texts: How would you define "Fluent" level in English?

texts:
Most of us heard about such levels as Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced.

As I understand "Fluent" is the highest level when describing someone's English.

But how would you describe it?
Some people think that "Fluent" is just when you speak very good (relative to other non-native speakers). But I think this is not enough. I think that you can say that you speak fluently when it is hard for native speakers to understand (based on your speech, accent and grammar) that English is not your native language. And if a native speaker can quickly (matter of seconds, or a minute) understand that your are a foreigner - you don't have a fluent level.

What do you think?


texts: "Happens on" vs "Falls on" a particular date. What is the difference?

texts:
International women's day happens on or falls on March 8th.

Which should I use? Does happen or fall have a particular connotation?


texts: 'Vote their conscience' or 'Vote with their conscience'

texts:
Is the preposition required in this sentence?

Representatives should vote their conscience on Monday.
OR
Representatives should vote with their conscience on Monday.

Or are both okay? Is one better?
Thanks


texts: Equivalent word which represents 'Team' or 'Individual'

texts:
I am developing a coding contest project with multiple contests.
The participants can be a team or an independent individual, depending on the contest setting. I want to define only one model for the participant which could understood as a team or an individual.
Is there a word that can be used for team and participating individual?
Update
I am thinking to chuck the idea of implementing whole project based on smart team management complicating it whole and decided to implement separate team management and complicating that.
But I would be very happy to change my mind if I could get a word, maybe even in some other language for this.


texts: Cowboy verb for roping and dragging an animal or person?

texts: In some western movies, there are a lot of violent scenes. For example, a man on horseback ties and pulls an outlaw on the ground. My question is: What is the correct verb that can be used to describe the act of drawing an outlaw behind on the ground?


texts: there is a lot or there are a lot? over here or at here?

texts:
I am an English learner. While I was watching a documentary video, this caption really confused me a lot.

Is it correct to say there is a lot? I thought it is supposed to be there are a lot.

Also, what is the difference between over here and at here?


texts: Need a word-pair along the lines of simulacra

texts:
I'm looking for a pair of words to respectively represent a “real” thing and for  multiple representations of that “real” thing.

Simulacra is close, but I’m not aware of any term for the object that is being mimicked, and I’m not sure its usage is common enough for people to know the term.

I like replicant (the fake people in Bladerunner), but there are some issues using it.  Silhouette feels close, but not quite there.

The hologram watch from Total Recall comes to mind in describing what I’m looking for.  The idea is that there is the real object, but you can interact with the copies just like the original such that it doesn’t matter that they aren’t the original.

Sorry, the words I’m looking for would work well in describing what I’m looking for!

Edit

I’m working on a software library for interprocess communication, and am trying to come up with a few terms that convey the intent.  The idea is that you create an object in your process that behaves the expected way, and it doesn't matter whether the “real” object exists in another process. If the object is in another process, the library handles all of the communication to keep things synchronized with that (real) object so your version behaves exactly the same way.

Proxy and RPC (remote procedure call) focus on the information transport.  I’m looking to convey the intent instead of the implementation.  I do need terms for each, so I can describe the implementation to people.

Edit2

Updated to clarify question.  I'm not sure what the line is between describing a conceptual behavior in computer programming vs. naming of a class.  The suggestions have been very helpful for helping me figure out how to describe what I'm working on, so it is unfortunate that my question has been put on hold as off-topic.


texts: Is there a difference between disclude vs exclude?

texts:
I say exclude if I want to prevent inclusion in the first place.

I say disclude if I want to express that I remove something that was already previously included (as in its remove from inclusion meaning in wiktionary).

Is this usage correct?

What is the tradition of using these words in the English-speaking world?

update: I ask for the tradition precisely because this word is listed as "nonstandard", but without specifics (like usage history).

update: disclude differs from discard in that something removed from an inclusion can still be used for another purpose. Example by David Pugh: "Following my disclusion from the group, I went off by myself and had a wonderful time".


texts: I know that a ship is always referred using "she", but what about aircraft? What should we use when we're referring to aircraft? Is it the same for automobile?


texts: Why do people use "Lady Wife" to refer to their wife?

texts:
I was listening to a play on the radio this afternoon and one of the characters was told to go home to their lady wife. I've heard the term on numerous occasions, and until I started reading this forum I had never given it much thought.

But now it strikes me as an odd expression, as there is no such thing as a gentleman wife, or a lady husband. So why do people use it?


texts: Is "He died himself." a correct sentence?

texts:
I've checked Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and I found that die is an intransitive verb most of the time. I checked other dictionaries as well. I didn't find any usage of "die" as per which we can say, "He died himself."
I want to know whether this usage is correct and on what basis.
Additionally, I find examples of this usage on British National Corpus as well. I searched [die] [p*] in it and found died himself, died oneself, etc. When I search on Google "he died himself" (with quotes). I find many examples there as well.


texts: Singular/Plural Phrase: "Notes to Self" or "Note to Self"?

texts: I am an artist and have done a series of 10 paintings that I have titled "Notes to Self." Each painting has a subtitle. For instance, "Notes to Self: Breathe" or "Notes to Self: Hope." Someone has asked me if my exhibit label in the gallery should read "Note to Self" singular rather than the plural "Notes to Self." I have no idea and hope someone here can help me out. This is an ongoing single series with more paintings to come, but each painting represents a mental note to I make to myself. Thanks in advance for any ideas!


texts: Words Containing the Meaning of Addition of Referential Information

texts:
Hi I am trying to find the verb that describes a correspondent meaning as following:

  While reading text on something, add/write in some addtional/referential information to it.

Like,

While reading a book if I want to leave some 3M memos on it with some explanatory figures, which verb will describe it properly?

Any recommendations would be appreciated.


texts: What does "that place is a real bucket shop and they tend to work only with pikers" mean?

texts: I was talking to my attorney, from the esteemed firm of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe, and he made the above remark in response to a financial statement that I had produced earlier.  What did Bernie mean?


texts: What is a single word that means, "I was there" that also expresses feelings of nostalgia.


texts: "Under the condition that" within the realm of probaility

texts:
SO, I have a math question, kind of at least, where I think the wording is getting in the way.

  Determine the probability that First condition under the condition that Second condition.

I understand this as the first condition, only when the second condition.  However, others have seen this as First condition and second condition.  What is the proper understanding of the phase "under the condition that", and can it ever be used as a form of and?


texts: Do we need to repeat "no" to represent without for a list of items?

texts:
I want to say "This book comes without page numbers, footnotes and cover.".

But if I use "with no" instead of "without", should I repeat the word "no"?

  A: This book comes with no page numbers, footnotes, and cover.

or

  B: This book comes with no page numbers, no footnotes, and no cover.


texts:
try not to use it:
From The New York Times:

Nowadays, Mr. Figueroa has two daughters and a stepson, and the potato incident is largely behind him. He lives in a small duplex in the Burg, a fading Italian neighborhood near South Trenton, with his girlfriend, Coco, who works at the jewelry counter at Wal-Mart; his stepson; and one of his two daughters. ''I try to keep my celebrity status to myself,'' he said. ''I try not to use it as a crutch.''

From The Guardian:

As for the term body farm? It comes from the title of a 1994 novel by the crime writer Patricia Cornwell, set at a similar facility in Tennessee. “We try not to use it,” Forbes said. “From our perspective, it’s somewhat disrespectful to the donors and their valuable contribution.”

Is it correct to say that in some contexts (as given above) "try not to use it" can be replaced with "try to avoid it" (and vice versa)?
If yes, is there any difference in the shades of their meaning?


texts: Word meaning 'playing politics' when the context isn't politics?

texts:
Here's what I'm trying to write:

  The single thing I would say would make the book better, would to make
  it a lot shorter. Shorten all the sentences, and eliminate the cruft.
  I think the book could about 50-75% of it's current length.

  I suspect that there's a bit of [politics] here. The publishers and
  advisers perhaps feel that a shorter book wouldn't be taken so
  seriously, and efforts are made to make it a full length novel.

But it being about publishing a book - politics doesn't really seem to fit, where it would in other contexts, for example:

  The reason the Labour Party doesn't add cannabis law reform as a policy platform is politics, they don't want to antagonise their more conservative older voter base.

Is there an alternative word I can use, to convey a kind of jaded (or pragmatic, depending on your point of view) making compromises for the greater good?


texts: What two words best describe these features?

texts:
I am in the middle of developing an app. I'm having some trouble trying to decide the best usage for two features in particular. I know what both of these words mean, but I am becoming increasingly confused and irritated the more I try to find a good-fitting word for both features that is not only easily understood by your average Joe, but also doesn't sound too weird or out of place.

Expense and Purchase.

The reason I am becoming confused is because I was originally using the word Expense to allow you to enter things like Grocery Shopping items, utility bills, petrol, lunch, dinners, etc.

But then I wanted to make things a little easier. I wanted to separate necessities, or things that we really need from things that we want - or just simply one-off purchases.
So then I introduced the word Purchase. So now I have a menu that looks like this:

File
---New
------Purchase
------Expense
...

You click on New Purchase if you've just bought something and want to record it (this is a budgeting app). You click on New Expense if you have things to pay for like bills, petrol etc on a regular basis.

I'm not sure anymore. I've confused the heck out of myself and now I need some help.

Which word would best describe the feature: "I just purchased something and need a record the details of this transaction" (Please don't suggest using the actual word Transaction. That word is literally everywhere else.)? And which word would best describe this feature: "I have some bills and/or items that I buy on a regular basis, and I want to record the details of these future transactions."?

Remember: I'm trying to keep them separate. I know I could just use one word for both features, but due to many minor differences in each feature it could be confusing to others and I like a nice and clean interface.


texts: Asking for confirmation when someone wants to change an upvote

texts:
I am building a user facing software. I want to ask for the user's confirmation if they really want to change their vote.

For example:

A user once upvoted a post and then he wants to downvote it. Should I just say:

  Are you sure you want to change your vote?

or can I say:

  You upvoted it before. Are you sure you want to downvote it?

Which of the two is better?


texts: Meaning of "not bent so much as in solution"

texts:
With the sole exceptions of the stoic, changeless Krag and the
  remote, indifferent Nightspore, the work's denizens appear to be
  pan-sexual, polymorphous entities who are not bound by a definitive
  condition. Gender is not bent so much as in solution, sexual
  identity dissolved into unending flux.

taken from "Introduction (to A Voyage to Arcturus)" by Alan Moore.

In the quote above, Alan Moore is describing the gender issues in the novel "A Voyage to Arcturus". Krag and Nightspore are two characters from the novel. With their exception, all the other characters appear to be pan-sexual... But I cannot understand the last sentence.

Can you please explain the following sentence: Gender is not bent so much as in solution...


texts: Is there a word for having more than ten fingers?

texts: I recently read an article about a man who had twelve fingers and twelve toes.  Is there a word for this genetic anomaly?


texts: How to better reword this sentence? (cover letter writing question)

texts:
I am confident my skills would benefit your company by allowing me to make original contributions to the research on Artificial Intelligence.

In fact, it is two sentences combined. I want to express:

  My skills would allow me to make original contributions to the research on Artificial Intelligence.
  My research would benefit your company.

The first sentence sounds odd. Is it correct from the view of a native speaker? Is there a better way to express my true meaning using one sentence?


texts: Sound of ropes / strings / clothing material sliding against each other?

texts:
Think of the ropes of boats moored to a dock, but having to listen carefully (not loud and obvious) like 'creaking' or 'squeaking'.

It would have to denote friction without screeching - more like 'scratching' but muted.

'Rustle' implies some crackling absent in the tiny snapping sounds of fibers running past each other.

'Rasping' sounds human and clinical.

There are some far fetched options, such as 'susurring', which don't really work.

  Example sentence: 'He doesn't feel like he is finally home for the night until he listens to the [click here for audio recording] sound of his shoelace knots coming undone while sitting at the edge of the living room sofa.'


texts: Do I need to repeat a verb in a second clause?

texts:
He will not only pass the exam but will also excel in sports.

He will not only pass the exam but also excel in sports.

Which one is correct?


texts:
I hear eww (sometimes spelt as ew) fairly regularly on American sitcoms, usually uttered by a scatterbrained beautiful blonde girl when she sees or hears something disgusting. I don't recall it ever being said when I was a child living in London, and the word gross was virtually unknown. In the 1970s, the utterances yuck or ugh were commonly blurted out. Moreover, on my frequent visits to the UK I don't seem to hear eww ever being used but I tend to mix with people closer to my age.

The dictionary, Online Etymology offers no guidance, and Oxford Dictionaries limits itself by saying

   ew

  /ˈɪəuː/, /ˈiːuː/

  EXCLAMATION

  INFORMAL
  Used to express disgust or distaste:
  ew, I’d hate to think what has been trampled into that carpet
  eww, how can you eat that?

  Origin

  1970s: imitative.

Has ew/eww crossed the Atlantic and become common parlance in old Blighty i.e. the UK? If it has, when did it more or less occur? And are the expressions ugh and yuck still popular with the young in both the US and the UK? If not, which exclamation of disgust is gaining territory?

If  anyone is still confused about which sound I'm referring to, click on the YouTube link to hear a perfect example. The young American child (who coincidently happens to be blonde) is called Georgie and she is tasting a variety of foods while blindfolded, the resulting  "eww!" is spontaneous and unaffected and happens at 56 seconds.

EWW! THAT'S GROSS!


texts: Why is “a” necessary before "Mr. X" and "Mrs. Y"?

texts:
There is the following sentence in the scene a reputed lawyer, Thomas Cohen gives advice to 16-year old client William Kane, the son of deceased bank owner on the issue of inheritance of his father’s property in Jeffery Archer’s popular fiction, “Kane & Abel.”

  “Mr. Cohen continued. ‘The answer to your second question is that you
  have no personal or legal obligation to Mr. Henry Osborne. Under the
  term of your father’s will, your mother is a trustee of his estate
  along with a Mr. Alan Lloyd and a Mrs. Millie Preston, your surviving
  godparents, until you come of age at twenty-one.’"

I wonder why it is a Mr. Alan Lloyd and a Mrs. Millie Preston. Here Mr. Alan Lloyd and Mrs. Millie Preston are too obvious to both parties concerned, and different from the case of being told by your secretary, "A phone from a Mr. Smith Brown.”

What significance is added to by prefixing ‘a’ to the name in this particular case?


texts: What is the difference between values and principles?

texts:
I am attempting to understand the use of values and principles in organizational communication.

According to Merriam-Webster values are defined as

the amount of money that something is worth
the price or cost of something something that can be bought for a low or fair price
usefulness or importance

And principles are defined as

a moral rule or belief that helps you know what is right and wrong
and that influences your actions
a basic truth or theory : an idea that forms the basis of something
a law or fact of nature that explains how something works or why
something happens

Blogs such BrokenMindSet and EnergizedWork describe them differently as are the terms when searching online.

For example, these are some of the principles that can be found by searching online

Operation efficiency
Retain and grow revenue
Establish barriers to competition

These are examples of values

Customer-centric
Accountability
Integrity

How do i use these terms in organizational conversations?

How does one differentiate between principles and values?
How do you define principles and what would be examples of these?
How do you define values and what would be examples of these?


texts: Words to describe people with good/poor vocabularies. I am looking for words which I can use to describe characters and I would also like to describe their vocabularies, and explain how their vocabularies stem from their upbringing


texts: I have drunken the water / I have drunk the water

texts: Assume that it is impossible to rephrase. I am inclined to believe drunk is correct, but I need another opinion.


texts: How to use the comparison--"Not like...but then" and what does "be less than peas in a pod" mean?

texts:
Tommen was a sweet boy. Not like his brother (Joffery), but then Jaime
  and Tyrion were some what less than peas in a pod themselves.

This sentence is extracted from the Game of Thrones. I don't understand how to use the comparison "Not like... but then...". Could you please teach me?

Does "be less than peas in a pod themselves" mean "be different from each other"?


texts: "Soil acidification" or "acidification of the soil"?

texts:
I'm writing an article for a scientific magazine, and this is a particular example of a general doubt that often happens to me. When should I use "X of Y" instead of "Y X"? I hope I'm explaining it well...
Is there a general rule for that?
Thank you!


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase "going from betting on the river to drawing dead"?

texts:
Source

  “Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.” As plans go, I'd seen worse -- except this girl was already gone. Monument Island's a damn ghost town. Seems like they evacuated her when they heard I was here. An old friend told me Comstock spirited her off to that fortress of his. As a one-man job, this just went from bettin' on the river to...drawing dead.

I couldn't find the meaning in any online dictionary. Where does the phrase come from and what does it mean?


texts: The most appropriate single word to describe sunrise(dawn) glow

texts:
I've noticed that in English there are several words which describe light or radiance remaining in the sky after the sun has set. For instance there is "afterglow" which, in my opinion, refers to a more effulgent kind of sunlight that is scattered in the sky after sunset. There is "gloaming" which refers to a dim and faint light. There is of course "dusk" which is a darker stage of twilight. I can also think of crepuscular light but I think it has a bit different meaning with a subtle twilight connotation and also a tad esoteric. As you might notice there are several words which denote sunset colours but I wasn't able to find anything precise which would imply the same glow but with a reference to sunrise. Although if we check definition of "afterglow" in the Oxford Dictionary we see that it's explicitly mentioned

  after the sun has set.

But in case of other words such as "gloaming", "twilight" or "crepuscular" this is not mentioned. Can a native speaker confirm that I may use those words in the context of sunrise glow? The closest I've found so far is twilight
and word combination "sunrise twilight" seemingly might be found in different text corpora. But I am very keen to know whether there is a more precise word.

P.S. "dawn", "cockcrow" and "daybreak" denote mostly a time instance hence I think they are irrelevant here.


texts:
I have a book about punctuation marks, but it doesn't report when to use | in a English sentence.

I notice that the New Oxford American Dictionary uses that character to separate the examples it reports. Are there other uses of | in a sentence written outside specific contexts?


texts: Can "immigrant" be used to refer to a "person who moves from rural area to city"?

texts: I have looked up the word 'immigrant': the definition refers to people who come to live in a different country.  Can I also use this word to refer to people who move from rural areas to the city?


texts: Word for a non-professional job done as a hobby

texts:
I am a programmer, but not professionally. I do have apps on the Google Play Store, but it's mainly a hobby (and I don't earn much at all; about a few cents a month).

I'm sure there must be a word for this type of job (i.e. a non-professional job done mainly as a hobby), but I don't know what it is.


texts: How to describe players that are consistently playing in a team?

texts: I am writing a description about player's performance and their participation in matches, but I am stuck in trying to find the right word for describing a player who has been participating in nearly every match for his team.


texts: What term describes those who dress in disagreeable ways?

texts:
I'm looking for a term that describes (by association) individuals whose fashion (not the fashion itself) is perceived as distasteful by the community they live in.

An example of such fashion is sagging, which has been outlawed in certain jurisdictions and had received presidential quasi-condemnation:

  "Brothers should pull up their pants"

While sagging in particular has been associated with young black men, I'm looking for a term that doesn't necessarily imply racism.


texts: Is there one phrase, expression/ idiom for a social vice of mean/self centered/inconsiderate people who always want everything first for themselves

texts:
In south asian culture, we would use a roundabout saying as "Window seat" syndrome, that means mean/self centered/inconsiderate people (for spoil brats) always want everything first for themselves (to hell with the others).

What would be an actual version of the above phrase in English language. Usually the saying has come to understand because of school going kids. They engage in this kind of activity involving "my windows seat". Every kid wants to have the windows seat for himself, so they rush to the school bus after they are dispersed from their classes at the end of the school day to have the window seat (the best seat).

Another example which translated in to their adulthood or infects others too would be cutting in line in person or with one's car too. This all displays they having a "Window seat" syndrome.


texts: “She, as well as her parents, [love/loves] Dwayne.”

texts:
Which sentence is correct?

She, as well as her parents, love Dwayne dearly.
She, as well as her parents, loves Dwayne dearly.

I thought it would be love as in “they love him dearly”.  But MS Word editor says it’s loves, as it is referring to the she in the statement. But MS Word editor is far from perfect.


texts: What's the difference between "powerless" and "helpless" (and maybe "hopeless")?

texts:
Don't they all involve not having the power to do things?  I guess being hopeless is a little different, in that it does involve not having power but that it's permanent.  Like hopeless that depression lifts or employment improves or weather gets better.  You couldn't be hopeless if you did have the power to change it.

But "helpless" and "powerless" are more difficult for me to distinguish.  When people are depressed, they can experience helplessness but for some reason psychologists don't use the word "powerless."  But aren't they the same?  So like if somebody was abused, you say you were feeling so "helpless" in that situation but I can imagine you could as easily say you were powerless.

Please help me tell them apart.  Thanks!


texts: What's the Germanic word for "defendant"?

texts:
Defendant in German: Beklagte

Defendant in Dutch: Verweerder

Swedish, Danish, Frisian and Icelandic also have their own unique Germanic word for it, whilst English uses a French variant of it.

My question is, does English have an actual Anglic/Germanic word for "defendant"? Our sister languages do so, why not us?

I looked for synonyms of "defendant", and Google came up with "accused, prisoner at the bar; appellant, litigant, respondent; suspect, suspected person". Do they even have the same meaning as "defendant"? Also, they don't sound Germanic.


texts:
"How can I draw myself using a mirror?" — I came across this question and couldn't help but wonder if it should be "draw me". Draw here is to mean "make a picture".

What do you think?


texts:
I'm looking for something like side cause, side influence, dark factor. Googled for those but didn't find relevant hits.

Definition: An influence on something that is not explicit, not taken into account, not declared in the specification, maybe unintentional.

And what would be a better word for converse in the title? I know it isn't the right word but still better than opposite.


texts: What single word encompasses all of a person's social media & Internet presence?

texts: I'm looking for a single word that describes the Internet & Social media presence of a single entity. Their digital footprint, as it were.


texts: Is "this Monday" or "next Monday" the correct way to refer to the very next Monday in the future?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What day is next Tuesday?

When I refer to the very next Monday that will occur in the future, I say "next Monday". Some colleagues refer to it as "this Monday", with "next Monday" meaning the second Monday which will occur in the future (I would refer to that as "Monday week", "this Monday" to me would mean the most recent Monday in the past).

Are these both acceptable usages, or is one more correct than the other?


texts: Is there a single adverb for "surprisingly stupid"?

texts:
I feel like there must be a word that encompasses the phrase "surprisingly stupid" completely. Obviously here, any synonym of "stupid" can replace it.

Example: "The ideal user range of this 'ergonomic' design is surprisingly stupidly narrow."

Here I'm trying to express not that the level of stupidity is surprising, but the presence of it being surprising.

Is there an elegant adverb for this?


texts: Is "those information" valid, or is it "this information"?

texts:
I know information does not have a plural form (syntaxically talking), which leads me to the following problem:

  The username and password are missing. I need [this/those] information.

I feel like the right term would be "this", even though we are asking for several details... but I'm not sure at all.


texts:
I've always found it irksome when people form sentences such as "I'm done my homework." It is of my understanding that you are never done something, but rather you are done with something.

Am I right to be bothered by this?


texts:
On Sunday, April 3,2011, Google displayed a commemorative graphic for the 119th anniversary of the first documented case of the Ice Cream Sunday.

(Image comes from: http://www.google.com/logos/2011/icecreamsundae11-hp.jpg)

The Wiktionary entry for 'Sundae' says only that it is a modification of 'Sunday' and contains a link to the Wikipedia page.  The Wikipedia entry for 'Sundae' contains a bit of history of the ice cream sundae, including competing claims for the origin of the ice cream sundae, but does not detail how 'Sunday' was changed to 'Sundae'.  One origin story claims that the sundae was created to comply with Blue Laws in that locality, and the name 'Sunday soda' was changed to 'sundae' after demand caused the owners of a soda shop to serve the treat on days other than Sunday.  The first documented case of the sundae used the 'Sunday' spelling.

How did the spelling officially change from 'Sunday' to 'Sundae'?


texts: "Do you have a car?" or "Have you a car?"

texts: While I use translate both translates are gives same result. I remember that I used before. But I heard this using is wrong. Why?


texts: Expression for entirely replaced but one part at a time

texts: Is there an idiom or saying for something that has been entirely replaced but only one part at a time, so you can technically claim that it's still the same thing? Kind of like piecemeal upgrades but that's not quite what I'm thinking of.


texts: What does "concept offering" mean in this sentence?

texts:
From the bio for the band "Mastodon" on Spotify (Link):

Their second album, 2004's Leviathan, was a concept offering based on Moby Dick, Herman Melville's iconic novel of whaling and obsession, and proved the band's commercial and critical breakthrough.

I've googled the phrase but did not get any satisfying results. Does it literally mean "the offering of a concept"? Even if it does I do not really grasp what the author meant. The album offers a concept of what?
I could even imagine that it is a grammatical error.


texts:
This program contains material that
  may be disturbing to some viewers.
  Viewer discretion is advised.

Is that 100% correct English? This is the text shown before some TV programs. When I first saw it I thought it was weird (if you translate it to my language it sounds fake and very weird, plus it makes no sense).

  Viewer discretion is advised.

makes no sense to me. Should I not talk about it with my friends, because it might be offensive to them? Should I first ask them if they are ok with ... the topic on the program?

It sounds like USA's political correctness pushed to the limit.

P.S. There is nothing bad about program I'm watching, but some people might find some images disgusting. In plus, it showed only the beginning, so if I start to watch a few seconds after that I might be disturbed.


texts: Why do Americans say off of when they tell someone to get off them?


texts: what would be synonym of 'utility' in the sense of 'marginal-gain'

texts:
I wanted to ask, what would be synonym of utility, when it is used in the sense of marginal-gain. For example, we say:

  Among two competing persons, I prefer giving this object to Person-A, since Person-A has a higher utility of using this object than Person-B".


texts:
What’s that word that describes the feeling when something you see/hear/smell reminds you of someone? For example if you go to the park and you see the place where you had a first kiss with someone and that place makes you miss that person?
It isn’t something that you do voluntarily, it’s more like a thing that pops out in your head and you can’t get it out.
(I remember my English teacher talking about it I just don’t know what it is)

“I went to the park today and that bench triggered my ____”


texts:
According to the British Library  site, the use of nonstandard forms of past tense expressions like we was  are common in some English dialects

  The verb 'to be' has two simple past forms in Standard English - I/he/she/it was and you/we/they were. Apart from the special case of you, the distinction is, therefore, between singular was and plural were.

  In some regional dialects, however, this pattern is not observed. In some parts of the country, speakers use was throughout, while speakers elsewhere use were exclusively. There are also dialects where the two different forms are used for the opposite function - singular were and plural was.

Usage examples  are not hard to find in print:

  1) What we was after was a couple of noble big di'monds as big as hazel-nuts, which everybody was running to see. We was dressed up fine, and ... - Tom Sawyer, Detective
   by Mark Twain

  2) And we was in the lifeboat —I'd say about nine days. While we was in the lifeboat  a German submarine surfaced. That's why I thought we might've got torpedoed too. - From
  Merchant Marine Survivors of World War II: Oral Histories of Cargo

  3) We was on the come up. We all brought cars with the money we had stashed and the money we was making off the coke we was moving. - Lust, Money, Envy

but probably the more memorable usage was by George Harrison in the sound titled When we was fab.

(Discogs.com)

Questions:

1)  where in the UK is this dialectal usage present?

2) what is the origin of this usage? An old usage survived from Middle  English for instance?

3) is the above usage present also in dialectal forms of AmE?


texts: "(...) afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, (...)" - what does it mean?

texts:
I'm not sure what does Melville exactly mean by afford stuff for a good joke to anybody in chapter five of Moby-Dick.

However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more’s the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way.

From the research I did and the context of the passage methought, can it be money? How would you rephrase it without using stuff?


texts:
Tomorrow around 3:30, I need a ride from the 7-11 to the quick cash place, gonna take my title in for some funds.

I take it title here means the legal right to own something? And to take your title in for some funds means to get some funds in your title?


texts: What's the double hyphen after greetings in emails?

texts:
I usually see just format in the emails I receive daily:

  Hello Dorian--

  I'm calling you in regard with the something...

  Thanks,

I see comma after the greetings too but I am not sure why double hyphen is being used there. Can someone explain it?


texts:
Is it correct to use the word "read" in these sentences? If not, what would be more appropriate word to use instead?

The status-bar now reads: Click to run the currently highlighted cell.
The tool-tip reads: Click to run the currently highlighted cell.


texts: What's the difference between "cardinal" and "ordinal" as adjectives?

texts: What's the difference between describing a number or place as cardinal versus ordinal?  They both seem to have to do with the order of things.  For example, when saying "He is the first in his class", is first ordinal or cardinal?  What are the usage differences here?


texts: What do you call a definition in which some (but not necessarily all) criteria must apply?

texts:
This is an algorithm for deciding whether a patient suffers from a specific disease or not:

  A patient has rheumatoid arthritis if at least four out of the following seven symptoms are present:

  Symmetric swelling (arthritis)
  Rheumatoid nodules
  The presence of rheumatoid factor (in serum)
  ...

There are similar classifications for many conditions. I remember seeing a specific term used for this kind of definition. It was fairly technical and could be unique to the fields of medicine or medical informatics.

What is this definition type called?


texts: What is the difference between principal and principle? I frequently come across these words and get confused.


texts: Is "There were a large number..." or "There was a large number..." correct?

texts:
Is the sentence "There was a large number of students in the auditorium," or "There were a large number of students in the auditorium," correct? I am unsure because I believe if you consider, "... a large number..." which is singular, then you would use "was," but if you considered "students," which is plural, then you would have to use the plural verb "were".
Is "was" or "were" correct in this sentence?


texts: What are the origins for the phrases "Knock it off" and "Cut it out"?

texts: When taken literally, the colloquial phrases "Knock it off" and "Cut it out" do not seem to mean "Stop what you're doing."  How did these two phrases get their current meanings?


texts: When a last name contains "Saint", is it ever spelled out, or is it always "St."?

texts:
When a last name contains "Saint", such as Richard St. Paul, how does "Saint" show up on this person's legal documents etc.?
Is their legal name "Richard Saint Paul", "Richard Saint-Paul", or "Richard St. Paul"?
Why is it this way as opposed to another?


texts: What is the origin of "number" as in song or dance?

texts:
What is the origin of number as another word for a song or dance?

For example:

  And then, when Astro came out to perform his sing-off against Ms. Francis for the right to stay in the competition, he gave the judges and the studio audience a bucketful of attitude. He said he didn’t think he should have to perform. Then he asked the audience if it wanted to hear him do a number (which, of course, it did). And he rolled out a less-than-his-best rap over “Never Can Say Goodbye.”.


texts:
The word used in that context should be gusto.
  The used word is wrong.

Is it correct to place used after word? When should I use word used, and when used word?


texts:
Why is this sentence "there were a lot of people at the party who/that hadn't been invited" right grammatically? (It is cited from 'Advanced Grammar in Use, Martin hewings, third edition, p191)

Does it must be fixed "there were a lot of people who/that hadn't been invited at the party"  ?

If we write a sentence that contains a relative clause like as first,
In some cases I think that we can be coufused for undersanting its meanings.


texts: How to use question marks in quotations?

texts:
My specific problem right now is whether to use

  "What time is it?" she asked.

Or

  "What time is it," she asked.

Or something else. But I find myself having issues with punctuation and quotation marks all the time, so I really want to know the general rules around it.


texts:
"I had forgotten" can be translated in two different ways in both Spanish and French. One could say:

"J’avais oublié"
"Había olvidado"

Or — and this is the point I am getting at — you could use a turn of phrase that tramsits the idea that you are not quite responsible for your forgetting things.

"Ça m’a échappé"
"Se me olvidó"

Is there a similar construct in English?


texts: What do you call those small wooden footbridges over water?

texts: Those planks or bamboo bridges you see in some resorts and some sea settlements in Asia?


texts: What is the word for the auto-technique humans use to find out whether a person is male or a female human being by their facial appearance

texts:
What is the word for auto-technique humans use to find out in a face to face encounter whether a person is male or a female human being by their facial appearance or body shape (masculine and feminine features/cues to make the distinction between males and females).
Elaboration: Such as female cheeks tend to be more prominent than male cheeks which may appear more angular and sharper the more the younger. Even featured lips, forehead, chin, nose, jaw, cheekbones, skin, and eyes distinguish the difference.


texts: Why is "Grab" so common in advertisments (and other places where it might not make much sense)?

texts:
We area bombarded by advertisements which say "grab these offers NOW !" or "grab 2 @ 20% Discount or grab 3 @ 30% Discount !".

Dictionary meanings of Grab :

  Take hold of so as to seize, restrain or stop the motion of
  Get hold of or seize quickly and easily
  Make a grasping or snatching motion with the hand
  Obtain illegally or unscrupulously
  Take or grasp suddenly

I am not sure if any of these meanings supports the advertisements.
It makes more sense to say "buy 2 @ 20% Discount or buy 3 @ 30% Discount !".

In other instances, I see examples like "grab the files from Bit-Torrent" or "Grab a Coke now". Files being virtual, why "grab" them ? We can drink Coke even by holding it normally, without grabbing it (from somebody else?) or snatching it.

Another Example is "screen capture" becoming "screen grabbing" where again, there may be better words to use.

  Why is grab so popular ?


texts: Why does "I never recognize 90% of the people" mean "I never recognize more than 10% of the people"?

texts:
Apparently, "I never recognize 90% of the people" means that each time you can only recognize less than 10 percent of the people. (Cf. comments under this video.)
My naive syntactic preconceptions tells me that never means "there is no time/occasion, such that ..." which would tell you that the sentence should mean "There was no occasion (and never will be), on which I recognized 90% (or more) of the people", in contradiction to the apparently prevalent interpretation of the sentence. Somehow, the 90% came to refer to the number of people you don't recognize.

I would like to understand how this works exactly. Interestingly, the German literal translation "Ich erkenne nie 90% der Leute" doesn't work in the former sense and would rather be interpreted as conveying the "logical" sense. So what is the grammatical difference in these two superficially identically structured sentences?

Edit: I'm not interested in stylistic recommendations, as I understand that it is colloquial and ambiguous and therefore should be avoided in formal writing. But as it is a phrase some native speakers produce spontaneously and most others seem to have no problem parsing it the intended way (at least given an appropriate context), I would like to understand how the syntax gets reanalyzed syntactically to yield that meaning.
but would like to understand


texts: What is the word for talking to someone when youre sad or worried

texts: Im feeling a little bit emotional and i just want to talk to someone about it, i dont need any solutions i just want to let it out.. What is the right word that means all of this


texts: Corresponding Descriptive Word For Unable To Distinguish Flavors

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Pertaining to the Senses

If colorblind is a descriptive word for people who cannot distinguish colors and tone deaf describes people who cannot distinguish one tone from another, is there a similar word for someone is unable to distinguish between one taste and another?


texts:
REPORTING on big international summits is often an exercise in drudgery.
what does exercise mean here?


texts: The term "proverbial", tense mismatch, other grammatical problems

texts:
I made an unwittingly controversial remark in a recent draft of an intra-company technical document. I wrote, regarding my acceptance of an exceedingly challenging software engineering task:

Like the proverbial "man with no teeth," I may have bit off more than I can chew.

This offhand remark created a firestorm of criticism. The internal squabbling arose because team members couldn't seem to agree on why the sentence was incorrect, or even if it were incorrect at all. Here are the reasons that were provided to me. Which one(s) are correct?

(1) There is no well-known proverb or parable that features a man with no teeth: The counterargument is that the word "proverbial" can refer not only to a proverb, but to something or someone who is well known. Surely all readers have known or met a man with no teeth.

(2) "Man with no teeth" shouldn't be in quotes. It's not a movie title. Is this a valid criticism? Can't quotes be used to indicate a common characterization of a person? Referring to a man's title or characterization in quotations, as in "the Heisenberg of Newport Beach" for example, characterizes the subject as a Newport Beach drug manufacturer. Presumably there is no movie titled "the Heisenberg of Newport Beach," yet the quotes properly indicate how the subject is perceived and referred to by the locals.

(3) A man with no teeth cannot chew. The argument here is that it takes at least one good tooth to execute a proper chew and as such, changing the phrase to "man with loose teeth" or "man with one tooth" would solve the problem. One of my critics used an extreme example to illustrate the problem: Having lost both of his arms in the Iraq war, Sonny Boy found it extremely difficult to clap along with the Katy Perry song. His point being that a "man with no teeth" cannot chew any more than a man with no hands can clap.

(4) The word "bit" should be changed to "bitten." Even after consulting a dictionary, I'm not sure which word is more appropriate here.

(5) The word "bit" is past tense but "can" is present tense. Could this disagreement in tense be corrected by replacing the word "can" with "could" ? But what if what I bit off (in the past) is greater than what I can currently chew (in the present).


texts:
"Between his support for packing the Supreme Court and legalizing abortion up until the point of birth, there's no question that Buttigieg was far further to the Left of former President Barack Obama." (Tiana Lowe, Washington Examiner op-ed, 3/1/20)

It seems to me that striking the word "further" would be a striking improvement, but that doesn't mean "far further" is simply wrong. Is it?


texts:
Today I was writing a simple message to be shown to the user whenever at least one field was not supplied.

  Every/All fields must be supplied.

I'm in doubt about the usage of Every vs All, which one do you think is the most appropriate here ?


texts:
I am looking for a word describing the action of taking written lyrics (say, a poem) and composing a tune to fit.
e.g.

  The album is based on Emily Dickinson poems

But "based on" sounds odd to me (I'm not a native English speaker)


texts: Is there an adjective to describe a location in which there usually is heavy traffic?

texts:
In Portuguese we say a place is very "congestionado", that is, traffic is usually backed up. So, is there a way to describe a neighborhood, or city to mean that it usually has backed up traffic?
For example

  "Chicago is ____"


texts: When to put a comma before participial phrase

texts:
This site is excellent. Thank you!
A Japanese colleague of mine recently asked me to explain to him the rules about comma usage in the following two sentences (taken from an English textbook):

"He always eats breakfast reading the paper."

"She was making sandwiches, talking with her daughter."

I've been Googling participial phrases and comma usage for hours, but have been unable to find a satisfactory answer. I know that the comma is omitted when the noun modified by the participial phrase comes directly before the participial phrase, but what about the first sentence, above? Is it a question of restrictive vs. nonrestrictive elements? Or is the textbook example wrong? A comma in that case seems wrong to me, but sometimes, when it comes to grammar, the more I think about something, the more difficult it becomes to figure out the proper choice.

Thanks in advance!


texts:
Can coruscating be used as a one word adjective to describe "interesting and exciting"?

Basically the usage is "his interesting and exciting research work" which will end up as "his coruscating research work".

Referring to dictionary.com gives this:

  coruscate
  verb (used without object), coruscated, coruscating.
  1. to emit vivid flashes of light; sparkle; scintillate; gleam.

So does this mean "coruscating" cannot be used with an object (research in this case)?


texts:
Sorry for asking homework, but this question is really confusing; I think the answer is some type of cousin, but I don't know if it's first, second, third, etc. and once removed, twice removed, etc.

I have simplified and rephrased the question below:

  Your brother has died and left his wife widowed. Your maternal aunt has also died and left her husband widowed. If the widow and the widower marry and have children then what is the relationship of those children to you?

(The state of homework these days...)


texts: It's often seen with "has," but the frequent appearance of "hath" suggests the saying may be much, much older. Early Modern English always suggests Shakespeare to me, but my Google-fu hath failed me in this instance. Perhaps someone here can shed some light.


texts:
Can someone please explain the following sentence?

  This perspective provides a primarily pragmatic justification, therefore, for confidentiality, in that any perceived limitations to, or undermining of, confidentiality will tend to adversely affect the quality of the therapy being provided.

The sentence is taken from a journal article related to counselling and psychotherapy. The commas are in the right positions according to the article.


texts: What is the name for the part of piece of text which describes what a thing does?

texts:
What's the specific name used to describe the part of a piece of text which describes what something does?

For example, from the following text:

Space Exploration Technologies is a space-transportation startup company founded by Elon Musk. It designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. develops crew and cargo capsules, engines, cryogenic tank structures, avionics, equipment, guidance, and control software. It is developing the partially reusable launch vehicles Falcon 1 and Falcon 9.

What is the following part called?

designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft


texts: Quotation marks in "call it [something] for short"

texts:
It seems that many (most of?) newspapers and journals don't use quotation marks in constructions like "call it [something] for short". Or even italic. Is it really okay to keep it plain?
No quotation marks, no italic:

Let's call it ACG for short. - Independent
Properly speaking, marc is the mass of pulpy leftovers; officially, the distillate is eau de vie de marc, but people call it marc for short. - The New York Times - Food
The organizers hope that Smorgasburg (call it Smorg for short) will become a weekly addiction that ramps up the connection between upstate farmers and city purveyors of high-quality local food, and celebrates the borough's chauvinism. - The New York Times
We call it spectral ridge for short. - EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing

Quotation marks:

No, we can't pronounce it either, preferring to simply call it "OB" for short. - Huffington Post
The overwhelming question on the mind of the hiring manager as she scans your material is, "What's In it For Me?" Let's call it "WIFM" for short. - Science Magazine


texts: usage of "at the latest" when expressing time

texts:
When using "at the latest", is this correct usage?

"I will be in around 10am or 11am at the latest".


texts: How to determine if a following phrase applies to both of the subjects that are connected with "and" or "or"

texts:
The title is way too long and not that accurate I think.
The example is this:

  How likely would you be to recommend this product to a colleague or
  somebody seeking software solutions?

When it comes to this kind of sentences, I always wonder if it means:

  How likely would you be to recommend this product to a colleague
  seeking software solutions or somebody seeking software solutions?

or

  How likely would you be to recommend this product to a colleague or
  somebody seeking software solutions?

Is there any way to determine if a following phrase (in this case, "seeking software solutions") applies to both of the subjects or just the one right before the phrase? Does it depend on context?


texts: Narrative in second person: singular or plural?

texts:
The lack of distinction of singular-plural pronouns for the second person in English (quite strange for native Spanish speakers, as myself) is usually unimportant, I guess, because the ambiguity is either irrelevant or obvious from them context. But I was wondering, from a translator point of view, about narratives in second person. Take for example the beginning of "The catcher in the rye":

  If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably
  want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was
  like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and
  all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going
  into it, if you want to know the truth.

Or, from "The mating season" (P. G. Wodehouse)

  I wonder, by the way, if you recall this Augustus, on whose activities
  I have had occasion to touch once or twice before now? Throw the mind
  back. Goofy to the gills, face like a fish, horn-rimmed spectacles,
  drank orange juice, collected newts, engaged to England's premier
  pill, a girl called Madeline Bassett ... Ah, you've got him? Fine.

In Spanish, these examples areusually translated as plural (ustedes/vosotros), but the truth is that literature uses both forms: singular (the author speaks directly with the present individual reader) and plural (the author speaks globally to "the public").
Do English native speakers assume (from some rule, convention, or spontaneously) the singular or the plural person here, or it's inherently ambiguous?


texts:
I'm looking for a single word that describes that action of making a stock price go up by a lot in a short period of time. The opposite would be "crash" which makes the stock price fall by a lot in a short amount of time.

Edit: I'm going to try to clear this up. I'm not getting confused about for which action I'm looking for a word. I am making a game in which players interact with a virtual stock market. However, there is an "admin" who is in complete and total control of the market, which does not exist in the real world, and I understand this. I do not need words that describe the stock price suddenly rising or falling. I need words that describe the action of causing the price to rise or fall. I realize that this does not happen in the real stock market, but it does happen in my game.


texts:
If I had the pen of a Napier, or a Bell's Life, I should like to
  describe this combat properly. It was the last charge of the
  Guard—(that is, it would have been, only Waterloo had not yet taken
  place)—it was Ney's column breasting the hill of La Haye Sainte,
  bristling with ten thousand bayonets, and crowned with twenty
  eagles—it was the shout of the beef-eating British, as leaping down
  the hill they rushed to hug the enemy in the savage arms of battle—in
  other words, Cuff coming up full of pluck, but quite reeling and
  groggy, the Fig-merchant put in his left as usual on his
  adversary's nose, and sent him down for the last time.

(from Vanity Fair)

And if so, what does it mean?

Couldn't Thackeray have just said "[he] put ... on his adversary's nose?"

Why the need for "in"?


texts:
As in, I spent all night poring over those legal documents.

Or, do you use pore through?

Not to be confused with pour (some sugar).


texts: What is a word that encompasses both "extend" and "shrink"

texts:
Instead of writing "You may extend or shrink the deadlines if you choose to", I would like a word that encompasses both.

However I do not want something as generic as "adjust" or "modify". The word should embody extending and shrinking.


texts:
Which tense should be used in troubleshooting cases, simple present or simple past?

I've seen examples where simple present is used. But what if a specific date is provided in the case.

For example:

  On September 9, 2013, the system encounters/encountered an exception.


texts: What is it called when you search for something on the internet and end up looking for other and it goes in endless meander?

texts:
What am I doing when I search for something on the internet and the search provides for some other interesting stuff apart from what I was looking for and I end up opening an infinite number of browser tabs and browsing more and more it goes in an endless loop and the whole episode makes for after thought to ponder upon.

PS: I lost the term I had found on Wikipedia and I cannot get it back.


texts: Word for- something that someone uses and then exchanges it

texts:
I need the word for naming my new business. My business involves persons especially ladies to come and deposit their (single)ornament+reasonable money in return for different design of ornaments of similar weight 4-5 times an year.

So the word which you may suggest can be put in the business name either as the whole name, or as not a legit word but as a word which is signifying the meaning of business by including the part of the word, or by clubbing it with a hinglish word.
You only suggest me the word which-
1)is signifying the meaning of exchange
2)happens 4/5 times a year
3)probably relates to jewelry which is left idle as a NPA
4)probably relating to the attitude of women of not wearing the same jewelry again & again.

Your job is to suggest a single word for the functions(listed above) that the business is performing. Then its my job to restructure that word to name the business.


texts:
Do these 2 sentences have particular reasons? Could we use both?

A. Not less than 30 days of the expiration.

B. Not less than 30 days of the expiry date.


texts:
I have noticed a trend in some rap music where erry replaces the word every (see 1:35 of "The Motto" by Drake). Can anyone shed light on the origins of this pronunciation?

I thought it might trace to Southern (U.S.) rappers, although Drake is Canadian. I'm not sure if there's a regional basis, or if perhaps it spread through the subculture to facilitate rhyming. Is it considered Black Vernacular English? Can anyone provide some details about its origin–the dialect it may have come from or artists that may have propagated it?


texts: Can would have + V3 be used to indicate past possiblity

texts:
It's a bit confusing , well i have read a lot of articles describing how "would have" should be used but most of them has clearly mentioned that it is used to emphasis that the action wasn't done in past .
But could it be possible that it can be used to show possiblity ... in the similar sense might have and must have are used . Like in cases in which we aren't sure if something was done , maybe as a past form of "will have" . What does it imply when it's used as past of "will have" ??


texts: Rewrite this grammatically troubling movie poster

texts:
On a Wiki-walk the other day, I stumbled across the movie poster for Devil. The tagline on the poster is:

  Five strangers trapped. One of them is not what they seem.

The writer was obviously using a singular "they" to avoid specifying the gender of the Mole, so as not to give away part of the plot. Sometimes singular "they" works for me, sometimes it doesn't. In this case, it really struck me as jarring, but I can't come up with a better alternative.

Can you?


texts: opposite of collation (the act of removing leading zeros)

texts: Is there a word for the act of removing leading zeros from a number? I need to abbreviate it at one point so it needs to be a single word, or multiple words that are fairly distinct from others when abbreviated together.


texts: Where should the commas be placed in this sentence?

texts:
The sentence is "How I won and lost my first employee"

How I won, and lost, my first employee is how I would say it out loud but this seems excessive.

How I won (and lost)my
How I won, and lost my
How I won and lost my

Is there a 'correct' interpretation or does it fall somewhat to personal writing preference?

West Canadian if it matters. Thanks.


texts: Usage, meaning and popularity of the term "nerd"

texts:
The term nerd has no clear origin, but most sources agree that it is from the '50s. The AHD, for instance,  states that:

  The first known occurrence of the word nerd, undefined but illustrated, dates from 1950 and is found in If I Ran the Zoo, a children's book by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). The book's narrator lists various imaginary creatures that he would keep in the zoo..... "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" (The nerd is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry.)

Most dictionaries give two definition of nerd, the more general and derogatory one is always the first:

  A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious. (ODO)

while, the related but probably  more common and less negative one,  always comes as second:

  a person who is extremely interested in one subject, especially computers, and knows a lot of facts about it. (Cambridge Dictionary)

Checking with Ngram  it appears that "nerd" has become a very popular term only from the '80s, much more than  "computer nerd" for instance.

Questions:

What made "nerd" a popular therm from the '80s? Was it its original derogatory meaning or the more recent technology related one?

Has   "nerd" still a negative connotation or has "tech  specialist" nuance of the term outgrown the original meaning?


texts: Distribution of auxiliary verb over infinitives

texts:
I have a doubt regarding the use of auxiliary verb. When we use an auxiliary verb in a sentence , and suppose it does two tasks and we join them using ,say, 'and' , Is there a need for us to repeat the verb after 'and'.
For instance, Say the sentences are :

Don't pity him .
Don't cut him some slack.

So is it sufficient to say , Don't pity him and cut him some slack. Does this convey the same meaning as the above two sentences jointly do? The main point is whether repetition of 'don't' is redundant.

If it conveys the same meaning, does the same apply apply for all other auxiliary verbs like have , do etc. I mean whether there is any need to repeat the verb again if we have a conjunction joining two sentences. (any conjunction).
I have seen some questions where it has been asked specifically for some verbs , but I would like to know  the general idea about the usage.


texts: What does “there” mean in the last sentence?

texts:
Nakata silently stood up and came over to stand in front of Miss Saeki. He
laid his hard, sunburned hands on top of hers on the files. And as if listening
carefully to something, he felt the warmth there filter from her hand to his.

I don’t know what “there” word means grammatically and why “filter” verb is used without suffix -s? It looks like “The warmth filters from her hand to his”.
I hope you help!


texts: Using brackets in quotes: You['re] vs [You're]

texts:
Quick question, if the original quote is "You are..." but I'm attempting to combine the two words, would the correct way to use brackets be:

a. [You're] (entire word in bracket)

b. You['re] (contraction in bracket)

Thanks so much!


texts: Word for logical AND-or-OR-ness property

texts:
Suppose I have a set of criteria used in digital searches (such as "year is earlier than 1900", "name begins with S"). The user can choose whether to search for records matching ALL of their criteria, or ANY (at least one) of their criteria.

What noun describes the property that the user is choosing: the "AND-or-OR-ness" of the search? (Other logical operations could also be available in theory, like exclusive-OR.) I'm thinking there might be a technical term along the lines of "distributivity", though that's not the one.

Sample sentence: "The user's search didn't return any results because she picked the wrong ____: there are people beginning with S and birthdates before 1900, but not both."


texts: Mnemonic for remembering how to spell "mnemonic"

texts: It is ironic that the name of a mental device which is supposed to make our lives easier is itself so hard to spell. Is there a mnemonic for the spelling of mnemonic?


texts: What does "take the pace out" mean in this context?

texts:
It shows in the Champions League, where the Premier League's best sides have struggled since Chelsea won the competition in 2012, especially when the opposition take the pace out of the game.

I googled but it seems not an Idiom. In my own opinion, I would say "take the pace out" refers the opposition increases more pressure on the English team. I really want a more detailed discussion on it. Please explain it to me.


texts: Does the line" Tears of disbelief sting my eyes" make sense?

texts: Can I use the words - "Tears of disbelief sting my eyes" to express the fact that I am very sad and shocked?


texts:
Is there a use for the words skillfulness, lustiness, reproachfulness, greediness, allurement, angriness, brawniness, and sorrowfulness?

Each of these is in Merriam Webster without comment under the corresponding word without the -ment or -ness suffix.

Do these words communicate something that skill, lust, reproach, greed, allure, anger, brawn, and sorrow don't?  "He demonstrated great skillfulness" seems merely a clunkier way of saying "He demonstrated great skill."  Are there situations where the two forms have a useful distinction?


texts: ... 'can be found in' 'can be found on' ? (Prepositions)

texts:
Which is the correct way of saying,

the document can be found in www.example.com/ark

or

the document can be found on www.example.com/ark
or

the document is located at www.example.com/ark


texts: Is there a generic word or short phrase for "while taking into account both the [probability/amount] and the [effect size]"

texts:
For example, the word could be used like this:

-This decision will likely help, but it is a [foobar] bad choice: The result of the decision is most likely positive, but if it does end up negative it will be so strongly negative that this outweighs the gains even so.


texts: overwhelmed with old beautiful experiences?

texts:
What is the feeling you have of old beautiful memories and experiences. You are feeling it as you say it.
Like saying for instance, I am enraptured (at this moment). What I want to say is that (I am overwhelmed with the old beautiful memories now as I speak/as I write).

The memories have to be beautiful not gloomy.


texts: Is right to say "when he was come down from the mountain"?

texts:
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed
  him.

This is the quote from KJV Bible. I am doubted why to say "he was come down". I felt "he came down" is more proper grammatically.

Be + Verb in pp form is usually a passive voice which seems irrelevant in this context. However, I did hear a lot native English speakers say 'he was come down', 'are you agree with me?', etc. Is this usage correct?


texts: How to use Assault for, assault on, assault to in a sentence

texts:
There is a confusion regarding the usage of the following words
Assault on
Assault to
Assault for
please give example to explain the same


texts: What does 'let the idea go begging' mean? Does it mean someone hesitates when making a decision?


texts:
I need to know another word for "Not present"
Here would be the example sentence.

  All the students were here except Joshua, who was not present.


texts: Can somebody help me proofread a sentence

texts:
"After long accumulation(a long period), they will gradually form a habit, which is to be dependent on the charity given by the rich."

How to say that properly in English?


texts: How should blockquoted quotations be formatted?

texts:
If I quote someone in a context where a blockquote is appropriate and there isn't lead-in prose which identifies the source, how should it be typeset?  I'm quoting a saying or remark, as would be done in a "list of quotes" or the front matter for a book or chapter.

How would this example be improved?  Is there anything wrong with it?

  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua...
    — Fred Nurk

This varies by which style guide is being used and is essentially a trivial problem, so please qualify answers with any details about when they'd be appropriate.  I'm assuming an audience of the general population, much like for this site.


texts: A word to describe the next level of action

texts:
Is there a word to describe the next level of action? I know there is but I can't remember the word.

For example, if plan A fails, plan B is the next level of action to take. And if plan B fails, the next level of action to take is plan C.

So in this case, plan B is a what of plan A, and plan C is a what of plan B. The what is the word I'm trying to find.


texts: Why do the names of so many places end in -ia?

texts:
Many countries, continents, states, and cities have an English name ending in ‘-ia’:

  India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Asia, Alexandria, Philadelphia, California, …

What is the etymology and meaning of this suffix?


texts: How is "crumby" different from "dirty" (or similar words)?

texts:
I'm working on a translation of The catcher in the Rye and Holden seems to prefer the word crumby to other adjectives to describe, well, dirty stuff:

That isn’t too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me practically every week end.
"I don’t feel like walking on your crumby nails in my bare feet tonight."
"He started shaving himself all over again. He always shaved himself twice, to look gorgeous. With his crumby old razor."

He also uses dirty quite often:

His teeth were always mossy-looking, and his ears were always dirty as hell, but he was always cleaning his fingernails.
He got up off me, and I got up, too. My chest hurt like hell from his dirty knees. “You’re a dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron,” I told him.

As a non-native English speaker, looking at dictionaries and context seems to indicate they are very close in meaning. But well, there are never really synonyms, are there? How do they differ?


texts: Why do prehistoric animals seem to lack articles?

texts: Why do we say "this is a cat" or "this is a forty spotted pardalote" but "this is velociraptor" with no the or a?


texts: Whoever gets there first reaps the most benefits - word for this?

texts:
Is there a word or phrase that encapsulates this recurrent scenario? Let me give a couple examples.

A limited amount of land is cheap or free in a given area. The people who get there first get all the land. They can then set the price so that people who come later and still want land might end up paying much much more. This applies to any limited resource that is desirable.

On sister site Stackoverflow people ask programming questions. The first people who asked and answered the most basic questions about given languages in the early stages of the site received thousands of upvotes and reputation points. Basic questions are broadly applicable to learners of a programming language, so whoever was there first is by far the most visible and rewarded. Those questions can never be asked again (in theory) without being marked as duplicates.

"Early adopters" comes to mind, but it's limited in scope and only partially applicable as a category of people. The phrase doesn't imply that there are definite, intrinsic, and limited benefits to gain by being among the first to do something, benefits which will not be available, or available in diminishing amounts, to later arrivals because they will have already been used up or claimed.


texts: Alternative to saying "Long pole in the tent"

texts:
Help! A former colleague got all of us using the expression "x is long pole in the tent" to mean:

x is the person or issue that's preventing forward progress on a project
x is the person or issue that will take up the most time on a project

Besides not being a familiar idiom for some, the expression has sexual overtones. What would be a better alternative?


texts:
I need a single word that means the "degree by which something is energizing". In a sentence:

  On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the _______ of this coffee?

  This percentage represents the energy drink's perceived _______.

This should apply to any such food, like energy drinks/bars, candy, etc.

But it seems Energizingness is not an English word. Is there a word for this?


texts: Categorial grammar, Is 'leg' an adjective in 'skipping leg days'

texts:
I am working on CCG (combinatory categorial grammar), which assigns categories to words.

So I was wondering if 'leg' is adjective, or just another noun in the phrase "skipping leg days". Or is "leg day" a noun phrase by itself? I mean do they combine to become "leg days", or "leg days" is already a form?

CCG would give leg a 'N' tag, and days a 'NP\N'. Meaning, days need a NOUN to its left to combine and become a NOUN PHRASE, that slash in between implies us this. A background info about this combinator is below;

Y : a X\Y : f  ⇒  X : fa         (Backward Application : <)

leg    days
N      NP\N
-----------<
leg days
NP


texts:
The vast majority of the time when I see the word "myriad" it is in a sentence like "He had a myriad of things."  However I don't like the extraneous words so I normally use it like "He had myriad things." My boss corrected the latter usage while editing something I wrote.

I averted an argument by simply changing the sentence to "He had various things." but was I incorrect?


texts:
I have learned that this sentence has different meanings depending on which word is emphasized:

She said she did not take his money. It was not someone else who said it.
She said she did not take his money. So I believe her.
She said she did not take his money. But someone else did.
She said she did not take his money. ?
She said she did not take his money. And thus she is still poor.
She said she did not take his money. But she won it gambling.
She said she did not take his money. But she took someone else's.
She said she did not take his money. But she did take something else of his.

My problem is number 4. How does that differ from the rest?

And what does "She said she did not take his money" (no emphasis) mean?


texts: Word for a meeting meant to persuade the other person

texts:
For instance, someone's intention for meeting a senator could be to convince them to enact some policy.

This would be in contrast to an interview where the caller of meeting was looking for information rather than an opportunity to persuade the other(s).


texts:
I once knew a person who titled the first post in his blog, "A first post."

It was immediately pointed out to him that correct usage is "The first post." To that he responded: Well, every blog has its first post, and this post is no exception, so this is just a first post (among first posts of all blogs).

Neither that person nor the other people were native English speakers.

I wonder, does that rationale makes sense? How does "A first post" sound like for a native speaker?


texts: Town vs City, why they can be used interchangeably in novel?

texts:
I know that this is a simple question, but it does made me wonder. This is what I found after reading quite a lot of novels and often happened:
Why does City of something was sometimes called town when other people speak? Why they not just stay on saying a city, a "city" and instead often change it to "town" as they see fit. Does town here specified something in particular and that's why they were used instead of city like how it should be?


texts: Why are there two sets of vowels in English?

texts:
I'm a native Spanish speaker and I've been learning English for many years. They always taught us that there are two sets of vowels and we learned how to use them mostly by reading and practicing, no sort of rules or anything of that sort.
I moved to the US a couple of years ago with my family, and my mom is trying to improve her understanding of English. Only after she started asking me about pronunciation did I notice how unnatural it feels to try to pronounce something for a foreigner. I've been taking classes since I was 4 probably, so it feels almost natural to me. So why isn't it only the vowels that sound like diphthongs, or the ones that sound like Spanish vowels?


texts: Not only "do trees provide" shade and beauty, but they also reduce carbon dioxide

texts:
Is this sentence:

  Not only do trees provide shade and beauty, but they also reduce carbon dioxide.

as same as this one?

  Trees not only provide shade and beauty, but also reduce carbon dioxide.

What is the effect that the word do produces? Does it emphasize the movement of providing?

Is it an inverted sentence?


texts: Is there a name for a counter that tracks time since an event last occurred?

texts:
I'm looking for a single word or short phrase to describe a counter that increments to show how much time has passed since an event occurred. A great example is a "days since last injury" counter.

Ideally this should be generic. My use case is a "time since last exception" in a program.


texts: 'Candy' & 'cookie' equal the UK 'sweets' & 'biscuit', but is this precise? - 'cookie' is (also) used for what Brits would call a biscuit.

texts:
On supermarket shelves with dozens of varieties of (sweet) biscuits, I find some packs (UK produced, inc. 'own brand') labelled 'cookies' but I cannot find any way (consistency, content) of distinguishing between them, and throughout my youth (I'm 75) they would have been called biscuits. In this link from a similar question http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductLanding.aspx?catID=715, if the contents ('cookies') illustrated in the photos were simply laid out on a table, we Brits surely would call them biscuits.
Forgetting 'dessert', we all know what 'eating a sweet' means and it would not include a piece broken off a bar of choc. Would an American say 'eating a candy'? Anyway, US 'candy' obviously has wider connotations.


texts: Can "vetted" be used to mean somebody to whom some restrictions are not applied?

texts:
Using a CMS, I found the following description for a user setting.

  If checked, this user will be granted "vetted" status. Vetted users create full projects and promote existing experimental sandboxes.

Vetted users is used to refer to users who can create full projects and sandbox projects; non-vetted users are only allowed to create sandbox projects.

Is it correct to use vetted in this case?
If it is correct, what is the meaning of vetted, in this case?


texts:
I was moved by another question to ask the following.
You can move a deadline.  But what verbs or expressions may be used to
express the movement of a deadline forwards and backwards in time?

Don't know if I can finish this by Friday.  Would you mind if we --- the deadline?
You seem to be almost finished.  Should we --- the deadline?

I would have guessed extend and shorten were normal, but they're not
quite logical, seeing as a deadline is a line you pass.


texts:
I know what the word "lunatic" means and it has something to do with the  "Moon" as the "Online Etymology Dictionary" explains:

late 13c., "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes
of the moon," from Old French lunatique, lunage "insane," or directly
from Late Latin lunaticus "moon-struck," from Latin luna "moon" (see
Luna). Compare Old English monseoc "lunatic," literally "moon-sick;"
Middle High German lune "humor, temper, mood, whim, fancy" (German
Laune), from Latin luna. Compare also New Testament Greek seleniazomai
"be epileptic," from selene "moon." Lunatic fringe (1913) apparently
was coined by U.S. politician Theodore Roosevelt.

"Lunar" and "Lunatic" seem to have evolved in a different way. Was there any etymological reason why they had to use "lunatic" in place of "lunar" for "crazy"? How did "lunatic" evolve to mean "crazy"? (I could guess, but I don't exactly understand what "moon-struck" and "moon-sick" mean in the the above.)

Does suffix "-tic" have any special function itself or was it just used to make a different adjective from "lunar" because the Moon was called "luna" in Latin? I found a list of words that ends with "-tic", but I can't find anything in common.

If someone was called crazy just because he was affected by the Moon's cycle, is there a word that has anything to do with the Sun's cycle meaning "a bit less crazy" or "more mentally stable than lunatic", etc?

Why does "lunatic" have a stronger connotation than crazy, insane, out of mind, etc.?

Edit: @Elian commented, "In France, lunatique means something along the lines of erratic or mercurial."


texts: What does the phrase "You're out of your element" mean?

texts: I heard it in The Big Lebowski movie, when Walter yells at Donny, "shut the fuck up, Donny"; then he exclaims, "You're out of your element!".


texts: A word that describes something as simple, yet effective in picking up the nuances of something else. For example: "Disclosure makes __ electronic music, as their songs are simple pops songs with the nuances of good electronic music." Or, to put it differently: "the solution was simple yet drew upon all essential elements of the issue."


texts:
If I am displaying a list of courses that a person is enrolled on, the header for that list would be 'Enrolled Courses'.

However, what would I put as the header for the list which contains those courses that they are not enrolled on?

Is 'Unenrolled Courses' correct?

Is there an official word?


texts:
Consider these sentences:
"He said that the laptop is shut off."
or
"He said that the man is strong."
If I am not mistaken, traditional grammar would label everything after "he said..." as a subordinate clause, also called a dependent clause.
However, it appears to me that if you chose to consider the word "that" as a type of "connection word" (which might even be omitted) what follows looks remarkably like an independent clause.
"The laptop is shut off."
"The man is strong."
The problem is with the definitions of "dependent clause", found basically everywhere:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/independent_and_dependent_clauses/index.html
A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence.
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-dependent-clauses.html
A dependent clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. It does not express a complete thought so it is not a sentence and can't stand alone.
https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/dependent_clause.htm
A dependent clause is one that cannot stand alone as a sentence. A dependent clause will function as an adjective, and adverb, or a noun. A dependent clause ...
Yet, those phrases "The laptop is shut off." or "The man is strong." do appear to express complete thoughts, and could be sentences.
How can you say "The laptop is shut off" (or any other statement spoken by a person)..  "can't stand alone" or "does not express a complete thought"?   They look like fully complete independent clauses.
"The sky is blue".  "He said the sky is blue."  The dependent clause obviously could stand alone.
Are the definitions of "dependent clauses" misleading?


texts: Origin of "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide"?

texts:
What is the origin of the phrase

  You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.

I see it occasionally bounced around, sometimes as an authoritarian slogan. Brief research indicates some think it was coined by Goebbels, some by Orwell.

Is the true origin known?


texts: What does this quote from "The Fault in Our Stars" mean?

texts:
The following quote is from the book The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green:

  Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really.)  (Additional context: Excerpt)

What does this quote mean?


texts: What's a British English way of saying rest stop

texts:
Context:

  Are we staying here the whole night, or is this just a [rest stop].

I don't feel as though I'd say rest stop in British English, but I can't think of what I could say exactly.


texts:
My boyfriend recently told me that my new mouthwash was "spicy". Is that the right word to describe a strong minty flavour?
Example sentence:

Hot sauce is to "spicy" as mint is to...


texts:
I'm a non-native English speaker.

Given the sentence:

The English word " olive " derives from the Latin word "oliva".

Why is the present tense used, not the past tense?

If I say,

The English word " olive " derived from the Latin word "oliva".

is this wrong?


texts: 'Hope' vs. 'wish' in unlikely situations

texts:
Although 'hope' and 'wish' have many different uses, I've seen the basic difference often summarized as: 'wish' is for imaginary, unlikely or impossible things, whereas 'hope' is for more likely or realistic things.
For example:

I wish I was a billionaire (unlikely)
I hope you get well soon (likely)

This distinction seems logical, but then I don't understand the following:

I hope you win the lottery tonight (unlikely)
I hope you rot in hell! (impossible ... I hope!)

Both scenarios seem highly unlikely, yet the grammar is acceptable.
Is there are a better distinction between 'hope' and 'wish' in this kind situation?
Many thanks in advance.


texts: Is there a term for "hatred of women" besides misogyny?

texts:
The reason I ask is that at least one dictionary definition incorporates two meanings for misogyny: "hatred of women" and "entrenched prejudice against women".

I want a term that means "hatred of women" but cannot be mistaken for this "entrenched prejudice against women" sense. http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/misogynist does not produce anything acceptable, but I am not necessarily looking for a one-word term - it can be a phrase. However, I am looking for a term that is not "misogyny" or "hatred of women".


texts: I know that if you have a list of numbers then you just separate them with a comma and then add "and" at the end.  I also know that if you a have a long number like 78654 then you don't do any punctuating at all.  What I need to know is what to do with a single number.


texts:
"You are like a Yuppie". Is this an insult or is it neutral.

I have always thought that the word itself is neutral
but Oxford dictionaries categorize it as derogatory.


texts: Past Perfect Continuous vs. Past Perfect

texts:
I took a grammatical quiz and chose 'had been spending' answer. It turned out to be the wrong answer. May you explain why not the continuous form?

  John _______ (to spends) 3 years in Pakistan before he became a
  teacher of Urdu.

a. had spent

b. had been spending


texts: a better way to express "an idea/thought suddenly came to me"

texts: What are some grandiloquent, or simply better, ways of expressing "an idea/thought suddenly came to me", or "an idea/thought struck me", or "I was struck by an idea/thought"?


texts:
Are there limited number of words we can append a 're to?

Are the following words correct:

where're
here're


texts: I was reading and I came across this sentence"I only discovered it a heartbeat later." What does "a heartbeat later" mean? Does it mean "later"?


texts:
In Italy, you have two options to say "I love you", I'll try to translate them the best I can:

I love you (Ti amo.)
I want you to be ok (Ti voglio bene.)

The fact is that in English, both ti amo and ti voglio bene are translated as I love you. But in Italian, there are lot of differences:

I love you is used to express love for another person which is, or you want her/him to be, your girlfriend/boyfriend.
I want you to be ok is used to express still something love-related but just a little bit less love-related (It's hard to say it). I want you to be OK is used by parents to their sons/daughters or vice versa or by a friend to another friend.

I do watch some TV shows in English and I find that sometimes two friends tell each other I love you and they just go back to their jobs (= I want you to be ok) and sometimes one of them says I love you and the other understands that he/she wants her/him to be his/her girlfriend/boyfriend and that it's love-related (= I love you).
Why?


texts: I think this is a Midwestern thing, but where does the phrase "good people" come from?  I'm referring specifically to the usage: "I like Bob. He's good people."


texts: It’s been always confusing to me whether some widely used sentences that have “it” in them were grammatically correct.        “The winner takes it all” is this sentence grammatically correct?                 Why is “it” used in that sentence? Shouldn’t it be “The winner takes  all”? Or is there a change in meaning by including the “it” in it?                                                                                And there’s this sentence that I have seen some students use when asking the teacher if they could borrow a textbook “Do you have a textbook I can bring it home?” In this case, is it grammatical to use the word “it”? Should it be changed to “bring home”?                        It was kind of awkward to me to say that :/                                    Any help would be greatly appreciated :)


texts:
I was reading Wonders of World Aviation the other day, published in the late thirties, and have found a couple of articles where alinement is preferred to alignment. While this seems to make sense, it also appears to be rare:-

(Google Ngram)

Does anyone know how alinement came into being? Was it a (doomed) attempt at spelling reform, or is it just a minority spelling (or mis-spelling)?


texts:
Is "must certainly" redundant or incorrect? Or is it a valid way to stress the certainty of "must"?

Examples:

  You must be wrong.

  You must certainly be wrong.


texts: Is there a phrase that means "thinking out loud", but on paper?

texts: "Thinking out loud" in itself seems to imply literally speaking it with your voice, whereas I'm trying to describe "thinking out loud" silently by writing out thoughts on paper to work through a problem.


texts:
Which verb should be used in the following sentence.

Our ears (lie/sit) on either side of our head.


texts:
Could anyone tell me what does rock on Wayne mean? The context is

  Classes don't usually have data, but if they do, rock on Wayne.


texts:
I dont really understand the underlined phrase of this sentence:
"Although scientists have long suspected this to be the case, the new study is said to be one of the first to put some hard data to the idea."

The whole article can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3123921.stm

Does it mean: "data supports the idea"?


texts: Is there a word for when a child no longer "hero-worships" their parents?

texts:
A part of growing up, is losing your "hero-worship" of your parents.  The moment you realize they're not larger-than-life, but they have got flaws... The moment you start looking at them with new eyes...

Is there a particular word for describing this in English?  I'm not thinking of a psychological term (I'm sure there is one), but in daily-speak (well, not so daily probably).

Edit: In retrospect, if anybody has a medical or psychological term for it, that would be helpful too.


texts: "Run across two axes" vs. "run on two axes"

texts:
Which one of the following is correct?

  Cricket chauvinism runs across two axes, those of nation and generation.
  Cricket chauvinism runs on two axes, those of nation and generation.


texts: What is the correct usage of “imperative”?

texts:
Consider the statement:

  The drought we have suffered this year makes it all the more imperative to wisely use the stock of food we have.

Is this a correct usage of the word imperative? What may be the errors in the above statement? How should I correct them (it is preferred that the word imperative is retained)?


texts: 'I think' and 'I would think' difference

texts:
What is the difference between the two, are they intеrchangable?

I heard this dialogue in a movie:

  Someone spilled coke on the transmitter
  It was beer. I would think.

Could he just say "I think"?


texts: The use of the preposition 'about' in a distinct sense

texts:
The ODE defines the preposition about in such a distinct sense that other dictionaries don't:

1.1 So as to affect.

I Just found one example of 'about' used in such a sense: 'there's nothing we can do about it'.

What is meant by so as to affect in the subsense provided by ODE? I could not comprehend this subsense as soon as I read it, I just tried to use it . . . and I made the following sentences:

What should I tell you about it?

The reason is that I don't know more about it.

If you google the preposition about, you will see that other online dictionaries, like Cambridge,TFD and Merriam Webster do not define about in such a sense.
Doesn't it show that this sense is only used in British dialect? If so, why not in other dialects?


texts:
In this passage what does the meaning of Shivering?

  Did you ever get so angry that you start shivering and can't even show it to anyone, but sit here and update status thinking it might help.


texts: Correct usage of 'majority' in a sentence

texts:
Did I have them all grammatically correct? Please correct me if I'm wrong in any of these cases:

The majority of our population are Buddhists.
The majority of our population belongs to Buddhists.
The majority of our population is demanding justice.
The majority of our employees support the new plans.
The majority of today's women are aware of their rights.


texts: Meaning of 'that's really the crab of my story'

texts:
He made one or two other suggestions, but Scotland Yard had been before him in every case. That’s really the crab of my story, if you’ll excuse the expression.

From "Two Bottles of Relish" by Lord Dunsany.

What does "the crab" mean?


texts: Conjunction Reduction British English vs American English

texts:
I am finding there is a difference in what is acceptable between American and British English.

I posted this question on Facebook:
"Grammar friends, I need your help! Is omitting the pronoun the second time it appears in a sentence acceptable? (I learned American English, not British English, and that is possibly where this debate is stemming from.)

Example One: "I am your friend and am seeking your help."
Versus "I am your friend and I am seeking your help."

Example Two: "I need your help so am asking for your assistance."
Versus: "I need your help so I am asking for your assistance.""

Can anyone provide clarity to this? My American friends say both are acceptable and my British friends say the second option in both examples is the only acceptable answer.

Thank you in advance for any help.


texts:
Ingredients—a list of neccessary items you combine (usually in cooking).

What about building an electronic circuit board, with all the LEDs, resistors, etc? "Ingredients" feels wrong—I don't want to eat the board.

What is a more general term for "ingredients"?

Example sentence—"If you want to make x, these are the [ingredients] required."


texts: Is there a name for someone who calls someone else what he himself is?

texts:
Say person A and person B are having a discussion/argument.

Person A tells person B that his views are arrogant, or closed-minded, or some other derogatory adjective.
But in fact it is person A's views that are arrogant, closed-minded, etc.
Person B's views are usually the exact opposite of what person A is accusing him of.

This sort of situation happens a lot when discussing politics or religion, for example.

What do you call person A, for calling person B something that he himself is?

I guess, for the most part, person A doesn't actually realize that he is the one that the adjective applies to, and not person B. Maybe there is a different name if person A knows the adjective also applies to him.


texts: What term sums up the following situation?

texts:
What term sums up the situation in which a person does not feel (s)he has to weigh into (or put much effort) into an argument because the implications will not affect them?

Thus, person X debates for the motion that group A are a worse bunch of people than group B. However, person X knows that the reality is that group A will be economically and strategically less better off than group B for a long time to come regardless of any debate. Therefore, in a formal debate, person X is not as motivated to persuade the debaters against the motion of the merits of his arguments because he knows that it will not affect reality.


texts:
If I had many is words, how would I refer to them in the form of a plural? Could I use ises or isses? Example:

  You use entirely too many isses in your sentences.


texts: Word to describe an informal, mutually beneficial interaction between two or more people

texts:
Context
Consider a language exchange group. In other words, people are teaching and learning foreign languages from each other. There are no monetary transactions.
I'm looking for a word that's friendly in tone to summarize this mutually beneficial concept. It should be more informal and "marketing" friendly than exchange. The best I've come up with is "mutual help," but it sounds a bit redundant to me.
Sample sentence
A community based on mutual help.
Other options
Reciprocity - too transactional
Mutual benefit - similar to mutual help and a bit sterile