivers to curb texting while driving and drunk driving.

Question:

Can this kind of semi-phonetic text-spell eventually qualify for dictionary inclusion on the grounds of common usage?  Or, do you see this "stuff" appearing in any kind of standard reference? It is undeniably common.


texts:
I have a question about violating verb tenses. I was taught that you can't use present perfect (or continuous) and past simple within a sentence. You either have to use present perfects (or continuous) with present perfects (or continuous), and past simples with past simples. But I've found this not to be true, so I'm a bit confused.

Here is an email one of my native American friends sent me.

  Hey, it's been such a long time since we last emailed each other. Thanks for sending me an email! Getting that email was such a pleasant surprise, because I was just thinking how I've been wanting to send you an email as well.

What confuses me the most is the last part. How can you say that you were thinking about how you have been wanting to do something?

I was taught that this is wrong: "he has decided to go hiking, so I went hiking as well." But I'm assuming that my friend's email is correct, since he IS a native speaker.

So, this is what I'm thinking: I can't say present perfect (or continuous) + past simple, but I can say past simple + present perfect (or continuous).

This violates verb tenses:

  "he has decided to go hiking, so I went hiking as well."

But this doesn't:

  "I went hiking because he has decided to go hiking."

Are there instances where present perfect (or continuous) + past simple or vice versa is allowed and correct?

EDIT:

This is a difficult concept for me to grasp. But thank you for all your help, because I'm learning a lot. There are many sentences that don't make sense to me. I came across this sentence today:

  "[I think this is inferred: During those days,] We've watched the movie many times. I really wanted this life to continue."

I'm not sure what the present perfect is doing here. I don't think it is being used for describing what a person has done before, like "I've seen that movie before". Why is it not simply "We watched the movie many times. [It was so good that] I really wanted this life to continue"?


texts: Where does the word 'Simoleon' come from?

texts:
Simoleon is another word for money.

  si·mo·le·on

  /səˈmōlēən/

I once thought that the word Simoleon came from the popular PC game The Sims.  However, recently I heard the word used in conversation, "It costs a lot of simoleons".  I asked the speaker if he had played The Sims. He said he never heard of it.

When searched on Google, simoleon originates:

  late 19th century: perhaps on the pattern of napoleon

However, no more information is given.  Could someone explain how the word comes from napoleon or when it became a part of the English language?


texts:
When we say " X was nice", does it imply X was nice in the past, but not nice any more at the present?

Here is one context: One day I went shopping with a friend, and we  saw a nice item in a shop. After several days we met together, when we were talking about that item, he said:" That was nice". But I thought it should be "That is nice" because we were talking about something that is a timeless fact.

So which form is correct?


texts: Bob does not know who/whom the thief is. Which is correct?

texts:
In the sentence:

Bob does not know who/whom the thief is.

Should it be who or whom? and why? I don't really understand it in cases like this. I was told to think about them being analogous to him/he but it doesn't work here.

As I already explained, the answer given https://english.stackexchange.com/a/83/73786 does not work. Let me try it: Bob does not know the thief is he. It clearly should be Bob does not know the thief is him. That would mean it should be whom. Contradiction, no?


texts: Both or only the first, but never just the second

texts:
OK, so the title sounds more like a cryptic crossword clue rather than something that explains my question, so please feel free to make it into something more sensible if you can (and remove this sentence)...
Let's say we have two items, the items do not matter but for this example let's say the first is "fish" and the second is "chips".
If I were serving these items I might ask one of the following questions:

"Would you like fish or chips?" - implying that they could only choose one or the other.
"Would you like fish and chips?" - implying that they could only have both items together.

Now the question: Is there a word (or two) that could replace and/or in the above sentences that would imply that they can choose to have fish only, both fish and chips, or neither of them, but not chips only?

To try and clarify my requirements, here is the original example that inspired me to seek out an answer...
Originally I read the following sentence on StackOverflow (a different SE site for those that don't know):

You should probably use javascript or jQuery to accomplish this

The problem I find with this sentence is that "jQuery" is a javascript library and cannot exist without "javascript", therefore the "or" is technically inaccurate. However, to replace the "or" with "and" would also be inaccurate because you could choose only "javascript" as "jQuery" is optional (it would just make it easier). And, of course, neither can be chosen.


texts:
This is regarding normal sentence case.
Here are some examples:

Bob got arrested by the FBI.
Maybe The Crystal Method is the best band ever.
Attitudes in the West are fairly consistent against polygamy.
Yesterday, after seeing two skinny girls make fun of her, she went to The Bad Place. (i.e. she did something self-harming)

Are there any other types of "the" usage possible? And which of these have a set capitalize, and which require a style guide to settle?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What’s a reception room / parlor / parlour / drawing room?

Please consider the following room:

The house is a late Victorian townhouse. The room (A) has a size of about 40 sqm, or 400 sq ft., a nice but not elaborate chimneypiece with sofas in front of it, a plastered ceiling, grand piano, a few mahogany pieces. A door (regular, not double or sliding) leads to the dining room, another to the hall.

No television set, which is in another, smaller room (B) upstairs, used for watching television and as a spare guest room. But it's in room (A) that the family sit and read or play board games, in other words, room (A) isn't just for formal entertaining of guests once in a while.

For this sort of room, would upper and upper-middle class Brits say "drawing room", "sitting room" or something else?

Would it be different if the room were used in the same way, but had a desk and lots of bookshelves along the walls?

(I know that there are regional differences and the like, that especially in America, that would be a living room, that many Brits wouldn't fuss and call any lounge a lounge, and that Mrs Bucket would call any sort of "main room" a drawing room, that's why I specifically ask about uppers and upper-middles.)


texts: What type of pronouns are "other" and "another"?

texts: When used as pronouns, are "other" and "another" classified as indefinite pronouns?


texts: Is the quantifier a modifier or is it modified, in semantic respect?

texts:
"You've met Malfoy before?"     Harry explained about their
  meeting in Diagon Alley.     "I've heard of his family," said Ron
  darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side
  after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad
  doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to
  go over to the Dark Side." (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
  Stone)

When you say ‘some of’ is the qualifier, does it mean ‘some of’ modifies ‘the first’? Or unlike pre-modifiers, ‘some’ is modified by ‘the first’?


texts: Is "awe" pronounced as /ɔː/ or /ɑː/ in American English?

texts:
I have an American friend who pronounced the word "awe" with the same vowel as British people pronounce Thought: /ɔː/. But when I look up this word in dictionaries, they pronounce it as /ɑː/.
I'm talking about American English. Cambridge Dictionary gives /ɑː/  and pronounces it /ɑː/. Merriam Webster (the most trusted American Dictionary) gives \ ˈȯ \ but pronounces it like  /ɑː/. Lexico (American) gives /ô/ /ɔ/ but pronounces it /ɑː/.
Is this a regional difference? How is it pronounced in General American?  /ɑː/ or /ɔː/?


texts:
From what I know, "ain't" works as a negation in any tense or form. However, it doesn't take the form of the (first/second/third) person or the tense and so the verb following it does. What I mean is:

He didn't help me.
He ain't helped me.
He ain't help me.

In (1) "did" already takes the form of the correct tense and person (in this case the same for all persons) and the verb following it ("help") is infinitive.

In (2) "ain't" doesn't take the form of the person or tense and so the verb ("helped") does.

The alternative (3) would be for the verb to stay infinitive, but as far as I know that is incorrect. Also, in this case there's no way to determine the tense someone is using (other than from the context).

Now, am I correct or am I wrong? Or maybe in different dialects (or slang varieties) "ain't" behaves differently?

Edit: To clarify—I know what "ain't" means, I'm asking about how to use it correctly in a sentence.


texts:
I understand that the verb awake has two different past participle forms, awoken and awaked. Checking Google Ngram I saw that the former has become more popular than the latter in the last century. I want to know two things:

Which one would be more used in a casual conversation?
Why did this change take place?


texts:
What is the meaning of "uber-"?
What is the meaning of "uber-"?


texts: What is it called when you use quotation marks to signify repeating a word or phrase?

texts:
For example, let's say I'm copying instructions by hand. The original instructions say:

  Multiply the first by the second
  Integrate the third with the fourth
  Integrate the third with the fifth

And on a page I write:

  Multiply the first by the second
  Integrate the third with the fourth
  "" with the fifth

I know this example is silly, but hopefully it's clear what I mean.

What is this called?


texts: What's the meaning of 'bootstrapped' in this context?

texts: From the description of the game called Natural Selection 2: 'Choose to play as a bootstrapped Marine or a beastly alien in the action-packed battle for ultimate survival. Natural Selection 2 flawlessly combines a multiplayer first-person shooter with real-time strategy elements for a game that is addictive, immersive and exciting! The tightly designed shooting mechanics combined with intricate maps create a competitive challenge for all players.' The text comes from: http://www.humblebundle.com/


texts:
TIL: the phrase "fail in + noun/gerund" means:

to not be successful in an attempt to do something.

and the phrase "fail to + infinitive" means:

leave something undone

According to the meanings above; thus:

  The king fails in the throne.

    This means the king does something unsuccessfully in his reign.

  The king fails to the throne.

  The king fails to claim the throne.

  The king fails in claiming the throne.

    These mean the same as the king claims the throne unsuccessfully.

Do they have any other differences?

Thank you


texts: What would you call a form of government where the community governs itself?

texts: Let us suppose that there was a society that existed on a communal level where there weren’t really any formal official laws, but rather the community sort of liquidly governed itself, using de facto social norms and social values that are strongly ingrained and maintained in the community through tradition and culture,  and instead of formal laws everything was basically fluidly governed by the community at large through what is de-facto? Basing governance on what is commonly accepted by the community and having the community enforce it by itself without an external government. This community would place a religion at its center, and the culture and values within it would be derived from that religion.


texts: A word for converting numbers to (number / 1000) + K

texts:
Is there a word for the case where a number has been converted to something with a trailing ‘K’ (and possibly ‘M’ for millions, ‘B’ for billions, ...)?

  Example: 250,000 changes to 250K

It will be used in a sentence like “The number is ...”, like hyphenated and capitalized are used in  “The word is hyphenated” and  “The character is capitalized”.

Context: I’m programming a set of functions to deal with character and number formatting. For most of those functions, the name is simple and obvious: uppercase(), round() and trim(). Until now, I’ve used number_shorten(), which is not very descriptive, and someone reading my code would have to guess what it actually does, and therefore I’m looking for a better word to describe my function.


texts: What do you call a person who dies an honourable death?

texts:
What do you call someone who dies for a good cause or an honourable reason?

An example would be a soldier who dies while saving his country.


texts: What to call the mean between Buy price and Sell price?

texts:
In currency exchange (for example when you have US dollars and want to buy euros, or the opposite), what do you call the mean between the Buy price and Sell price?

In Japanese we call it TTM:

  TTM = (TTB + TTS) /2

Where TTB is the price at which you can buy cash, and TTS the price at which you can sell cash.

Is there a similar word or abbreviation in English?


texts: Usage of 'Because of' with health/illness

texts:
I got two sentences that sound similar and correct in some sense. One of them however should be wrong:
"I accompanied him here because his health was not good at that time."
"I accompanied him here because of his health was not good at that time."
Most sources indicate that because of should be used with a 'ing verb' following it. This source suggests that because of can be used in conjunction with "illness" which to my knowledge is not even a verb. My reasoning for why the second example is correct lies in the fact that "health" is the antonym of "illness" and would act symmetrically.
One reason why example 1 to be correct is that it contains a subject ("his health") and a verb ("was") following because.
Can both these forms be grammatically correct or is one wrong?


texts:
The book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" starts with the line - "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. " Hasn't J.K. Rowling used too many commas? Instead, had she written "Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."; wouldn't it be better?

Also, what does she try to indicate by writing 'thank you very much' ?


texts:
As a non-native English speaker, It seems to me that the word "until" is quite ambiguous. It's been told that when it's used with a date it includes the date. (Does "until [date]" mean "before that date"?)

But it's still unclear to me.

"X will be there until the 11th."
When will X leave? On the 12th, right?

"X won't be there until the 11th."
When will X be there? On the 11th, right?

If so, can anyone explain why it differs? Does it depend on whether it's negative and positive?

And how about other periods of time, like high school.

"X hasn't done it until high school"
In this case X did it at some time during high school, right?

"X has been doing it until high school"
In this case it seems to be unclear when X stopped. During high school or before starting high school.

Then with an attempt of clarification:

"X has been doing it until he entered high school"
Does it mean X stopped doing it before or just after he entered high school? Or could it be both?

Is this clear to native speakers or is it just me?

Edit:
Seems like a lot of my confusion was made by this answer.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130205142054AAIqP06


texts:
I would like to know which variant is correct:

"Decimal expansion of the first generalized Euler's constant"
"Decimal expansion of first generalized Euler's constant"
"Decimal expansion of the first generalized Euler constant"

The problem is the presence of "the" and the genitive "'s".


texts: How to make clear the difference between 0 and O?

texts:
It's reasonably clear that there's a difference between the lowercase "o" and "0", but it's harder to tell with a uppercase "O" and "0".

When saying them, certainly in the UK, "Oh" can be both o and zero.

If I'm trying to say zero it's clear, but if I'm trying to say o, how do I convey that clearly? And the same for typed emails using default fonts etc?

For my specific case, the company name is ia2o ltd... Pronounced aye eh too oh. Sadly there's no clear context here.


texts: What is the difference of these two sentences?

texts:
Please explain the difference of these sentences....

1) The garden is not as large as yours.

2) The garden is not larger than yours.

I feel these are same. But is there difference? Please teach me. Thanks.


texts: Adjective describing possession by someone else

texts:
Is there any adjective in English that would describe a quality of belonging or being in the possession of someone else who is not the speaker?

In short, what adjective would you substitute for the words in bold below:

  What's inside of this bag?

  I don't know. This is not my bag.

or

  What's inside of this bag?

  I don't know. This bag is not mine.

or

  Jack, don't touch that toy car.

  Why?

  Because that toy is not yours.


texts: Frequency of word use vs number of words

texts:
Let's consider a partition of the words in the english language according to respective use frequency.

Looking at the frequency graph it should be easy to find classes of words with approximately the same frequency.

Now I'm interested in the size of these classes.

I know that the size depends on the relative cut-off points, but I'm more interested in a general classification, i.e. are there more common words, or more uncommon words?


texts: Is "offer something someone" without "to" in between correct?

texts:
I interpret the latter part of the following sentence to mean "and are quite unprepared to offer the priority seats to those whom the seats are meant for."
If this is correct, "to" seems to be missing between them and those. Or is this sentence correct the way it is?

  The 88-year-old, who lives off Hills Road, said: “On our buses it is very common for young people to occupy priority seats and are quite unprepared to offer them those the seats are meant for. (Cambridge News, 2014.4.12.)


texts:
One scary example is a 2016 Google thought experiment, euphemistically
called ‘Project X’, that openly hypothesised behavioural data being
“given a volition or purpose rather than simply acting as a historical
reference,” that “reflect Google’s values as an organisation.” In
effect, if Google decided as a company it wanted to address a societal
problem like global warming, or, alternatively, endorse a political
candidate that would give them a massive tax break, this suggested it
could use data and automated processes to achieve that end.

I guess the bolded 'it' refers to Google, but then 'itself' seems to be more natural to me. Is it common to use it as reflexive use?


texts: -phobia word for fear of hearing speeches

texts:
I'm looking for a phobia word for someone who hates listening to speeches because they find them so embarrassing. For example, a bride at a wedding or someone about to receive an award might be embarrassed to hear speeches in their praise, not liking to be in the spotlight. Or a member of the audience might be embarrassed because they find speeches false/formal/sycophantic etc.

Google has lots of hits for fear of public speaking ie giving a speech, but nothing I could find for fear of listening to speeches.  I already looked on Wikipedia and Phobialist but could not see anything obvious.

I'm not looking for adjectives such as shy, awkward, unassuming etc, I'm looking for the specific phobia word. If one does not exist, can anyone suggest one? It doesn't have to be suitable for psychology text books, it can be on the lines of 'Monday Morning-phobia'.


texts: What is the difference between an Emperor and a King?

texts:
I was at a loss when I was asked recently by my grand-daughter who is a school girl about the difference between Emperor and King. She asked me why Great Britain has King and Queen, while Germany and Russia had the Emperors, and France had both Kings and Emperors. All what I could tell her was, ‘you’d better study by yourself, don’t count on others.”
Being sorry for her, I checked dictionaries at hand, but was simply confounded.
For instance, OALD defines:

Emperor: the ruler of empire.
Empire: a group of countries that are controlled by one ruler / government.
King: the (male) ruler of an independent state / country that has a royal family.
Kingdom: a country ruled by a king (or queen).

The difference seems to be;

King has a royal family.
Empire is a group of countries (under one ruler).

But emperors have royal families as well, and Japan that has had the emperors for a millennium has been a single country (except the imperialism era of 1910–1945), and China who had emperors wasn’t a group of countries.
Can you tell me what is or are the essential (functional and institutional) difference(s) between Emperor and King so that I can give a belated answer to my grand-daughter?


texts: Past Simple vs Present Perfect for not finished period of time in AmE

texts:
everyone!
I googled this topic a lot but all materials I find are about BrE, textbooks about American grammar don't mention this situation.
Is it correct to say
"I drank three cups of coffee this morning (or today)"
in American English?


texts: When do you pronounce 'neither' as [nˈiːð.ə(ɹ)] and when [nˈaɪð.ə(ɹ)]?

texts:
Our english speaking teacher told us there were two pronunciations of the word 'neither': [nˈiːð.ə(ɹ)] and [nˈaɪð.ə(ɹ)]. Which one you use is supposed to be determined from the sound of the sentence somehow.

Can anybody clarify this?


texts:
As well as being an adjective, fast is an adverb.  We use it all the time as such:

  He ran fast.

However, though slow is definitely an adjective, it sounds wrong when used as an adverb, because slowly is more common.

  He ran slow.

We would always say:

  He ran slowly.

My question is, why isn't fast treated the same way as slow; why is there no fastly, while there is a slowly?


texts: I need some help in this case of subordination

texts: As I have studied and learnt from my teachers and from grammar books that we do not put comma before subordinating conjunction when subordinating clause comes after independent clause, but I have seen in a book by the name of "SAT 2 WRITING 4th edition" that they have used comma before ALTHOUGH and EVEN IF.


texts:
There are prefixes of time and order (pre-, post-), of location (sub-, super-), for expressing the reversing of an action (de-, dis-), and go on.

English words may take prefixes from one or two of those groups. Words of the latter types are, for example, unpremeditated or antidisestablishment.

Is there a name for words, like unpremeditated or antidisestablishment, having two prefixes incorporated?


texts:
Is paste a correct term to refer to mashed potatoes?

I heard it today from a non-native speaker from India and I was a bit surprised.


texts:
I got confusion with naming lists.

What should I use when I want to say "smthng list".

Contact list or contactS list

Audition list or auditionS list

class list or classES list (class like math class or physics).
I know that there is other way to say with "List of something", but I need correct 1st variant. I use it in naming variables (programming).


texts: Is there a word beyond reflection, that is 'using the past mistakes to learn for the future?'

texts:
Currently writing a thesis, and a thesaurus has not yielded any positive results. If avoidable, I would love to stop repeating 'reflect', 'reflection' etc, in my paper.

Thank you in advance.


texts: Is there a rule for the correct pronunciation of words starting with "ex"?

texts:
The following words are pronounced starting with an iks / igz:

extent  [ɪkˈstent]
expect  [ɪk'spekt]
exterminate  [ɪk'stɜːmɪneɪt]
external  [ɪkˈstɜːn(ə)l]
exhaust  [ɪg'zɔːst]
examine  [ɪg'zæmɪn]
exact [ɪɡˈzækt]

The following words are pronounced starting with an eks:

extant  [ek'stænt]
extra  ['ekstrə]
execute  ['eksɪkjuːt]
exhale  [eks'heɪl]
excellent  [ˈeksələnt]
excavate  [ˈekskəveɪt]

So, I have this question on my mind for a while: Is there a rule of thumb to determine whether the words starting with an ex must be pronounced with iks or eks?


texts: "With an (instrument)" and "by (instrument)"

texts:
"We forced the door with a jimmy" is idiomatic whereas "The door was forced by jimmy" (Note there is no article after 'by' in this sentence) is also idiomatic. However, "We forced the door by jimmy" is not. I wonder whether one or the other is idiomatic is based on the passive-active difference. I can't assess whether the following sentences are idiomatic, as I'm a non-native speaker. If you could please help me with this, I'd be very much obliged.

[1-a] We drew lines with a straight edge.

[1-b] Lines were drawn by straight edge.

[2-a] We held the unknown object with the tongs we found in the lab.

[2-b] The unknown object was held by the tongs we found in the lab.

[3-a] We ate the beans with chopsticks.

[3-b] The beans were eaten by chopsticks.

[4-a] We cleaned the room with a broom and a mop.

[4-b] The room was cleaned by broom and mop.

[5-a] We cut the paper with such a peculiar instrument.

[5-b] The paper was cut by such a peculiar instrument.

[6-a] We measured the length of the rope with a ruler.

[6-b] The length of the rope was measured by ruler.


texts: Why is "safe haven" used so frequently, by those who should know better?

texts: A haven is a place that is safe.  So, "safe haven" is redundant.  Shockingly, several state legislatures have even passed laws for dropping off babies with no penalty; these laws are usually referred to as "safe haven" laws.


texts:
If one is wishing to say that a certain deceased composer is the best among all, living or dead, ought one to say "Mahler is the greatest" or "Mahler was the greatest"? If the former, can this tense also be used for conductors, for example if one were to say "Bernstein is the greatest"?

It seems possible to me that one might be able to say that "Mahler is the greatest" owing to "Mahler" having become shorthand for "Mahler's works"; again, if so, would this also be true for conductors?


texts: What is the origin and meaning of the acle ending in words like oracle, debacle, tabernacle, miracle, spectacle. Or are there more than one explanation/meaning here?


texts: Synonym for "New" in the "Whole Cloth" sense

texts:
If I buy a "new" car, there is ambiguity.

My "new" car might be replacing my daily driver and this isn't very exciting.

My "new" car might might be a hotrod red Corvette and suddenly my "new" car is conveying not just a physically new car, but the promise of new experiences and even maybe a "new" (sexier, cooler) me.

How can I say the car is "new" to encapsulate the physical new + the spiritual new?

"Whole cloth" is the only other idiom I can come up with. I don't think it fits. Suggestions?

EDIT: We use the idiom "good-as-new" to describe the positive-aspiration of a repair, and we say "I'm a new person" after a positive spiritual experience. Somehow the idiomatic nature of these phrases we automatically associate with the spiritual positivity I am looking for. But not used idiomatically.

EDIT 2: Some examples:

If I say "I bought a new toy" my family understands I didn't actually buy a child's toy, rather I bought something inconsequential or hobby related that I hold in a positive regard maybe even with delusions of grandeur. This is another idiom, but see the next example.

It's common for people to say "I bought a new boat" not just to convey that they bought a boat, but with the subtext that "My 9-5 grind is over, I'm now about to live a life of adventure."

Or "I'm moving to a new house": while it could represent the physical condition, i.e. the old house is falling apart, it also represents "I'm financially secure, wanting room to expand, and my tastes have improved."

As I am pointing out, "new" is ambiguous. And in all of these cases, "new" is an adjective on the noun in which the adjective is subtextually about the speaker and not the noun. Does this make sense? Great!

Therefore, what is form of speech of "new" in those examples, and what is a less ambiguous word than new?


texts: Did Russell make a grammatical mistake here? "...both that China had ... and had..."

texts:
This is a sentence from Bertrand Russell' work. Notice that the sub-clauses following both ... and ... do not exactly match. I wonder if Russell made a grammatical mistake here.

  I was impressed by the facts both that China had been able to settle all her other border disputes by negotiation and had already, before this last and disastrous flare-up, offered to negotiate with India the border questions which were in dispute between them.

Source: Russell, Bertrand. Unarmed Victory. New York: Simon And Schuster, 1963. 102. Print.


texts: Voice mail text: "Please leave a message after the..."

texts:
I am wondering: Is "Please leave a message after the signal" American English?

You will most often hear "...after the tone" in the UK, I guess.


texts: Can [gi] sound be at the end of an English word?

texts:
I am an Arabic person, and my family name is "Basrugi", but, what I know is that if the letter 'g' be followed by 'e', 'i', or 'y' it will be pronounced as /dʒiː/.

So, when an English person reads "Basrugi", he will interpret it as /basru:dʒi:/.

My whole point is there is a way or even a foreign character that can represent "Basrugi" pronunciation as /basru:gi:/ instead of /basru:dʒi:/?


texts: Inversion in "Only when the virus introduces its nucleic acid into a cell does disease occur"

texts:
Given this sentence,

  Disease occurs only when the virus introduces its nucleic acid into a cell.

Is the following inversion grammatical?

  → Only when the virus introduces its nucleic acid into a cell does disease occur.

Especially the "does disease occur" part.

I think that "occurs disease " is right. Can you explain a rule about this kind of sentence?


texts: “Which course are you enrolled in?” vs. “Under which course are you enrolled?”

texts:
If I want to ask someone about the course they are taking, what would be the more appropriate usage:

Which course are you enrolled in?
Under which course are you enrolled?


texts: I have seen games using both forms time's up and time up to say that the time is up. Which is correct?


texts: Is it possible to omit a punctuation in a poster?

texts:
Is it possible to omit punctuation in a poster?
The poster I am working with consists of text: "Yes, you can! Yes, you did!".

This poster is motivational. It dedicated to one particular person and symbolized the self-competence of the person.

This text will be placed in two blocks, separated by asterisks symbol:

The two text boxes represent two periods of time:

the top box represents the moment of time when the person not sure about the possibility of achieving the expected results;
the bottom text box represents the moment when all the objectives realized successfully, and
the asterisk symbol represents a period between two events.

The motivational message of the poster is: "Yes, maybe you not fully realize how you achieve the objective, you afraid of the complexity and ambiguity but after the period of a certain time, you will overview the results, and you will be amazed by the results obtained!"

Is it possible to omit punctuation is this particular case without a loss of meaning?


texts:
I am wondering whether the omission of the relative pronouns is correct for the following sentence:

Older adults who are more socially isolated are more likely to experience depression.
Older adults more socially isolated are more likely to experience depression.

Are both of the sentences above correct?
Thank you for your help.


texts: Is there a word for the end of a bridge?

texts:
I would like to say that someone is standing at the end of a bridge, waiting to meet someone else.

Is there a word for the end of the bridge, besides just 'end'?

I'm thinking something like a river's mouth.


texts: What are the advantages of having different word forms for different tenses?

texts:
I'm always wondering this question: what benefits can people get from using different forms of words in different contexts?

For example:

We say "he learns English" instead of "he learn English" but doesn't the pronoun "he" already indicate the sentence is in 3rd person?
We say "yesterday he drank too much beer" instead of "yesterday he drink too much beer" but doesn't the word "yesterday" already indicate the action happened in the past?
We say "he is going to read these 3 books during the holiday" instead of "he is going to read these 3 book during the holiday" but doesn't the number "3" already indicate how many books there are?

How is having various word forms advantageous in languages like English?


texts: "Fall term", "autumn semester", "autumn term" or "fall semester"?

texts:
Please clarify which is UK English, American English, and where and when to use which:

Fall term (American English?)
Autumn semester (UK English?)
Autumn term (wrong?)
Fall semester (wrong?)


texts: Mixed metaphors are usually speech mistakes by people, and are very amusing. Here are a few examples.Is there a single word for denoting mixed metaphors?


texts: Term for this type of mis-pronunciation?

texts:
When I was a kid, for years I thought

  nihilism

was pronounced "nil-ism".

I guess this is because I only ever read it, rather than being exposed to hearing it.

Since "nil-ism" perfectly expresses the concept by coincidence, it stuck, until I embarrassingly learned I was pronouncing it wrong! (Making it hard to discuss Sartre, etc.)

{For anyone learning English reading this, it's just pronounced nye-ill-ism - it's a variation of "annihilate".}

A similar thing, I once heard an adult (well-educated) say "pseudo" as "puh-sway-do" rather than sue-doh.

(Again, I assume since the person had only read it and not heard it.)

A similar word might be segue: I bet lots of people say "seeg".

In fact, do linguists (or .. someone?) have a technical term for this?  What's the deal?

Mispronunciation due to, I suppose in short having never heard the word in use but rather just reading it.

So, if you have a wonderful liberal education with professors saying "nihilist" and "pseudo" all the time, this wouldn't happen - it's kind of a, let's say, "self-taught pronunciation misunderstanding!"

Term?


texts: Capitalization of the short form of a compound noun, with a definite article

texts:
Example:

Northern College's senior administration is considering a $100 million investment in campus infrastructure. Alumni groups have objected, citing a record of poor stewardship of the College's limited resources in the past. The administration contends that a review of similar spending among peer colleges in the Consortium for Greater Learning justifies the proposal.

Here, "Northern College" is the full proper noun, and there is no controversy that both words should be capitalized. However, I am less clear on whether subsequent mentions of this proper noun, and in particular in situations where the definite article form is used to refer to the proper noun ("the College") is correct.
It seems that, since the definite article form is a stand-in for a specific proper noun, capitalization is appropriate. But I don't know if this is a style question, or is governed by specific rules. The subsequent use ("peer colleges") clearly does not refer to a specific proper noun, and so falls squarely into the non-capitalized category.
Other, similar questions here seem to indicate that this style of noun capitalization is common in legal writing, but perhaps is less common or appropriate outside of that context.


texts: Word for a "false idea with a pragmatic outcome better than that of the truth"?

texts:
Reading an article (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/02/bad-air/618106/) regarding historical responses to pandemics and the author brings up an interesting point contrasting our modern response with that of previous generations:

A few years ago, when I still had confidence in our modern ability to fight viruses, I pored over a photo essay of the 1918 flu pandemic. How quaint I remember thinking, as I looked at people bundled up for outdoor classes and court and church. How primitive their technology, those nurses in gauze masks. How little did I know. I felt secure, foolishly, in our 100 additional years of innovation.
But it would soon become clear that our full-body hazmat suits and negative-pressure rooms and HEPA filters mattered little to Americans who couldn’t find N95 masks. In our quest for perfect solutions, we’d forgotten an extremely obvious and simple one: fresh air. A colleague joked, at one point, that things would have gone better in the pandemic if we still believed in miasma theory. Miasma theory—discredited, of course, by the rise of germ theory—held that disease came from “bad air” emanating from decomposing matter and filth.

My question stems from the observation which I've put in bold above: is there an English word, phrase, or concept, for when a false idea has a pragmatic outcome better than that of the truth?
The example here (agree or disagree) is that the emphasis on ventilation of Florence Nightengale borne of her belief in the "witchcraft" of miasma theory would've produced a better outcome in a pandemic than that of the "more advanced" and empirically correct germ theory which replaced it.
Again, this can be applied to other scenarios or "debunked superstitions", and I am not asking whether you agree or disagree with the central point here, but just wondering if there's a nice concise word or phrase which expresses this phenomenon.
Thank you!


texts: How should one punctuate “upper right most”?

texts:
For upper right most, I’ve seen it written upper-right most, upper-right-most, and with no hyphens at all.

What makes the most sense to me is upper rightmost, but it’s hard to tell that upper right is the adjective to which most is being applied.


texts: Can "pragmatic" be used as a noun, e.g. "He was a pragmatic"?

texts:
Like "He was a romantic."

I'm aware of the word pragmatist, but the word pragmatic sounds better in my application.


texts: What does "black Care" mean in _Uncle Silas_?

texts:
What does "black Care" mean in the following passage from Uncle Silas by J.T. Sheridan Le Fanu?

Waiting for the train, as we stood upon the platform, I looked back again toward the wooded uplands of Bartram; and far behind, the fine range of mountains, azure and soft in the distance, beyond which lay beloved old Knowl, and my lost father and mother, and the scenes of my childhood, never embittered except by the sibyl who sat beside me.
Under happier circumstances I should have been, at my then early age, quite wild with pleasurable excitement on entering London for the first time. But black Care sat by me, with her pale hand in mine: a voice of fear and warning, whose words I could not catch, was always in my ear. We drove through London, amid the glare of lamps, toward the West End, and for a little while the sense of novelty and curiosity overcame my despondency, and I peeped eagerly from the window.


texts: Word that describes a clown who weakens an argument by taking a side

texts:
When there is more than one side in a debate, an argument can be weakened by someone who is seen as stupid or a joker if they are vocal about it. This invalidates your beliefs because if crazy person also holds the same opinion and may also be misrepresenting facts, it must be untrue, and people will dismiss your factual claims.

What is this phenomenon called?

Also what is the person called who does this? I should mention there is a specific term, and it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite remember!

Thanks


texts: Why did English borrow verbs ending in -ish?

texts:
Why did English borrow verbs ending in -ish, but not in anything else, from French?
This seems quite obscure because it didn't import the verbs from the infinitive French forms, but through some sorts of obscure stems. I mean wouldn't it be more straightforward to use finir than finish?
As the etymology section of Wiktionary suggests, -ish comes from some sort of obscure French stem -iss. English borrowed change from Old French changier, why didn't it use the same deriving method with -ish verbs?
Dropping the -r, adding the -en, then dropping it again in Modern English. I'm not sure what that'd make an English verb from finir look like, but it seems like a more natural and straightforward route.


texts: What is the right term to refer to "all students" admitted in year 2014?

texts:
All students graduated in 2014 can be referred to as "class of 2014", but what term is used to refer "all students" admitted in year 2014?

Thanks!


texts:
A “varietal” is a wine made principally from one variety of grape, such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, etc. In that sense, “varietal” is a noun.

You can also say a “varietal wine”, as “varietal” is also an adjective meaning “relating to a variety” (a variety of grape, for example).

It seems the correct noun to name the different kinds of grapes is “variety”, not “varietal”. You can say: “this variety is grown mainly in Argentina”.

However, I frequent some internet wine forums and I have noticed that many members (all wine geeks) talk about grape “varietals” making reference to grape “varieties”. They say things like “this varietal is grown only in Chile”. The use of “varietal” as a synonym of “variety” is so pervasive that I have seen some wine forum members argue that it should be accepted. Other members do not agree and try to correct their peers whenever they make the mistake. Who are right?


texts:
Normally when going from a verb to a person who performs that verb, one adds er to the verb. So, if you walk you are a walker; if you deal you are a dealer, and so on.

But I noticed recently that pest and pester are the wrong way round. If you pester, then you are a pest.

My question is: is this a one-off, or are there other verbs that share this phenomenon?


texts: Does "Mafia" come from Sicilian meaning "death to the French"?

texts:
Someone once mentioned to me (must have been a Sicilian patriot or something) that in some kind of ancient long-forgotten Sicilian slang the word "mafia" actually meant "Death to the French!"

I mean, it stands to reason. There are rumors that the Cosa Nostra was born on the very night when all Sicilians, or all Sicilians worth speaking of, anyway, rose as one and wiped out all businessmen from Anjou in Palermo and elsewhere to keep them from oppressing them economically. Or something. There's a very popular opera by Giuseppe Verdi on the subject. For obvious reasons, there is no French opera on the same subject.

The word "mafia" has been an English word for quite a while; thus, the question is legitimate: could it be true? Was it really Sicilian initially, and did it really mean "Death to the French!"? I've heard other stories ... I mean, versions ... but this one is awfully romantic, and we're all romantics at heart. Any thoughts and/or facts?


texts:
In this address, should a comma go after "St."?

  "22222 Blah St.[,] Unit #2"

Comma or no comma?


texts:
Is there any term (a diminutive) in English for "little body"? I suppose that the forms such as "bodylet" and "bodyling" are utterly incorrect.

Here is the context: "Graving snow caressing the little body dismembered".


texts:
I'm really confused about where to put the words "more" and "less" in an imperative sentence.

For example, in the imperative "Wash your hands more", MORE is written after the noun.

However, in "Eat less candy" we put LESS before the noun.

As far as I know, MORE and LESS are adverbs in this context, so should we always put them after the verbs?

I also wish to know if both "Do more exercise" and "Do exercise more" are grammatically correct?

Can you guys show me where to put MORE and LESS in imperatives?


texts: takes XXX km's trip? with XXX population?

texts:
Is the following sentence grammatical?

  It takes 16 km and 25 km’s trip to go to Bransdon (with 15,000 population) and Cransdon (with 29,000 population) respectively.

I have two doubts:

Can one really say "it takes 16 km and 25 km's trip to go to ..."?

First, I think one can only say "it takes xxx hours to go to xxx" (takes time, not distance)
Second, suppose one can say "it takes xxx km", is it correct to say "it takes a 16 km's trip"?
Can one really say "with xxx population"?

I think one can only say "with a population of xxx". Is this correct?


texts: Idiom or phrase about a situation in which a person has little hope

texts: Is there an idiom or phrase associated with a time when a person has little hope and has to choose between bad and worse options?


texts:
Taking in with a wave of his hand the rich, black earth spreading all the way to the horizon, he exclaimed: “My God, what couldn’t we do with such wonderful land.” Then he added as an afterthought: “But I suppose we would have become like them.”

Could anyone explain me Taking in with a wave of his hand the rich, black earth spreading all the way to the horizon?


texts: Is saying someone did something idiotic the same as calling them an idiot?

texts:
At work, someone told me something I did is idiotic.

I retorted that they shouldn't call me an idiot.

They said they didn't call me an idiot.

What ensued was a highly semantic discussion about them saying they didn't use the word idiot itself and that, if they had, this would mean the person always does idiotic things, which they said is not what they meant. I said I can call someone an idiot for doing one idiotic thing (like if someone crashes into me whilst driving because they're on the phone, then I can say, "You idiot!" - this doesn't mean I think they do idiotic things all the time, not least because I wouldn't know).

In other words, if someone says what you did is idiotic, is it right to think and be upset that they called you an idiot?


texts: Is there a difference between "select of your own choosing [something]" and "select [something] of your own choosing"?

texts: What is the semantic difference between "select of your own choosing a partner" and "select a partner of your own choosing"? Slightly awkward grammar aside, the first seems to suggest that the choice is whether or not to participate in the selection process, while the second seems to suggest that the choice is of the partner, but is there any real difference between these two wordings?


texts: This paper has been framed by two seemingly recurring topics in IS research


texts:
I like the way contractions operate and I know the difference between "it's" and "its" based on contraction and possession. That is, "it's = it is" and "its" is possessive.

However, there are some sentences when I feel justified in replacing "it is" with its contraction, but for some reason it doesn't sound right nor does it read correctly to me:

  The method won't be approved because of how difficult it is to implement.

compared to

  The method won't be approved because of how difficult it's to implement.

Is this a correct (or uncommon) usage of the contraction "it's"? Why does it sound awkward when spoken?


texts: Words comprising the 322 most frequent syllables?

texts:
There is a list of 322 most common syllables which when used can make up the 5000 most frequent words in the english language.
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7539/urlt/manual.pdf (Page 34-36)

How do I find naming convention was used for these syllables so that I can find words that contain them.

A different list of most common syllables with words to match would also do.


texts: Looking for exactly meaning of "all down the line" in a children's song

texts:
I heard a song: Our school will shine today

(youtube song link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfhO_3i9Apo)

Lyrics are as follows:

  Our school will shine today, our school will shine

  Our school will shine today, all down the line

  Our school will shine today, our school will shine

  When the sun goes down, when the moon goes up

  Our school will shine

I looked up "all down the line".

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms

  In the future

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer

  All the way, throughout.
  At a future point or end.

The phrase "all down the line" in the song confuses me.

Does it mean

1. Our school will shine sometime in the future ?

2. Our school will shine completely and thoroughly?

3. Our school will shine completely and thoroughly in the future ?

What does it actually mean in the song?


texts: Opposite to 'verbatim' - like, but not exactly, 'paraphrased'

texts:
I'm looking for a word that is pretty much opposite to 'verbatim', but not 'paraphrased.' A word that means capturing the idea of something but not the exact phrasing.

I'm typing notes from an event I attended, and I want to differentiate between exact (or near-exact quotations,) and notes I'm making right now based on my memory - e.g. my current impression of what was said originally. So I'm not exactly paraphrasing in that I'm not rewording a specific quote. I've a section of my notes dedicated to verbatim quotes, and a section dedicated to [missing word].

I guess I could go with 'Impressions' or something but it's also not quite right.


texts: What is the exact meaning of "English"? Why this language identified as "English"?

texts: It struck me while searching for the meaning of the word English: what could be the meaning of the word "English", and why is this language called "English"?


texts: A friend of mine recently got invited to a speech given by Barack Obama on his trip to Brussels. She wrote "Me too invited" on her Facebook profile. I told her it sounded pidgin. She didn't seem to agree. As I am not a native English speaker, I couldn't really explain why I thought it was shaky, only saying that I felt that way. I suggested "I'm invited too" or the use of a coma "Me too, invited." Did I, as she suggested, sound like a complete fool?


texts:
I read in a paper:

  One such genus is Dinemasporium which ... characterised by superficial, cupulate to discoid conidiomata with brown setae, and phialidic conidiogenous cells that give rise to hyaline, oblong to allantoid, aseptate conidia with an appendage at each end.

In the phrase "oblong to allantoid", is the word oblong valid for this context? If not, what other word would work?

** I am editing to thank you all.  Although few people agreed to close this question (because they concern to the whole phrases), I should have told that I was confused for the phrase oblong to allantoid. It is clear now for me that oblong to allantoid means the range of genus Dinemasporium is oblong (Roughly rectangular or ellipsoidal-shaped) to allantoid (Sausage-shaped; spores that are long with rounded ends).
I also learned from this journal for the word oblong in the same context; The conidia were subhyaline, oblong, and ellipsoid to allantoid.


texts: Does the word “umpty” have two different meanings?

texts:
I happened to learn the word “umpty” in association with “umpteen” appearing in the following sentence in the article titled “Obama’s Gitmo Problem” in May 24 New York Times:

  Late Wednesday afternoon, President Obama made his big national
  security speech — in which he said, for the umpteenth time, that
  the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be closed.

Both Merriam-Webster online dictionary and Readers English Japanese Dictionary at hand define ‘umpty’ as ‘such and such,’ in the same wording with an example, ‘umpty percent of all new houses’ in Merriam Webster. It sounds like simply saying ‘a certain’ or 'X' against an unidentifiable number or thing.

While both ‘Free dictionary’ and ‘Dictionary com’ define it as ‘an indefinite, fairly large number’ in the same wording.

Though implications of ‘such and such’ looks different from ‘an indefinite, large number’ to me, are all saying the same thing, or there are two different meanings in this word?

Neither Cambridge nor Oxford Dictionary carries this word. Is ‘umpty’ popular English word?

Can you give me a couple of examples of the use of “umpty” other than ‘umpty percent of something’’?


texts: Proper way to adjectivize the word "deity"

texts: Having looked it up, no dictionary I can find lists a definition for "deitous," so I was wondering if perhaps I added the the wrong suffix to "deity" to turn it into adjective? This is more of a pedantic question, but just out of curiosity, does anyone know of a word like what I'm describing?


texts: Is "there is a crack in the kettle liner" a correct/clear expression?

texts: I am trying to describe the defect of my newly arrived electric kettle. There is a black spot in the liner, looks like a piece of the coating layer has fell off. What is the most simple and clear description? Can I say "there is a crack in the kettle liner"?


texts:
It seems the noun derived from the verb "disable" is disablement.

"Disablement time" or "disablement duration" sounds a little awkward to me though. "Disable time" sounds better, and also gives much more Google hits. But would you say that is correct or acceptable? How about "disabling time"?

(Or is my question misworded; are you even supposed to use a noun in such context?)

Background: I'm trying to decide the name of a setting that specifies the time for which a certain software functionality is disabled.


texts:
I'm sorry for asking what will be such a simple question but I'm not sure exactly how With is used in sentences where that's the first word.

Is that what it took to fall in love with someone? Would it take years of living with Nali to love her? Then so be it. With those thoughts he turned on his heel and... [Nali, Esther Henry]
"Where did Grant go? Shit, he must have left. I wonder if he knows that I'm still alive... That would be rather careless of him to not kill me if he wanted me dead. Hmm..." With those thoughts, the man stood up and walked off. ["God of War" on Zetaboards]
"It has been almost a year since it began, I can not go on like this much longer." With those thoughts he started the day. [Martin Wolf on The Indie Stone]

etc


texts:
I've came across this article which uses the phrase "poured cloud water". Is this a well known expression? Searching Google, the first page shows me only places where this article is quoted.

From the article the meaning would seem to be "to debunk", if it's a well known phrase is that accurate?
And where does the phrase come from? Cloud water is rain, I guess. Why would raining mean something like that and in such a wording?
Could be that the writer invented it, but it seems strange to me.


texts: What do you call a 'Nickname' that's longer than the actual name?

texts:
I'm pretty sure I used to know the term for a nickname that was longer or an expansion of a person's name.

EXAMPLE:  My name is Sunny but friends sometimes call me Sunshine.

Though longer, Sunshine is still a nickname since nicknames don't have to be shorter than the original.  But I'm sure there's a specialized term for this sort of reverse construction.  Help!


texts: Are there any other meanings for "belie??"

texts:
Sorry for my asking again in this short term, but somehow I ended up finding another one on SAO volume 6, followed by the volume 5 I brought up in the latest question.
So I want you to help me get what I don't get again. Thanks.

There's a word "belie" which I figured only means "to turn your back on someone close" or "whether deliberately or not, to inform something incorrect."
And here's a sentence this understanding doesn't seem to work on. But first of all I'd like to tell you what's going on there.

Oh, probably another little spoiler for SAO believers!:

Dyne, who does very good at this Bullet of Bullet, or some kind of gun-shooting championship where the participants fire at each other till everyone besides one the only winner goes down, is now on his stomach on the shore, after leaving forest and racing down the long bridge within a few seconds to throw himself into ambush for shooting his opponent, who's supposedly about to appear onto the bridge from the other side, untill he's content.

Now he's thinking he got his prey completely, but behind Dyne is hiding two players too.

The following sentences are one out of them's thoughts.

  "Dyne was still down in firing position on this side of the long bridge. The way he held the SG 550 straight, without a single twitch,
  belied an impressive level of concentration..."

Before I talk about what's driving me nuts, I really want to know what you thought is the problem if there'd be any.

Okay.
Now let me tell you for him what author, an original writer must've intended to say. What's written there in Japanese.

The way he held the SG 550 straight, without a single twitch----indeed, he seems to have an impressive level of concentration from here.

Yes, I could be misunderstanding the translated one, I admit it. If anything, I want to admit it.
But I feel like something is strange about this. It's little...different from other translation fails.
Because, you know, if my common sense's still working, it's supposed to be a total opposite translate, is it??

It was thus that, after a few attempts to grasp what on earth the translater meant to say, I was stuck. Have come up with nothing so far. It just doesn't make any sense to me yet.

Little longer than before, and to think that the last one is already too much longer...if it tired you out to read all of this, I'm sorry.
Anyway if you could give me the answer to this, I'd very happy. Thanks.


texts: Did the slang term "The Bomb" meaning "Very Cool" come from the American Jazz scene?

texts:
Searching Google for the history of the slang term "the bomb" (as in "That song is the bomb") yields a number of results in 40s/50s jazz glossaries, but they tend to at best give an artificial example of usage, nothing about the actual history behind the usage. Here's one such glossary (there are numerous others): Jazz Slang.

I'm wondering if this is based on some actual history of the term, or if a bunch of "jazz glossaries" are just copying from each other, especially since there are some other comprehensive glossaries that do not include the term. I also very much thought the term was more modern than the Jazz Era, but I could be falling for the recency fallacy there. Then again, considering that the atomic bomb was dropped in the 40's it's feasible that the term originated in the Jazz scene.

The oldest reference I could find of this usage is from 1973 here, but I don't have access to the OED, so I'm not sure if there's an older reference in there. Several regular dictionaries include this meaning, but either don't list any origin or only say "Origin: US".

I found an article on dictionary.com, Lexical Investigations: Bomb, which mostly focuses on a different related terms (just "bomb" not "the bomb"), but  in passing says "the bomb" originated in Great Britain and rubbed off on Americans in the 90's. But it doesn't give any citations or references to support that.

Related question about the term "cool", which did originate in the Jazz scene: Where did the slang usages of "cool" come from?


texts:
I'm listening to the song What shall we do with the drunken sailor and now can't understand what they advise to do with the drunken sailor:

  Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him.

Scuppers is a draining system on a boat. I don't think it's big enough to put a man in there.

But the most weird phrase to me is with a hose-pipe on him.

How shall I understand it? Do they advise to cover the sailor with those pipes or use them any other way? How?

Please, help me to understand the metaphor.


texts: Is there a word for someone being both 'Spectator and Participant'?

texts:
I was wondering if there is a single word for someone being 'both spectator and participant', as in "In the grand scheme of universe I am just another identity who is both a spectator and a participant". Observer (though not accurate) is a good replacement, but it is somewhat a common term. A more unique/fancy/special word would be desirable.

Thanks


texts:
As in "it is possible to try it again". "Tryable" seems to be the one mostly used online, if you type it in Google. Onelook Dictionary Search only returns an entry for "tryable" from Wordnik, not from any of the major online dictionaries.

Which spelling is the correct one for this meaning?


texts:
If "as shown in Figure" appears at the end of the sentence, is it always necessary to put a comma before "as", or there are conditions in which we do not use commas?

Example:
These constraints give rise to a graph with three edges, as shown in Figure 1.


texts: Difference between traumata and traumas?

texts: Why are there two plural forms of trauma? How do traumas and traumata differ in origin and nature? Is one incorrect?


texts: What does the "removed" mean in this sentence?

texts:
Boston College, two weeks removed from upsetting USC, took a home loss to Colorado State, 24-21.
Host Pittsburgh, two weeks removed from an impressive 3-0 start, stumbled for a second straight game, taking a 21-10 defeat to Akron.

I'm not a native English speaker and sort of confused to understand this sentence especially the two "removed"s.


texts:
Word containing "my", where the "y" is pronounced like the "y" in "yes"?

NOT a word where the "y" is pronounced like a different letter. They can either be in the same syllable or adjacent ones, as long as they're spelled "my".

I just need one example word, but I'm having a hard time finding even one...


texts: Differences between To throw and To throw at?

texts:
I throw the paper to you.

I throw the paper at you.

What is the difference?
And why and how the "at" changes this meaning?


texts: On the wall, at the table but how to say ON or AT the surface of the shell?


texts:
In this sentence, should I use past continuous form of the verb or past simple or it in the gap?

  Last night, I was sleeping in my bed, when I ------- (hear) a terrible noise. I ------ (get up) immediately and ------- (run) outside.


texts:
I have a friend from Illinois USA who uses measles as an exclamation of frustration or disappointment. For example,

  Measles!  My flight was just canceled.

I find this odd. Is it commonly used this way?


texts: What is a word for an employee who works at geographically different location than the rest of the team?

texts: I am aware of the word remote, but in these times, remote has come to mean people working from home. I am trying to distinguish that from someone who works at a remote location.


texts: Expressing contentment about receiving a letter

texts: Someone wrote to me. I'm writing him back. I want to say, in formal speech, that I'm glad that he wrote to me. How do I do that? I guess I can just say "I'm glad to hear from you" but maybe you could suggest a more elegant expression.


texts:
Should we use commas before and after white people in the sentence below or not?

We white people look down upon an African-American boy, girl, man and woman as a potential criminal in this country.


texts: Why is the Elizabethan English incorrect in this quote?

texts:
I saw a Geico commercial with Elizabethan verb forms that bothered me because they were being misused:

  Trick Number 1. Lookest over there!
  Servant looks
  Haha! Madest thou look!
  So endest the trick!

How would a native speaker of Elizabethan English have phrased these sentences? Specifically, what verb forms would they have used if this scene were authentic?


texts: Is there a verb that describes the act of regularily particpating in track and field?  You don't play track and field.  We often use "do" for karate or other matial arts, but do you do track and field?


texts: "He was a considerable cut above the leagers" meaning

texts:
What does the boldened part of this sentence mean?:

As it turned out this man (a senior Foreign Affairs Advisor) was a considerable cut above the bush leaguers we had been dealing with.


texts:
I recently saw this image:

https://www.google.pl/search?tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSHQkY_1wo-9gUZnBoSCxCwjKcIGgAMCxCOrv4IGgAM

(in context of personal skills, T-shaped set of copetencies, if that is of importance).

What struck me is the use of "broad + depth" as opposed to "breadth + depth" or "broad + deep" which just does not look good to me.

I am not, however, a native speaker so I would like one to come forth and clarify if I am maybe missing something here and the image does "sound about right" after all? Maybe I'm just looking at this from pure grammar standpoint and miss some intricate wordplay?


texts: Hyphenation of a word to a two-word phrase

texts:
How should one treat the hyphenation of a word to a two-word phrase, such as in the example below:

  something about the qubit-resonator mode frequency detuning.

The sentence tries to express: "something about the frequency detuning of the qubit from a mode of the resonator," but in a succinct form. If we could only use the word by itself, this sentence would work, but resonator alone is not correc, it has to be qualified by the word mode, i.e. a mode of the resonator: hence, the single unit, resonator mode.


texts:
Is there a name to characterize certain requests that look like a good idea at first, but ultimately have a false premise?

Example 1: We need our software product to be extremely configurable!

Supporting extreme configuration shifts some responsibilities from product designers to end users. It also creates inconsistent user experience, and makes product looks unsure of its own identity.

Example 2: I need real-time stock market data to make better trading decisions!

Looks like a good idea: a user can react on stock market fluctuations faster than anybody else and beat the market. The truth is that they will be picking up more noise and making bad decisions.

Those were just examples, I'm not looking for arguments on those statements.


texts: First usage of parentheses or brackets ( and )

texts:
I have found several sources (Wikipedia, Eats Shoots & Leaves) that claim Erasmus was the first person to use parentheses (also known as brackets). He supposedly called them lunulae (because they looked like moons). But I can't find any source citations.

Can anyone provide more information about this supposed fact? In which book did Erasmus first use them? What year was the book published?

The reason I want to know is that Erasmus lived (and died) in the town where I live (Basel, Switzerland). I am trying to determine if parentheses were invented here in Basel.

Extra upvotes for answers with excessive amounts of bracket usage.


texts: Can "If he was hungry, he would eat something" be interpreted as an open conditions in the past?

texts:
i) If he was hungry, he would eat something.

This is an example sentence of unreal conditionals (he is not hungry) in my textbook.

  ii)I used to live near the library. If I wanted a book, I would go and get one.

This is an example sentence of open conditions in the past in Oxford guide to English Grammar. I wonder if the sentence i can be interpreted as an open conditions in the past as in ii.


texts: What do you call this (these) writing "fallacies"

texts:
I just read this answer on Chinses.Stackexchange, and I see some obvious logical "leaps of faith" that I would like to know their most accurate and concise labels.

  Many thought it is difficult to learn Mandarin Chinese. It is not
  quite true! It takes efforts and time to learn it well, but what
  doesn't?

It seems the author likes to set a premise for an argument, but then abandons the thread and leaves the reader hanging or to fill in the blanks. Simultaneously the opening statement is not addressed at all. A statement such as (made up by me) "Many who struggled with Spanish in high school are able to enjoy and master Mandarin"

  In our opinion, Chinese is one of the most interesting languages to
  learn in the world! Chinese is a picture language, which means ancient
  Chinese people draw different pictures as Chinese characters out of
  everything they saw in the environment!

Again, I see Chinese is one of the most interesting languages in the world to learn as dangling a carrot in front of the reader and then pulling a Volkswagen Rabbit out of the hat without an explanation to it.

What are the correct terms for these dangling logical propositions? Or at worst, what mental grammar model do these structures violate? I can't for the life of me label them at all.


texts: Does the word "that" refer to "your car" or "the key"?

texts: I have found the key to your car that you lost yesterday.


texts: Is the second "are" required in "Here are the ideas I thought are worth spreading"?

texts:
Here are the ideas I thought are worth spreading.
Here are the ideas I thought worth spreading.

Which one is correct?


texts:
I suggest that the maintenance period be from 12:30 to 2:30 so that we can have more sufficient time to handle if any unexpected problems occur.

Is it correct to say more sufficient?


texts:
This exercise in my book is before the Composition series and I’m just about to go through that section, though, your answer still seems very nice to me.

What did I mean by “though”?

  Which did my words mean,

  1) “Although” this exercise in my book is before the Composition series and I’m just about to go through that section, your answer still seems very nice to me”

  or

  2) “Although” your answer still seems very nice to me, this exercise in my book is before the Composition series and I’m just about to go through that section”?

Actually, what I wanted to express was the former one. Was I right in my way?


texts:
What's the difference between the verbs to emend and to amend? They both have the same definition on Oxford Online Dictionary as follows:

emend:

  Make corrections and revisions to (a text): 'these studies show him
  collating manuscripts and emending texts'

amend:

  Make minor changes to (a text, piece of legislation, etc.) in order to
  make it fairer or more accurate, or to reflect changing circumstances:
  'the rule was amended to apply only to non-members'


texts:
Are you tense?

I read this question in a book and was debating if it was a correct usage of the verb 'tense'.
I believe the correct usage should be

Are you tensed?

Am I right about this?


texts: If democracy is ruled by the people what is ruled by share holders mean?

texts:
Democracy means ruled by the people or population.

Some people call corporation as democracy too. That is the shareholders can vote who the CEO should be.

But the shareholders are not "people". So democracy is not a right term. Shareholdercracy? Doesn't feels right.

What would be the right term?

Also corporation is not only ruled by the shareholders, they also obey market mechanism.

What would be ruled by free market mean? Marketcracy?


texts:
I got to the bank this morning to open an account, but I could not because I did not have one of the documents required. The day before, when I booked the appointment with the advisor, they told me to bring this and that with me, but they did not mention that extra document.

I was very pissed off, and I told the advisor:

1) "I wished somebody would have told me I needed..."

Is that good English? Is this one maybe better?

2) "I wished somebody told me I needed ...."

or

3) "I wish somebody told me I needed ..."

1), 2) or 3) or maybe a new one?


texts:
Here's another participial phrase comma question (sorry, just trying to get this right).

"The doorbell rang twice followed by the sound of the lock disengaging in the front of the house."

Assume "followed by" is a participial phrase. Do I place a comma in front of it? It is not restrictive, yet the sentence would sound strange if the phrase was moved to the front of the sentence.


texts: When do we need to include comma after as?

texts:
Might someone be able to help explain why we it is not necessary to include a comma next to as.

1: Studies have found that those students who major in philosophy often do better than students from other majors in both verbal reasoning and analytical writing, as measured by standardized test scores.

2: Studies have found that those students who major in philosophy often do better than students from other majors in both verbal reasoning and analytical writing as measured by standardized test scores.

Can I explain the comma is not necessary by using sentence 3 as an example?

3: Studies have found that writing is good for students as measured by standardized test scores?


texts: Does calling to a strange woman "Hey, lady!" sound angry?

texts:
I thought calling to somebody "Lady" (ex.Lady, you dropped your key! orHow are you doing, lady?) sounds polite, but some dictionary says "used when talking directly to a woman you do not know, when you are angry with her" in American English. (from Longman Dictionary)
Is this description in a dictionary always true, or does it just depend on situations?


texts: What is the origin of confirmative phrase "of course"? I assume it has something to do with sailing maybe?


texts:
While writing a rhetorical question I ran into a case where it seemed natural to start a sentence with "I.e":

  How do we handle the case when the list is empty? I.e., if the filter matched no entries?

Is that OK in this case?  In any case?

Edit: Thanks, everyone. It seems the consensus is that it's legal but not attractive. I like the alternatives presented in the accepted answer and comments. For my part, I will probably be avoiding the construct in the future.


texts: Is "isn't possible" correct without adding '**it**' beforehand?

texts:
Is it grammatically correct to write:

"isn't possible to make something"

or is the only correct form "it isn't possible to make something"?

I'm asking specifically for the correct, grammatical form, not colloquial.


texts: I have heard people refer to kids sliding and kids sledding. Is it wrong to say "we are going sliding"?


texts: Etymology of the idiom "There's no disputing matters of taste" (de gustibus non est disputandum)

texts:
I've been reading around, looking for the origin of the set phrase "There's no disputing matters of taste", and in particular trying to discover who said it first, or at least who popularized it.

My suspicion is it arises from the Latin equivalent "De gustibus non est disputandum", and therefore conjecture that it had to be one of the famous Roman essayists (Horace, Cicero, Juvenal, et al.).

Then again, one of my friends on FaceBook suggested it might be a medieval  coinage, which also seems plausible because the syntax is late Latin: the 'est' would either be absent, i.e. "understood," or would follow the participle, in the Roman period.

The earliest reference I can find to it was via  the Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, was John Minsheu's A Dictionarie in Spanish and English, of 1599!  There, the term appeared in its less Roman layout "De gustibus non est disputandum".

Persevering, I found another reference, this time to Minsheu Dial., which I'm guessing refers to his Pleasant and Delightful Dialogues, which is contained in the Dictionarie cited above.  If that's true, it suggests more of a Renaissance origin than medieval.

Can anyone take it back further, as certainly Minsheu had to have done?


texts: An English idiom for "solve a problem that has been solved"?

texts:
In Polish, and I believe in a number of other European languages, there is an idiomatic expression which translates to "to force a door which is already open". It is used to describe a situation when much effort is spent on solving a problem which has already been solved, or did not exist in the first place. For example, if someone was doing research to answer a question which has already been answered, one would be said to be "forcing an open door". The same would apply to a person who is arguing a point that everyone already agrees with.

As far as I am aware, this phrase does not carry similar meaning in English. (Or does it?). Hence, I would like to know if there is an idiom with similar meaning? If not, is there a succinct way to describe such situations?


texts: Is there a term for accumulated dirt on the outside of your hands and feet?

texts:
As I sat in the steam room after half-killing myself at the gym earlier today, contemplating the meaning of life, I noticed that a certain amount of dirt had accumulated on the lateral sides of my – by that point rather pruny and wrinkly – hands, requiring a bit of scrubbing in the shower to become properly clean again.

I suddenly remembered always being told off as a kid by my parents and teachers and other such boring people for not scrubbing the sides of my hands properly, allowing for dirt to cake up there, even if the rest of the hand was clean enough; and similarly for the feet, where it typically builds up on the lateral side of the hindfoot, between the lower end of the fibula and the cuboid bone.

Into my mind popped the Danish word gravrust (referring literally to the type of corrosion called ‘pitting’ in English), which is used metaphorically  for this specific type of dirt on the outside of the hands and feet that builds up over time if you’re not careful to scrub the sides properly when washing.1

I don’t think I’ve heard this word since my days as a kid when boring adults were forever telling me to scrub it off, but I seem to recall it being used fairly often back then (rather more often that I would have liked, because it usually meant I had to go and wash my hands again).

It occurred to me that I don’t know of an English term for this kind of stubborn dirt, most commonly seen on kids who enjoy wreaking havoc in the garden rather more than scrubbing their hands to remove what’s left of said garden afterwards. Since such a preference is not unusual in children, I’m guessing the condition is well-known to most parents in English-speaking countries as well… but after about five minutes of battling with Google, I am no wiser as to what they call it. I can’t find anyone mentioning it in any terms that I can think of to Google for.

There are of course any number of general terms for dirty children (grimy, grubby for the kids themselves; crud, muck, smut for the dirt), but they’re all quite general – they just refer to dirt on the body in general and don’t carry the connotation of being resistant to casual washing. Gravrust, conversely, refers to dirt which is in a position that tends to be missed when washing your hands or feet (the lateral edges), and therefore tends to build up more easily, to the point that vigorous scrubbing is required to get rid of it.

Is there a specific word or expression for this in English, beyond descriptive phrases like caked dirt on the sides of your hands?

Note: Dialectal and regional terms are welcome. The Danish word is quite colloquial and, as mentioned, somewhat limited in scope, and it’s fine if any English equivalent is too.

1 A quick dictionary and Google search reveals that it can be used for caked dirt elsewhere as well, but I’ve only ever heard it used to refer to the stuff that builds up on the lateral sides of hands and feet.


texts:
What is the name of the "chain" that can be found near club's entry?

e.g. http://www.vegasvipservices.com/nightclubs/bank/club-the-bank-entrance.jpg


texts: Secular alternative to "doubting Thomas"

texts:
When looking at this question, the phrase "doubting Thomas" popped into my head as a potential answer. That in turn led me to question the origin of the phrase, which I discovered comes from the Apostle Thomas being skeptical of Christ's resurrection.

After learning that the phrase "doubting Thomas" has a religious origin, I'm curious...Does a "colorful*" expression that is secular in nature exist to describe a skeptical person, and if so, what is it?

Obligatory frame sentence:

  That guy never believes anything without proof; he's a(n) _____________.

*By "colorful," I mean a bit more inventive/expressive than simply "skeptic," "doubter," etc.

Edit to address smci's comment: I prefer an existing and reasonably common expression; however, I will accept an uncommon or newly created expression that would be widely understood if there seems to be a consensus that a common one does not exist.

Edit to address MετάEd's comment: To further clarify and keep the question within the appropriate scope, I am not looking to compile a list of similar expressions. I'd like to identify the most common, secular expression that closely matches "doubting Thomas" in meaning and usage.

***To preserve the validity of answers that suggested coining new expressions, note that several users have asserted the lack of an expression that meets the criteria I've laid out.


texts:
My girlfriend and I (both being not native speakers) are arguing little bit about grammar used in this sentence.

"music and painting can comfort yourself and it can reduce your stress"

She wonders about the usage of yourself. I think it's ok to use it that sentence.

Is it?


texts:
Listen to all your fans
  Name all the states

vs

  Listen to all of  your fans
  Name all of  the states

What part of language is of  in these examples? Is it necessary or optional, correct or incorrect?


texts: Changing tone during a sentence and having "and/or" in a list

texts:
I am unsure about the following sentence:

  "Reasons a guest may be turned away include, but are not limited to, being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, exceeding the weight limit, unable to understand or obey the rules, and are physically unable to traverse the obstacles."

When running through this sentence, I can't help but feel a few things are off. As it reads, it seems the tone of the sentence has changed. By that I mean the words "being" and "unable" don't seem to fit well. Thoughts?

Aside from that, I am not sure whether to use "and/or" instead of "and"; nor of the impact that "and/or" might have on a sentence when used in the middle of a list. Would this change the necessary punctuation?


texts: Is 'might be able to' grammatically correct?

texts:
I've read that 'may/ might' and 'can/ could' cannot be used with 'be able to', but I have seen someone using this, who is none less than Shakespeare.

Example:

"They might not be able to ask me anything, however; they may visit India to ask me"


texts:
Ages ago, I remember typing snuck into a word processor and being surprised to see it flagged as not a word. My current computer seems to be okay with it and my local dictionary has this in its listing for sneak:

  sneak — verb (past sneaked or informal snuck |ˈsnək|)

So snuck made it into the dictionary as an informal variation of sneaked. A cursory search at Etymonline revealed nothing relevant.


texts:
Why is being an adult so tiring?
Why being an adult is so tiring?

Many thanks for kind assistance!)


texts: What is the closest word meaning "respect for time / mindful"

texts:
I'm looking for a one (or two word if necessary) expression that describes the character trait of mindfulness and a desire to stay focused on completing a purpose in a period of time.  This implies the quality that one is not easily distracted but doesn't have to imply competence or effectiveness.

The context

  I'm describing the core values of our company, so this word will be
  listed along other words such as "Authenticity", "Curiousity", etc.

Here's some words that don't quite work

Punctual is only a partial hit, because I'm not necessarily talking about "showing up" for the starting and stopping of a task.  EDIT - This word also implies a cold indifference where I'm trying to imply a respect for the limits time
Focused also only covers part of what I'm looking for, but doesn't
cover the intention to complete a task within a window.
Effective is somewhat implied, but not quite it either as I want to isolate the intention and ability to deliver the requirements on time without speaking to the quality of the work (at least for this word)


texts:
Is there another word for agnostic when used in reference to technology?

For example

  The keyboard is OS agnostic and operates on most modern operating systems.


texts: There is / are; Questions > Answers; is > are ; are >is

texts:
If someone asks me Are there any phones in the room? Can I answer   yes there is / no there isn't  to possible indicate .... let's say that there's just one phone or none or for any other reason

If someone asks me Is there a phone in the room? Can I answer yes there are / no there aren't (same idea as the first example)


texts: Aren't the double verbs "to be" in "..., which is what the X is about" redundant?

texts:
Sometimes I find sentences that have the following pattern:

  [clause], which is what [noun] is [optional phrase].

For example:

  I had just read about a five-petaled rose in the book, the major
  symbol in a book of symbols, because it represents the Holy Grail,
  which is what the book is about.

Another one:

  Jackson also anticipates the concept of "enablers", which is what the folks around Birnam really are.

Are the two verbs "to be" in the clauses after the comma not redundant? If not, how to make sense which "is" goes to which subject?


texts:
I'm having doubt in using these structures, meaning when to use one over the other...

Reading books helps me in enhancing my knowledge.

Vs

Reading books helps me to enhance my knowledge.


texts:
What is the past perfect of "have"? Is it
"have",
"had", or
"had had"?

And if it is "had had",
doesn't it sound weird and awkward?
when and how do I use it?

Thanks.


texts: Italics used for the plural treatment of words?

texts:
Do these look right to you? I'm pluralizing the following words. In doing so, I'm italicizing the word to be pluralized but not the 's':

ands (instead of and's)
wherefores (instead of wherefore's)
hiss (instead of his's)


texts: What type of grammar construction is this

texts:
She thinks herself able to best him in this argument.
She thinks that she is able to best him in this argument.
She thinks herself to be able to best him in this argument.

Are the first and the last sentence the same in meaning?


texts: Why does American English pluralize certain singular nouns?

texts:
I keep hearing "A savings of $10" or that something is "a ways off".

Sounds deeply weird to my British English ear.


texts: Past simple- present perfect no time reference

texts:
I have a doubt between the usage of past simple and present perfect about the meaning of “indefinite past”
If I don’t mention or it’s not clear a time expression, Could I use the PP instead o PS?
For example:
I’ve interviewed him (some time in the past)
I’ve bought a car (doesn’t matter when)

Thank you


texts: Does one ‘have’ an academic degree, or is one ‘in’ an academic degree?

texts:
I have always referred to an academic degree as something I possess—e.g. ‘I have a degree in $subject’.

However, I recently had to get my degree certificate out for a job interview and noticed that it says the following: ‘It is hereby certified that $name has been duly admitted to the degree of Master of Science in $subject’. Same for my Bachelor's.

So what is an academic degree, and how should it be referred to? Is it something one has, or something one is in? Do I have a Master's degree in $subject or am I in the Master's degree for $subject?


texts: How to describe "choose to do something by one's own willing"

texts:
For example, there is a course (say French course), for students in a college. The students can take it, but they don't have to. Someone, who is not a student in that college, thinks that this course is optional. But he saw, on a student's facebook wall, that "I have a french course." So he wants to ask this student that if this course is optional.

Of course he can just ask: Is this course elective/optional?

But the above is just an example to describe the words or the expressions that I need:
An expression that says One can choose to do a particular thing by his own willing.

There is a constrain for such expressions:

If a thing breaks the law or the rules (of a society, company, school...), then we can't use this expression for such a thing.

I am not sure if ... can do...by ...own willing is a common expression for this. Furthermore, is there any other/short way to express this?


texts:
Is "the difference" in

  What's the difference between ... ?"

a collective noun? It seems to be a singular noun, but often the answer of that question is in plural form.

Example:

  What's the difference between desktop PC and notebook?

  x
  x
  x

In above question, why should we use "the difference" instead of "the differences" ?


texts: Collective word for software and hardware

texts: I'm looking for a term that collectively describes both software and hardware. Doesn't have to be a single word but it would be preferable.