texts: Is it really wrong to say "I'm hearing"?

texts:
Many grammar books claim that ‘see’, ‘hear’, ‘taste’, ‘smell’, ‘feel’ are verbs that aren’t used in continuous forms, and yet, we do hear and see it quite often used by native speakers. For instance, read the title of this article:

Are You Hearing Enough Complaints?
The average complainer tells nine or more others about his unhappy
experience. So successfully resolving a complaint is not only likely
to generate increased business from the complainer, but also to
restore nine or more potentially lost opportunities with other
customers or prospects. The point is, if you're not hearing any
complaints this might be a reason to worry, rather than to
congratulate yourself.

I myself would say "I'm hearing more and more people pronounce this word this way" just as much as I would say "I hear more and more people..."
Your thoughts, native speakers? Does using the continuous form of this verb feel odd to you?


texts: Why football and rugby clubs use "Racing Club" in their names?

texts:
There are many sport clubs with the name Racing Club of [town name].

It seems that Racing Club is an old name for clubs of runners. But I don't understand why is it used for football or rugby clubs (even if these sports involve running people). I'm also surprised to find that Racing Club is used in Argentina or France.


texts: "Even more worth reading" v "worth reading even more"

texts:
A Meta.SE post was recently edited (by an ELU member I respect), with the reason "grammar":
Before:

resigned: Aza on Literature, worth reading, predates other events;
later wrote an update that's even more worth reading

After:

resigned: Aza on Literature, worth reading, predates other events;
later wrote an update that's worth reading even more.

I didn't understand why the edit was made and would like to understand the considerations for such an edit.  So here are my questions:
Was the edit an improvement?  If so, was it necessary?  Did it make things worse?  If so, how much worse?
Bonus question: Would either of the following be a helpful edit of the original sentence?

A resigned: Aza on Literature, worth reading, predates other events;
later wrote an update that's even more so.
B resigned: Aza on Literature, worth reading, predates other events;
later wrote an update that's even more worthwhile.


texts: The word ominous has a negative connotation attached to it, but is there a word with the same kind of meaning that is positive?


texts: Surely *some* wordsmiths must love America[ns]?

texts:
People who like/admire English or French (the languages and/or the people and their culture) are easily identified as Anglophiles or Francophiles.

I'm not sure there are so many Germanophiles, but that might be because they're diluted by the presence of Teutophiles.

My problem is on the (not ridiculously rare) occasions when I want to express positive feeling towards American people (or their linguistic peculiarities), I don't have a similar word.

Am I missing something obvious? Or is there a little-known term?


texts: Is there a name for "near the opposite side of the earth"?

texts:
Imagine the Earth as a perfect hollow sphere. Call the place where you are on its
surface, point A. There is only one place where a line segment that equals the sphere's diameter, or the Earth's diameter in this case, could be located on the opposite side.
What's is the name of that opposite point furthest from me?
ans:Antipode

I am looking for a word which specifies "nearly at the ellipsoid opposite side of the earth", by which I mean, given a beam that is perpendicular to earth surface at a given first location, and the second location that this beam crosses earth on the other end, what is a word that specifies a place that is near the second location?


texts: Where does the "quint" in "quintessential" come from?

texts: Doesn't "quint" mean "five"?  What does that have to do with the meaning of "quintessential"?


texts: Answering questions starting with "Can you tell me ..."

texts:
For questions like
- Can/could you tell me a joke?
- Can/could you tell me where the coffee place is?
- Can/could you name an actor who lives in Canada?
and so on...

Should this be answered with "yes" or "no"? Or with an actual answer (like how one would for questions starting with "Will/would")?


texts: Can 'see' meaning 'meet' be used intransitively in the same way?

texts:
This sentence came up in a conversation with a friend...

  What time are we going to see?

When I asked what it was we were going to see, he explained that he was using 'see' to mean 'meet'. So he was asking when we were going to meet... At that point a full blown argument started about the validity of using see for meet in this exact structure.

My question is... is this sentence structure with the intention of meaning MEET correct? can SEE ever be used to mean MEET in the exact way above? I am not asking about informal or spoken language or implied meanings. I want to know if this is a valid in a formal written communication.


texts:
The etymology of philosophy is "love of wisdom" (simplified)... So what would the word be that defines the converse of "love of wisdom"?

Since it is not definitively established what the converse of Philosophy is...

"To loathe/hate wisdom" or "to be apathetic of wisdom"... I think are good starting points...

I am thinking that the proper term is likely to include -sophia for continuity/context...

It would be nice to get suggestions that you have actually tried to pronounce out loud...

Sorry for the lack of tags, but I just signed up, and you must have enough rep points to use common tags like "love, wisdom, hate, loathe, apathy, or knowledge"... BUMMER...


texts: Open-ended concepts in Chinese usually be alluded by listing specific examples. Would native English speakers find it hard to grasp the connotation?

texts:
In Chinese and Vietnamese sometimes a word is made up by listing its examples. For example, "table-chair" means furniture, "month-year" means time, "land-water" means country, "spring-summer-fall-winter" means the cycle of time, "birth-old-sickness-death" means the cycle of life. Of course words for "furniture" or "time" exist, but by using "table-chair" or "month-year", the alluded concepts are more flexible, fluid or open-ended.

For example, a chest, although is a piece of furniture, would never be considered as "table-chair" when you consider the word "table-chair" alone. But if you say you've bought "table-chair" for your new home, it is assumed that you've also bought chest, bed, fan, sofa, etc.

Some other best fruits of this:

spring-summer-fall-winter: after spring summer will come, after winter spring will come. Seasons are just an endless circle.
birth-old-sickness-death: even when you're healthy like a newborn, you'll ultimately get sickness, then get older, then die. Life is a sequence of stages.
joy-anger-love-hate: similar to "spring-summer-fall-winter"

I think commas can be used to list them as example and then explain the concepts like I just did above.

Question 1

Can native speakers feel the open-ended connotation if they read a translation of this kind of word? Can "spring, summer, fall, winter" evokes the feeling of the cycle of time in them, or is it just a list of seasons? I'm afraid that the component words are too specific so the native readers would overlook the implicitly concepts. What would be a good consideration to transfer the open-endedness in English?

Question 2

I am taking a next step by putting them together:

  No alter formatting
  Birth old sickness death, spring summer fall winter, joy anger love hate, these stages are so vividly clear.

  Use commas
  Birth, old, sickness, death; spring, summer, fall, winter; joy, anger, love, hate; these stages are so vividly clear.

Is it too much commas?

This phenomenon is called hyponymous juxtaposition (same type words stick together to create a cover word). The component words are called hyponyms, the cover words are called hypernyms. See What is the term for alluding to a more formless concept by listing its specific members?


texts: Single word for for "beyond their years"

texts:
Is there a word that indicates somebody has an innate sense of something exceeding the expected grasp of that sense for his age? Similar to wise beyond their years.

An example case would be a ~18 year-old teenager that is as mature and responsible as an average 35 year-old adult.

  The death of his parents early in life had instilled in John an X sense of responsibility for his younger siblings.

I keep thinking of "preternatural", but I feel like it's too broad. You could use it for things that are too big, too fast, or just plain unusual. I'm looking for something that deals specifically with time.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  This question has been asked at/on SO?

Which sentence is grammatically correct?

The papers are freely available at the journal website.
The papers are freely available on the journal website.

Using Google's search results:

available at the website returns 72,800,000 results.
available on the website returns 106,000,000 results.

So, I inferred that both variants are popular. Is this method (comparing the number of results by Googling) sound?


texts: "stop over" vs. "stop off" vs. "lay over" in AmEng vernacular

texts:
What's the difference between those terms? Can they be used just about interchangeably?
stopover n./stop over v.

Dictionary.com
noun A brief stop in the course of a journey, as to eat, sleep, or visit friends.
verb To make a stopover

layover n./lay over v.

FDO
noun A brief stay in the course of a journey
verb To pause some place during one's journey

Please, compare:

There's a stop-off to change planes in Chicago.
There's a stopover to change planes in Chicago.
There's a layover to change planes in Chicago.

-and-

On our way to New York, we stopped over in Philadelphia for the night.
On our way to New York, we stopped off in Philadelphia for the night.
On our way to New York, we laid over in Philadelphia for the night.

-and-

Marj decided to stop over in Pittsburg to see an old friend.
Marj decided to stop off in Pittsburg to see an old friend.
Marj decided to lay over in Pittsburg to see an old friend.


texts:
Can you tell which option is correct? And why it is necessary to use or not to use this or that article?

  I have pizza.

or

  I have a pizza.


texts: Mimsy were the Borogoves - why is "mimsy" an adjective?

texts:
I'm reading Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass" and I've found a famous poem Jabberwocky:

  Twas bryllyg, and the slythy toves
  Did gyre and gymble in the wabe:
  All mimsy were the borogoves;
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

I've read some articles about that poem. All of them (for instance, this one) say that mimsy is an adjective, but they don't say why. I can't  make head nor tail of the syntax of this sentence.

For example, a sentence with similar structure might look like this:

  All gray were the wolves

But I guess that it is an incorrect form, and the correct form is:

  All the gray ones were the wolves

So, is the form of using an adjective in the example above really correct? And why it can't be a noun (i.e. like in all wolves were the animals)? I really can't understand it.


texts: Word or phrase to describe music that 'transports' you somewhere

texts:
Looking for a word or phrase for a feeling of being 'transported' somewhere, particularly when listening to music, but that doesn't necessarily describe the emotions of happiness or sadness.

I've considered 'melancholic', but it is related to sadness.
I've considered 'uplifting', 'enraptured', and 'euphoric' but those are related to joy or happiness.
The closest I've come is to 'transcendent'. But that seems to describe some kind of transportation across planes of existences, not some other physical location.

Examples:

"Wow, when I listen to ~insert electronic song~, it feels like I'm on Mars"

or

"That song makes me feel as if I'm driving down a forest road while it's snowing"

Thanks!


texts: How are 'marry', 'merry', and 'Mary' pronounced differently?

texts:
The way I pronounce these words is the same. Similarly for other words like these: I pronounce ferry and fairy the same, carrot and caret. Yet, dictionaries show different pronunciations for these words:

For example, Merriam-Webster gives:

\ˈma-rē\ for marry, \ˈmer-ē\ for merry and \ˈmā-rē\ for Mary

The American Heritage Dictionary gives:

(măr′ē) for marry, (mĕr′ē) for merry and (mâr′ē) for Mary

When I listen to the recordings, they all sound the same to me. How do you pronounce them differently? Who pronounces them this way?


texts: Leave+be+(past participle) or (past participle) without be

texts: I am a bit confused with the construction. If we would like to say that we leave the object in that state (using a past participle), would we need be before the past participle? For instance: I left number five (be) unanswered


texts:
I am trying to make a video and in it I need a piece of advanced text. You should get the feeling that this text is just advanced for the sake of being advanced, not for any practical reason, and being seen as a joke or similair.

(It is acceptable that this quote's complexity is perfectly reasonable in its own context, it should just look too complex to an average person.)

Maybe something from a very advanced philosophy course or a book about epistemology or perhaps a passage about linguistics with numerous abstraction levels and lots of referencing and triple/quadriple negations or something like that. Ideally, this shouldn't be just a technical text where every word seems like jibberish, but a quote where you sort of understand each word, but they are so "high class" and rare, and put together in such ways that you almost feel like the writer makes fun of you :P. Although if you do have techincal quotes like that, please respond too.

I have tried to google it, but how does one search for something like that?

Maybe some of you have some quotes written down that you have encountered earlier, or know some good book that I can lookup and look through to find this?

It should be longer than ~50 words. It should be syntactically correct for the most part. (It is ok if some parts of it are not, if those parts are so complicated that you have to study the quote first to notice it. But it shouldn't just be a mix of random words.)

Sorry if this is a wrong place to post this kind of query, it seemed appropriate though :)


texts: Can “in its own right” be used to mean “in itself”?

texts:
I’d like to use the phrase “in its own right” to mean “in itself” as in:

  This subject has no practical application, but is interesting in its own right.

Is this a correct usage of the phrase? How is this understood by native speakers? Also, do you know of good alternatives?


texts:
How do I write the dollar value of a particular year in the US?

Is this a standard format?

$6.5 million (US $2005)


texts:
Is this sentence actually grammatical?

  You know your having a rough day when kittens don't even make you smile.

The writer of this sentence may intend to mean you're instead of your but I'm just wondering if having a gerund preceded by a genitive is considered grammatical in this case.

If the sentence above is ungrammatical, why is this sentence grammatical?

  He resents your being more popular than he is.

What's the difference between these two sentence that determines one to be grammatical and the other to be not?

This is how I analyze the two sentences and I can't see the difference:

"You know it when kittens don't even make you smile" for
"it" = "your having a rough day"
"He resents it" for "it" = "your being more popular
than he is"


texts: Publick or Public? in the 18th and 19th Century Britain

texts:
The spelling of -ck was more popular than -c in many words in Britain. But in America, Noah Webster proposed around 1800 to replace -ck by -c, which caused the widespread of this -c spelling in US.
In the early 18th century, some of the English spellings were inconsistent. One of the important object of publishing an English dictionary was to make these inconsistencies less noticeable. And it can be said that in the 18th century standard English spellings mostly follow Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
I worked with Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, and came to presume that even in the 18th century public was more widely used than publick among the British people. Of course, it may have depended on the author’s style or taste. I made a rough examination of the occurrences of these spellings in his Rambler (1750-52), with only a few instances of -c spelling, but in Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1791): publick 324 occurrences vs. public 136, critick 43 vs. critic 42, and topick 93 vs topic 25. Can I have more rigid statistical data or information about the historical transition from -ck to -c in the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain?


texts: what does spin up mean in this sentence?

texts:
this sentence is about programming, but I don't know what the meaning of "spin up" as follows is.

  We're doing that by using a class from Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting,
  and that is the web host class that has a static method that makes
  this easy to "spin up" a web server, it's called CreateDefaultBuilder,
  and once I have a web host builder, I need to configure that builder a
  little bit.


texts:
Is there a phrase for when one assigns a money value for damages done by a natural disaster or by an identity thief?

This is more like the value assigned to damages than an actual money transaction.

This is all I can think of: damage done, virtual loss.


texts: Academic term for the human tendency to optimize and defend familiarity in one's daily life

texts:
There is a word (likely an item of psychological jargon) which I heard once in a YouTube video and keep finding a need for.
It was a "state of being" adjective that I remember beginning with e- (possibly eu-) and, when used in a sentence something like "Yes, Humans are [...], but..." it referred to our tendency to optimize our day-to-day life for familiarity and then resist change.
(It was being used as part of an argument on the importance of resisting that tendency and seeking out new life experiences.)
Does anyone know what this word was?


texts: Any difference between these two (Present or Present Cont.)

texts:
"My husband will always invite his friends round for a drink just as I'm trying to put the kids to bed!"
or
"My husband will always invite his friends round for a drink just as I try to put the kids to bed!"


texts: What is the word for a person who does the opposite of what he speaks?

texts: I am looking for a word to let others understand that somebody is a person who does exactly the opposite of what he speaks. Is there any word for this?


texts:
What should I use the former and when should I use the latter?
For example:

  Sylvia and I grabbed our luggage and headed to the entrance.

  As we headed toward the center, I spotted a L-shaped bar on the right corner.


texts:
how should one read

in plain English?
In the following sentence, for example:
"let f be a function defined on/over/from/(other) A to/(other) B"?

edit:
This post has been tagged as a possible duplicate to this question.
However, I originally I posted this as a followup question on the page in question, and has subsequently been deleted by a moderator:
deleted by ***♦ 16 hours ago
Why was your post deleted? See the help center.

and someone commented:
Hi @Mogu ... even for related questions, you can (and should) post it as a new question.

The question in the other post regarded the prepositions to be used with respect to the domain of a function, whereas mine is also concerned with its codomain, and whether or not the act of mentioning the codomain in a sentence changes what prepositions should be used to relate to its domain as well.


texts: Good word for "a request that can't be refused"?

texts:
Is there a good word for describing "a request that cannot be refused"? For example, the context I'm thinking about is a situation where your boss "requests" that you work overtime one day, but it's pretty clear that it's a request that can't be refused (or, at the very least, it's something you believe you can't say no to).

I guess we could say "irrefusable"? But I'm not sure if that's even the right word, and I'm wondering if anyone can think of a better word for this.

Thanks!


texts: Is "its" ambiguous in "This bucket is produced in a factory overseas. Its capacity is small"?

texts:
I would like to show two sentence patterns:

A) The purpose of the capacitor is not to provide energy.
Its capacitance therefore does not have to be large.

B) This bucket is produced in a factory overseas.
Its capacity is small.

I think the use of "its" in A) is O.K. as "its" can refer back to capacitor only. At first glance, it could do so to "purpose" and "energy". However, as neither of them can be associated with "capacitance", it is clear that "its capacitance" is the capacitance of the "capacitor".
Furthermore, I think in B), "its" is used in an ambiguous manner. Here, "capacity" can refer back to both "bucket" and the "factory overseas".
Is my understanding correct?


texts: Difference between "where you're from" and "where you've come to"

texts:
I'm a Portuguese speaker and I am translating a video from English to my language. I now face this sentence

  "Are you a representative of where you're from or where you've come to?"

What is confusing is "where you've come to" because it somehow sounds contradicting. The "where you've come" would make one think of "where you've come from", but the "to" breaks this logic to my mind, since "to" would be, for instance, from here to there.


texts:
At work, he made up lies as he went along.
At work, he made up lies as he went.

Is one of those two wrong?


texts: What is the most succinct term for "refusing to take the bad with the good"?

texts: I'm looking for a readily identifiable term so some reference to Falstaff or "The Pregnant Spoon" won't really work. So a broad term for the verb meaning the act of doing this or an adjective describing a person doing this or the situation in which this takes place would be aces.


texts: XXIII, neither IIIXX nor XIIIX, represents 23. Is it correct grammar?

texts:
I want to say that we cannot represent 23 in Roman as both IIIXX and XIIIX.
The correct representation for 23 in Roman is XXIII.

If I write like this

  XXIII, neither IIIXX nor XIIIX, represents 23 in roman.

is it correct grammar?


texts: Usage of contemporary, casual, and elegant when describing an object in one sentence

texts:
I came across this sentence and I got a mixed feeling about the usage of the below terms in one sentence describing a characteristic of an object.
Here is the full sentence:

"To achieve that the language must be contemporary, casual, and elegant this isn’t the case today."

What bothered me here was a description of the language. I feel like contemporary and casual do not go well with elegant.
Or am I wrong?


texts: What is the difference between the idioms “Feeling guilty” and “State of guilt”

texts:
I was reading the meanings of 'Culpability' and 'Contrite' on Magoosh's app, which defines them as a 'State of guilt' and 'to be remorseful' respectively.

I then wondered if there is a difference between 'being in a state of guilt' and 'feeling guilty'.

What do you guys think?


texts: What's a word for "a joking dramatic exaggeration"?

texts:
Like:

  "Sam and Lilly hate each other now. Their relationship is spiraling to an end."
  "It is," she said, and she spoke like a fortune teller that made my previous _________ about their fall true.


texts: "Why isn't this line formatted correctly, but formatting work(s) here on Meta?"

texts:
If you look here, you can see last revision, from Cody Gray, that he changed "this line of code does not work correctly on stackoverflow but works here on" to "this line of code does not work correctly on stackoverflow but work here on"

How did he know that it will be "work" and not "works". Because it's already once before in that sentence?


texts: "He didn't dare [verb]" vs. "He didn't dare *to* [verb]"

texts:
Which one is correct? If both are correct, is there any difference in the meaning?

He didn't dare to contradict his parents.
He didn't dare contradict his parents.


texts: In a sequence of words where the "ends" are opposites, what do you call the middle word?

texts: For example, in the sequence late - on time - early, early is the antonym of late, and delayed would be a synonym. But what about on time, the "neutral" word in the sequence? What is the relationship of on time and early? Is there a word for this?


texts: Which article should be used in documenting arguments to a software function

texts:
If I have a function, e.g.,

function processDirectory(input, relPath, output) {}

And I want to document its parameters, shall I use the or an article? For example,

input - the path to the source directory.
relPath - the relative path inside of the source directory.
output - the path in which to write the output.

I did some searching and e.g., here they use the port on which to listen..

What about throwing errors, such as "Please specify the path to the source directory", or "Please specify a path to a source directory", or "Please specify a path to the source directory". I reckon its the last one because it's the path to something we talk about later, but a source directory because we mention it for the first time? Although other developers would know which source directory we're talking about?


texts: A word used to describe doing something good to unknowingly feel better about yourself?

texts:
I'm writing a story analysis and there's this character who is good and especially loyal to his friend. However, while he thought he was being nice for friendship, he eventually realises that he did it to feel better about himself.

What word describes this situation?


texts: What's the difference between "creek", "brook", "run", and "river"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What's the difference between these names of moving water?

What's the difference between creek, brook, run, and river?   I need to name a small river in my novel and was thinking about what are the difference between these words.


texts: There is need of developing a holistic approach for the management of persons with visual disabilities

texts:
In the above sentence, is it correct to use "of" after need or should it be "for".
Should I use article before "need"


texts: What are words for higher orders of 'quadratic'?

texts: I can't find anything upon a quick Google search. In English, there are double, triple, quadruple, etc. How about for quadratic, does it have higher order forms, for example maybe 'tridratic'(I'm just making up words)? As in the 'quadratic' in quadratic equation, this is one of the example I can think of, maybe there are other usages I don't know.


texts: Adjective to best describe sense of helplessness

texts:
I am writing a small piece on the current financial and economic crisis, and I am looking for adjectives or short expressions that describe the sense of helplessness that seems to hang over many people these days, like a sense of having no way out from the current difficult economic and political situation.

  People feel ____ in current economic environment.
  Workers think they are ____ because of economic crisis.


texts: Complex verb tense consistency variations

texts:
Ok so I’ve always faced a certain level of confusion regarding the conjugaison of the word “would“ when it comes down to some of its specific uses under various tense conditions.
For instance, the other day I had someone (a native speaker) throw the following sentence at me:
“I would take a shot if he fell asleep during the debate“
Please just don’t ask me what this sentence is referring to
So basically my question is why did he match “would” with the past simple tense of fall (fell) if the action he was describing was referring to something that was about to take place in the future? Why not simply use the 3rd person singular present tense (falls)?
I obviously had no problem understanding what he meant, but I struggled to grasp the reason behind his choice of verbs as the actions he was referring to were occurring at different moments in time and hence matching the tense made zero sense to me.
Would really appreciate if someone could clarify this for me. Cheers


texts: The boy who lived... come to die? (Harry Potter)

texts:
I hope I'm not giving away any Harry Potter plot points. I just watched the last movie of the series, and I'm pretty sure that they made an error in the German translation of a line from Voldemort taken right from the book:

As you can see in the trailer, Voldemort says

  Harry Potter, the boy who lived...come to die.

Note that the sentence ends in a period, not an exclamation point. Now I had always understood this to mean:

  (Look at) Harry Potter, the boy who lived (who has now) come to die.

In the German dub, they translated it as:

  Harry Potter, der Junge der überlebte. Komm her und stirb!

  (Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Come here and die!)

Surely that's not correct. Or is it? Is this ambiguous at all?


texts: "We should not confuse generalization with [...?...]" (looking for the word that says: it's true for everybody or in any situation)

texts:
Definition of generalization:

  A generalization is a statement that seems to be true in most situations or for most people, but that may not be completely true in all cases.

What word would you use to complete this sentence:

  We should not confuse generalization with [... a word telling: it's
  true for everybody or in any situation]

I'm looking for a kind of antonym of generalization (or maybe of mean, or probability, or common tendency)


texts:
This sentence in some of my company's copy has been bothering me for a while:

"The new iDirect X3 modem comes with a one year warranty — which [company] will double to two years — insuring your peace of mind."

This question sort of supports it, as does this.

But this one from Quick and Dirty Tips, which I used to trust a lot when I used to write on a regular basis, almost seems like it's suggesting assure.

I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be 'insure' because it's the peace of mind we're ensuring. So... Insure, assure, or ensure? My gut tells me ensure, but...


texts:
Take the examples:

"One in ten children are dyslexic."
"One in ten children is dyslexic."
"One in ten children has dyslexia."
"One in ten children have dyslexia."

The "one" is singular so 2 and 3 should be correct. But the "one in ten" is a fraction" so 1 and 4 should be correct. And yet I think I usually say 1 and 3. Which is/are correct?!


texts:
I have been searching online for a particular word; that approximates to an antonym of ameliorate. I am after a specific word.

ameliorate verb
to make better
Synonyms ameliorate, amend, better, enhance, enrich, help, meliorate, perfect, refine, upgrade
Related Words correct, emend, rectify, reform, remediate, remedy; edit, fine-tune, redraft, refurbish, rehab, rehabilitate, revamp, revise, rework; beef (up), boost, fortify, intensify, reinforce (also reenforce), strengthen; fine, hone, polish; retouch, touch up
Near Antonyms damage, endamage, harm, hurt, impair, injure, spoil, tarnish, vitiate; blemish, blight, deface, disfigure, flaw, mar; diminish, lessen, lower, reduce
Antonyms worsen

The word is eluding me... it sounds like detiliorate.. not deteriorate. My example is, probably, misleading, as my searches on google are not throwing up any alternative words.. So I'm probably way off base.
Anyone know the word I am trying to remember?


texts: Hyphen omission: a matter of habit or plain error?

texts:
I'm not a native English speaker so I'm struggling to get this right.

I understand (and this question confirms) that compound adjectives such as well-organized, high-level, Spanish-speaking, etc, must have a hyphen. In particular, for us non-native speakers, it really helps to instantly, on-the-march disambiguate some sentences, to tell if, e.g., we are referring to a Spanish person that is speaking right now, or about any person who can speak Spanish.

However, I'm finding more and more cases were the hyphen is omitted in compound adjectives, such as this in Wikipedia.

  The Cannone da 90/53 was an Italian designed cannon

I know that Wikipedia is hardly a writing style reference, but this is far from a rare case.

My question: is this a plain error or is the hyphen considered optional nowadays?


texts: Is there a term for using "or" to introduce something like an appositive?

texts:
Recently someone was trying to explain to me that "or" can have a non-disjunctive function, and this came to mind as a possible example but I can't figure out the terminology to describe it. I know that I've seen "or" used to introduce something like an appositive in a sentence, thusly:

"In her 'vlog,' or video log, she asserted that..."

Actually, now I'm not totally sure that's really an appositive. Anyway, I'm not finding this under anything I have on "or" or appositives, so I'm wondering if it's a legitimate usage with a name, a weird colloquialism, or what.

Also, potentially, from "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music: "...sometime in my youth, or childhood/I must have done something good" (depending upon whether "youth" and "childhood" are the same thing in this song).


texts:
'The experience of negative emotions in the flow of life can never be stopped, only refrained!'

Is this sentence grammatically wrong since the preposition 'from' does not follow the word refrained?


texts:
Is there any difference at all between these two sentences? Why would a native speaker choose one over the other?

a) She had suffered from asthma when she was very young.

b) She suffered from asthma when she was very young.

Thank you.

Nawee


texts: Is the sentence "The world is getting smaller and international connections tighter." grammatically correct?

texts:
Is following sentence grammatically correct?

  The world is getting smaller and international connections tighter.

What kind of construct is this? Parallel structure?


texts: Words that change meaning when the first letter is capitalized

texts: What words change meaning when the first letter is capitalised? The only word with this property that comes to mind is polish/Polish (the pronunciation also changes in this case, but that's not a necessity part of what I'm asking for).


texts: Is "to boil down" formal enough to be used in scientific writing?

texts:
The phrase

  to boil down to something

can be found in most dictionaries. However, to me, it sounds colloquial to write

  Finding an exact solution to Eq. 1 boils down to ...

A real-life example can be found here, and many more here. Interestingly, many of the examples are by non-native speakers.

Is it good style to use this phrase in formal writing?

(I am prepared to hear that if people use it, then it is OK.)


texts: Does an object have "specificity to" or "specificity for" another object?

texts:
Does an object possess specificity to or for another object? Every time I go to express this concept in writing, I struggle over which preposition is the more appropriate and more precise.

This is dilemma is encountered all the time in technical scientific writing, for example in biology where one speaks of enzymes with specificity to/for a particular substrate. I can't find much of a consensus there: I'm just as likely to see one form as the other in articles and published papers. My trusty Google consensus search isn't of much help either: the phrase "specificity to" occurs just about as often as the phrase "specificity for" does.

Although all of the examples I can think of at the time are biological in nature, I'm certain that there are others, so I'm asking this as a more general grammatical usage question. Do they mean something subtly different? Should one form always be preferred over the other?

Of course, it may be that either is entirely correct. Given that preposition usage is highly idiomatic in all languages (and English especially), there may not be a rule that definitively resolves this question.


texts: Usage of "before" in "I watched the sequel before the original movie"

texts:
Is the following sentence correct:

  I watched the sequel before the original movie.

It sounds strange to me—something like "earlier than the original" or "before I watched the original movie" sounds better, but I'm looking for a definitive rule for the usage of "before".

Can "before" be used together with an object?


texts: Is a question with an obvious answer to ask another question rhetorical?

texts:
If you were to ask someone a question with an obvious answer just to ask another question or to bring a subject up, would that be rhetorical? Like asking "Are you okay?" when someone is obviously hurt when you really mean "What's wrong?" or "How can I help you?". Or if someone at work is absent and you ask "Is [Person] out today?" when you really mean to ask why they're out.

I've been wondering lately because I've seen a lot people get irritated and think I'm just asking a stupid question with an obvious answer and it's making me wonder if I've been using rhetorical questions wrong.


texts: What is an adjective to describe a word that initially seems bad to one unfamiliar with it?

texts:
What is an adjective to describe a word that initially seems bad to one unfamiliar with it, but in reality it is quite mild or not to the initially perceived degree?

For example, the medical condition "Epistaxis" simply refers to a nosebleed, but telling someone you're suffering from it would garner much sympathy and shock.


texts: Term to describe initial investment versus long term gains

texts:
I'm looking for a word (or phrase) to describe a situation that takes a lot of time and effort to set up initially, but the initial costs are (ideally) offset by the long-term gains.

Specifically I'm looking to implement new project management tools: they will take a lot of time and effort to implement, and the value won't be seen immediately, but down the road I would expect to see enough value from the implementation to justify the effort.

I feel like there is a term and it's been on the tip of my tongue but for the life of me I can't find it.


texts:
There is a word for the optical shimmering effect that is caused by heat. It is particularly noticible when you are lying on the ground looking into the distance (the effect, not the word). It is a long word of the following structure: ------(t?)(a?)tion, (I don't know how many letters.)

The answer is not mirage. It is a similar phenomenon, but not exactly the same. Could anyone remind me what it is as I was taught this at school and have forgotten.


texts:
An online instructor was asked by a student at the end of their conversation:

Which of the following is correct and why?

It was nice talking to you.
It has been nice talking to you.

Is talking a gerund here?


texts: Do you need the “why” in “That's the reason why”?

texts:
I often hear people say things like “That's the reason why I....”

As far as I know, “That's the reason I...” would still be grammatically correct, but I can't find anything stating one way or the other.

Can someone please tell me whether I'm right or wrong?


texts: Phrase for when there is no point in speaking because you'll be met with excuses or rebuttal

texts:
This question doesn't fit because the excuses/rebuttals may be valid, the point is the responder will immediately set about looking for  them and doesn't really care if they're fixable obstacles or not. The purpose of the responder is to either defend their current fatalism or to use the statement as grounds to attack the speaker.

People who play the psychological game "Why don't you... Yes but..."

Possible examples include:

the famous "Can miners learn to code?" article taken as a sign of flippancy towards the miners and working class in general - the difficulties/rightness of a training program took a backseat to discussions of the journalist's attitude.
Any statement a politician makes on social media.

Example would be:

person-1: "X is so hard"

person-2: "Hey if you're struggling with X I found it useful to do A, B and C :)"

person-1: "Wow thanks a lot(!) We can't all get given A, B and C by our rich parents, out here in the real world (which you're obviously not a part of) there's one A per 10000 people, all the Bs are broken, and C hates me. Not to mention I'm already struggling to do D, E and F but sure yeah let me just go and magic A, B and C out of thin air."

person-2: (disengaging) "This is < missing phrase >"


texts: Can a tractor or a skid-steer be called a "device"?

texts:
I am having an argument with my cousin after I called a tractor a "device." He argues that tractors are machines, but never "devices."

Thoughts, folks?


texts: What is difference between "xxx, although yyy" and "although yyy, xxx"?

texts:
For instance:

I hate it, although it is funny.
Although it is funny, I hate it.

Is there difference?


texts: How do I ask a waitress to "wrap the rest of the food up" to bring home?

texts:
I went to a restaurant for a meal and didn't manage to finish it, so there was some food leftover. How do you politely ask a server/waiter/waitress to wrap the food up?

And is the expression "wrap up" correct?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Date formatting in written English

Which of these is the correct way to write a date?

1- Wednesday 5th of June, 2010
2- Wednesday 5th June, 2010
3- Wednesday the 5th of June, 2010


texts: Which term I can use to point "successor" or "predecessor"?

texts: I have some set which contains two elements "successor" and "predecessor". How can I name the set? Maybe "Sequent"?


texts: How to punctuate an adverb that immediately proceeds from a serial comma?

texts:
Research completed:
* CMS 16th Edition

How would I correctly punctuate an adverb that immediately proceeds from a serial comma? For example, "The contents of your bag will include cheese, crackers, and, optionally, vegetable stock."

Should optionally be enclosed in commas? I once read that one shouldn't use a comma immediately after a coordinating conjunction, even if it's an adverb phrase that follows. So, I'm wondering if this would apply here also. For example, "The contents of your bag will include cheese, crackers, and optionally, vegetable stock."

Thank you kindly for your help :D


texts:
I'm trying to add a verb into the following context:

  Ever since he was a child, he has been fascinated by the world of
  computers. Now, he is seeking employement with a company where he can
  ... his passion.

However, no word comes to my mind which I could use. Neither does something come to my mind which I could Google in this case.

Edit: Came up with pursue, any other suggestions?


texts: Interpretation of clause including compound sentences

texts:
I'm trying to interpret the highlighted part below. It seems to me that lack of punctuation (serial comma) makes this a little difficult to understand.

  One of the comforting things about old memories is their tendency to take on a rosy glow. The
  programming environment provided by the early versions of Unix seems, when described here, to be
  extremely harsh and primitive. I am sure that if forced back to the PDP-7 I would find it intolerably limiting and lacking in conveniences. Nevertheless, it did not seem so at the time; the memory fixes on what was good and what lasted, and on the joy of helping to create the improvements that made life better. In ten years, I hope we can look back with the same mixed impression of progress combined with continuity. (from https://www.cs.jhu.edu/~huang/cs718/spring18/readings/unix-evolution.pdf)

Could someone determine which of the following is closer to the originally intended meaning, considering the standard written English usage?

what was good, and what lasted (separate)
what was good and lasted (grouped)

Thank you.


texts: Wiktionary describes one of them coming from Latin, and the other from proto-Germanic. Does this mean they're unrelated, even though they're homonyms and both about geometric properties (narrowness and not bending)?


texts: Is there one word that means 'to temporarily join'?

texts:
Is there a one-worded synonym for 'temporarily join'?

Examples:

I want to temporarily join your team

Or a slightly different meaning;

I want to temporarily join these two pieces of metal

Thanks in advance.


texts:
Is there a word, or phrase, to express when someone makes a bet with the intent to lose?

I’m looking for one of two things (or both). Either a verb to express the action of making such a bet, or a word that is defined by this specific type of bet.

An example would be in Seinfeld: Elaine makes a bet with a guy, and if the guy “loses” he must buy her dinner (with the assumption being he made a bet knowing he would lose).

I realize this is basically just a swindle, but I’m hoping there is something more specific.


texts: capacities to do or capacities in doing?

texts:
What is the best choice that can be used after "capacities":

  Do people have capacities to do (I think this is right), or capacities in doing
  (as a good friend of mine insists)?

For example, can we say that

  Individuals have differential capacities to invest in acquiring
  these skills, depending on their social class.

or

  Individuals have differential capacities in investing in acquiring
  these skills, depending on their social class.


texts:
I was wondering if there are any adjectives for describing the "sinister green" colour? The kind of gloomy green that looks like this

Source: WallPaperUp


texts: What does the British idiom "taking the piss" mean?

texts:
I most recently heard this in the context of a business deal:

  Sorry gents, looks like we'll be taking the piss on that one.

I understood that the business had suffered a financial loss, although I expected I was missing some nuance.

In entirely different scenarios, I've heard piss used in British idiomatic phrasing that suggested a lack of concern, or carelessness. Those phrases are difficult to reconcile with the previously mentioned usage. Are there multiple idiomatic meanings for this word, or am I missing some kind of unifying theme?

Updated: I might not have a perfect recollection of the quote. But given the typical meaning of the phrase, I wonder if the speaker's intention was along the lines of "We'll be laughing about this later." Or maybe I just missed the real meaning.


texts: What is the meaning of "pole to pole" here?

texts:
In the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley (Youtube) I failed to grasp the meaning of the line "black as the pit from pole to pole":

  Out of the night that covers me,
  Black as the pit from pole to pole,
  I thank whatever gods may be
  For my unconquerable soul.
  In the fell clutch of circumstance
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.
  Under the bludgeonings of chance
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.
  [...]

What does it mean? What does pole refer to here?


texts: How to say that a problem has occurred previously in passive voice

texts:
I want to say this in a passive voice:

  People must have had this problem in the past.

The sentence starts with something like "This problem must ...".

How do I say it?


texts: Is it correct to write "Request to Help" as a subject line for an email?

texts: I sent an email to the IT Dept. to ask for a technical help. I had googled some suggestions for a suitable subject line and found "Request to help...". I used it, but then I thought it was not be correct to use the preposition "to". Could it be possible?


texts: The use of colon in the middle of a sentence

texts:
Please let me know whether the below sentence is grammatically correct.
I like 3 subjects: English, Mathematics, and Science, but the first one is always my favorite subject.
The reason for raising the question in this forum is the presence of colon in the middle of the sentence.
Kind regards


texts: Do angst and agnostophobia have a common origin?

texts:
I understand that agnostophobia derives from an ancient Greek word, while angst apparently evolved out of Danish and German about 1942. They have a somewhat similar meaning, especially in philosophy, making me wonder if they ultimately share a common origin.

EDIT

You can go ahead and close or delete this question. KarlG gave me the answer I was looking for, even if it isn't the one I was hoping for. I guess this is just an example of two words with different origins converging in meaning.


texts:
I have bumped into  just A LOT  of English native speakers saying:
  " the reason  I need to buy a flight ticket right now is because I have to get back to the office tomorrow morning" ( a tourist at a travel agency)

"The reason I want to go to  Peru is because you can eat one of the best CEVICHES ever"  (ceviche is raw fish cut into small pieces and flavored with lemon ).

I have so frecuently heard "the reason I...is because I ..."  that I have always assumed it is the right way to say. But to my great surprise , a beautiful Irish woman told me that saying" The reason  I ... is because I... " is  redundant.

According to her  " the reason I bought this T-shirt is I need to play football tomorrow"
Or " the reason I am here is I wanted to see you" are correct sentences.

As she is Irish, I guess it must be true. I'm wondering whether it's just about formal and informal ways of saying the same thing,or it's a real mistake.

Can someone make this clear to me?


texts:
We do not know whether X will have an effect on element Y as opposed to others.
  We do not know whether X will have an effect on element Y rather than on others.

The first version is the first one I wrote, but it doesn't convince me at all. The second one should be more correct, but it doesn't sound too natural.  Is one preferred over the other?

Is there another way to express the same thing?


texts: What’s is a good title when writing about my hobbies interests and beliefs

texts: I’m having troubles with coming up with a title and topic sentence for my hobbies interests and beliefs


texts: Is the word "exile" a comparable noun for the word "expatriate"?

texts:
Cambridge dictionary provides the following definition for the noun expatriate:

  Someone who does not live in their own country

Cambridge dictionary also states that the word "exile" is a comparable noun (for the word expatriate), defined as:

  The condition of someone being sent or kept away from their own country, village, etc., especially for political reasons

So, in what way are these words comparable, other than the fact that one does not live in his or her country anymore?


texts: Repeating the same word in relative clause and independent clause

texts:
Do you think if the following sentence grammatically okay  or should we rewrite because the word gasoline are placed closely?

  Automobile manufacturers are producing smaller cars, which use less
  gasoline,  since gasoline  is becoming expensive .


texts: What is the name of the moment when the detective solves the mystery or realizes who the murderer is?

texts: In many Whodunit mystery stories, there's a scene when the detective (e.g., Hercule Poirot) discovers (or overhears) the final clue (or a phrase another characters says) that makes this detective realize who did the crime.  This is of course before the "Reveal".  Does this event have a name?


texts: Is the following sentence grammatically correct? It doesn't sound right

texts:
Possible Duplicates:
  “A total of 10 babies is sleeping.” v.s. “A total of 10 babies are sleeping.” v.s. “Ten babies in total are sleeping.”
  Is “a total of 10 payments” singular or plural?

  A total of 315 questionnaires was received from your area, and in particular the response to Question 10 was most positive.

Was / Were ?


texts: "Have you gone" vs. "have you ever gone"

texts:
When talking about past experience, what is the difference between these two sentences?

  Have you gone to Hong Kong?
  Have you ever gone to Hong Kong?


texts: Should I use plural noun after ''both'' in the sentence below?

texts:
Set the Max depth parameter of both the Reflection and Refraction roll-out to 10.
I am not sure whether roll-out should be plural or not in this particular case.


texts:
The investigator proceeded at the crime scene?

Is this correct? Can I use the word went instead?


texts: Word for the religious equivalent of 'demonym'

texts:
A demonym is

  a noun used to denote the natives or inhabitants of a particular country, state, city, etc.

For example, Europeans are from Europe; the word "Europeans" is the demonym of "Europe". What, if any, is the religious counterpart to this?

I'm looking for a word that describes the subset of words that includes "Christian(s)", "Muslim(s)", "Buddhist(s)", etc. Or, put another way, a word that completes the sentence "the word 'Muslim' is the ____ of the word 'Islam'"

edit: a similar question has been asked here. The options in the accepted answer seem to indicate a misunderstanding of the question, and the most appropriate answer – that was later edited in – cites a source that claims 'demonym' can be used for any word denoting the names for people of any type of community affiliation. I have been unable to find any source other than this that makes a claim that a demonym is anything but a word denoting the natives/inhabitants of a place, so I don't accept the accepted answer given to that question as the answer to this question


texts: What's the difference between "act" and "action"? More specifically in the way they are generally used (and not more specific theatrical definitions, for instance)?


texts: What is the Greek etymology for "-on" in words like "proton" and "neutron"?

texts: Google says "proton" is from "protos" and "-on" ("first" + "being"), or "πρῶτος" and "?". What is the "-on" in Greek, is it "ὤν" or "ἐν" or something?


texts: Where did the expression “falling down on the job” come from?

texts: What is the origin of falling down on the job? What did it originally mean?


texts:
I have two questions:

I have the following sentence:

  "It was so extensive an area that"

why do we prefer to write the above sentence instead of

  "The area was so extensive that"

Can we use "such" instead of "so" like:

  "It was such an extensive area that"


texts: Formal definition for a specific type of concrete noun involving entities?

texts:
I am looking specifically for a list of proper concrete nouns that represent entities or categorizations of entities that can be used in place of the proper noun, however this is not what I am asking for...

What I am asking for is if there is a specific definition to this type of concrete noun.  If I had such a definition then it would greatly aid my search for such a list or help me to build it.

Examples of the type of noun I am looking for if my description doesn't make sense:

Bear
Dolphin
Bigfoot
Alien
Hippie
Shakespeare (the person)
Tree

So you can see that by "entity" I mean a word that directly identifies or categorically identifies a living being of any kind, fictional or otherwise.

Is there such a term for this very specific type of concrete noun?


texts: What is more appropriate: "weekly meet" or "weekly meeting"?

texts: We as a group meet once a week, for which we want to create an invite. For that meeting invite, we are confused whether it should be called: "weekly meeting" or "weekly meet".


texts: Tenses for two clauses joined by "if only"

texts:
Our school had won the match if only we have concentrated.
  Our school would have won the match if only we would have concentrated.
  Our school would win the match if only we had concentrated.
  Our school had won the match if only we would have concentrated.
  Our school would have won the match if only we had concentrated.

Tell me which one is correct.


texts: Is there a word for an unjustified true belief?

texts:
Typically knowledge is formulated as justified, true, belief. Is there a word for an unjustified, true, belief?

Edit: Lets say for a moment that you think that all Asians are martial artists. This is a false and therefore not something you can use to justify something else. However, because of that, you conclude that because Jackie Chan is Asian, Jackie Chan is a martial artist. It happens to be true that Jackie Chan is a martial artist. You believe it and it's true, but it's not properly justified.


texts:
I was reading Obama's farewell interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic. I'm not able to understand this particular quote of his:

  You know, I always talk about when I was doing civil-rights law and people would talk about the dearth of African Americans in police departments and fire departments around the country. And they would say, ‘Well, this should be a meritocracy, and everybody needs to take a test, and that’s objective, and anything else is affirmative action and unfair.’ And I’m thinking, Well, when Officer O’Malley or Officer Krupke was walking the beat, nobody said it was a meritocracy then. What happened? We’re suddenly now of the notion that somebody who’s a police officer or firefighter having some affinity and familiarity with the community they are serving is completely out of bounds. What changed?

What exactly does he mean here ? A preliminary Google search, leads to these two being fictional characters. Is it some American political phrase that I'm unfamiliar with ?

FWIW, I'm from India, but follow politics around the globe including the US, and can pick the context in most of the cases, but this one got me stumped.


texts: Get in the meaning of the past in the sense, but for some reason it is written in the present

texts:
I came across this sentence:"i feel blessed everyday that i get to be married to my best friend".
I can't figure out what time Get should be here ,isn't that in the past? is it because she has already performed this action, or is there something I don't understand? thanks


texts: Is "bestfriend" an acceptable spelling now?

texts:
I'm a non-native speaker and I'd like to know if it has been grammatically acceptable in the UK or the US to write "best friend" as "bestfriend". I've seen such spelling used a lot on the Internet.
Has "bestfriend" been considered one word instead of two (best friend)? Or is it still incorrect to spell like so?


texts: Why are "indemnify" and "condemn" spelled differently?

texts:
Comparing the words indemnify and condemn:

Both contain demn as a root
Both are transitive verbs

Why is one spelled differently from the other – why not indemn, or condemnify?


texts: What's the difference between segregate and separate as verb?

texts:
1 segregate somebody (from somebody) to separate people of different races, religions, or sexes and treat them in a different way

a culture in which women are segregated from men

Whites and blacks were segregated into different parts of town.

a racially segregated community

a segregated school (= one for students of one race or religion only)

opposite integrate

2 segregate something (from something) to keep one thing separate from another

In all our restaurants, smoking and non-smoking areas are segregated from each other.


texts: Is there a passive form of "let him sleep"?

texts: Is it possible to use passive voice without an object? If so, how would it be phrased?


texts: "Have been through" or "have gone through"?

texts:
I don't know whether been or gone would be better in this sentence:

I have some long-lasting memories in my mind, such as memorable overseas trips that I have been through.
I have some long-lasting memories in my mind, such as memorable overseas trips that I have gone through.


texts: “This passage moves from confession and petition, to affirmation, to questioning, to affirmation, and ends in petition."


texts: When one thing is over, the next is just around the corner

texts:
I'm looking for an appropriate phrase to finish a semi-formal letter to a colleague.

I'm thanking him for his cooperation and looking forward to the next event we'll be preparing together. At the very end, I'd like to use some proverb (if possible) which means "it's good that when one thing is over, the next is just around the corner" or something like that.

Thank you for your suggestions!


texts: Could anyone help me with finding the difference between saying "catch a bus/train/etc" and  "take a train/bus/etc"? I'm afraid I haven't been able to glean one from my dictionary.


texts: "unloading" or "landing"? The action to remove goods from a ship

texts:
When I was checking an English document written by Japanese colleague, I found "landing" and wanted to replace it with "unloading". In Japanese-English dictionary I found "landing" also has such a meaning. But is "landing" actually used in this context?
The goods to be removed are uninstalled voyage equipment.


texts:
I've heard of Continental's Dutch Curry and Rice Soup; and I've seen it mentioned here and there... I'm soon to have it later tonight...

But seriously, what makes a Dutch Curry... "Dutch"? It's not served with clogs or tiny windmills, so how does a Dutch curry differ from Indian, Malay or Thai curries? Is it simply just a naming convention or is it something even more in-depth?

I guess, I'm simply after an explanation as to why we call it a Dutch curry.


texts:
ESPN is kind of pleasant stuff for me to improve my reading, but sometimes, they really freak me out. Here is the sentence:

  Arsenal are interested in Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi as they attempt to fill a much-needed spot up front after falling short season after season with their current crop of attackers.

I'm so confused about two "after" in this sentence. Actually, I can totally  understand the sentence, but just because I pay many attentions to football as well as Arsenal and other clubs. I dont think I understand this guys without some informations of football. Please explain to me for the two "after"  guys.


texts: MADE - a VERB or an ADJECTIVE in the example: "This car is MADE of steel." Please, help

texts:
I understand that the word MADE is a verb by default, and this is an example with it in a passive voice:

"The cars are made of steel."

But can it be an adjective? As a characteristic of something, like in this example:

"This car is made of steel" or "This desk is made of hard wood"

Thanks


texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  People are the most valuable thing a computer has ever encountered.

Since "people" is plural, should I use "things" instead of "thing"?


texts: Hypernym for different time sections of a day

texts:
In a day, we have different names for different times of it. For example, morning, afternoon, night, evening, noon.

I need a hypernym for them all. What word should I use?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a name for this type of sentence structure: “She looks as though she's been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say 'when'”?

I'm providing an absurd example here, but bear with me. Consider the following "joke":

  Some chick invited Tim Tebow to her senior prom which is just plain
  ridiculous, everyone knows he won't put out.

Now, the source of the humor in this is the implicit assumption that inviting Tim Tebow to a prom is ridiculous, however the author then says that this ridiculousness is for an entirely different reason, contradicting our (the reader's) initial assumption. This is obviously but inexplicably humorous.

Is there a name for this mechanism?


texts: Is there a word that describes the phobia that your child is going to just die in their sleep?

texts:
I'm pretty sure all parents have checked on their kids while they were sleeping just to make sure that they were still breathing. My wife will actaully ask me to do this, especially if my kids are sick, or they've been napping for too long.

  "Will you go check on them and make sure they're still breathing?" - My Wife

Is this an actual phobia? Does it have a name?


texts: What is the appropriate pairing of verb forms here?

texts:
Here is the sentence:

If we all choose a personal or ceramic cup, we could save 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.

Am I wrong to think that "choose" and "could save" are an incorrect pairing? I think it sounds better to use one of the following:

If we all choose ... we can save ...
If we all chose ... we could save ...
If we were to choose ... we could save ...


texts: Word to describe not liking adornments and "frills", liking simple "things"

texts: I am looking for a word that describes a person that does not like to dress things up, whether it be people, ideas, objects. Almost the idea "simple man" but as an adjective?


texts:
The person version of second country

Like average looking, average money, average car, average house...

Not best of me. Not just about money

Sum of living in the middle

How to call this?

Edit: It's like I am in a middle class without class concept. More vague.


texts: I would like to ask if anyone knows what word-formation process takes place when we join two separate words (for instance 360 + flip) and create a word '360 flip' written separately, but used as a single noun (He did a beautiful 360 flip trick). I know that compounding means the joining of two separate words to produce a single form, but this is different because in my example we do not have one single form.


texts:
I read a narrative where the author was talking about her childhood.  She said that one day she and her father, a brother and a sister were inside the car, the kids were eating popcorn and drinking cream soda.  Someone said something funny at the very same moment in which she was drinking the cream soda.  As a result she aspirated the drinking and choked. The situation got pretty serious, but after a while she recovered. So, her brother asked: "Did it go down your windpipe?" She replied: "I don’t know—I don’t know what happened".  Her father answered: "Probably".  And her six-year old asked:

  Did it go down your muffler?

What does the word "muffler" mean in this contest? And, why is it funny?  I know it's something funny, because she said that it made everybody start laughing again.


texts: What do you call someone who spends his time enjoying himself, especially one who behaves irresponsibly

texts: What do you call a rich man who spends his time enjoying himself, especially one who behaves irresponsibly but is not a playboy? Someone without being sexually promiscuous yet going to social events, games and so on?


texts: Is there a word like 'Master' better fit for describing businesses?

texts:
How would you describe a company that has achieved mastery in a particular field?
I feel that, even though 'master' gets the message through, it doesn't work very well in a business context.
I'm searching for a meaning like 'established', but I would prefer a noun so that it has a marketing feel to it, to be able to form sort phrases that sound good, like what I try to achieve in the examples below.
The focus has to be on the know-how and applications, not on the pioneering/ leading/ innovation side of things.
Example sentences:

This company is a 'Master' of Consulting.
Microsoft is a software 'Master'.

English is my second language so your perspective is crucial! Any suggestions or insights you may have will be of great help.


texts: What does "meanest flower might blow" mean?

texts:
A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion. A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime. Months of voiceless agony, and then a child born in pain. The mother snatched away by death, the boy left to solitude and the tyranny of an old and loveless man. Yes; it was an interesting background. It posed the lad, made him more perfect, as it were. Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. Worlds had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow....

The above is an excerpt from The Picture of Dorian Gray. I am not understanding the meaning of the phrase "the meanest flower might blow".


texts:
What is the meaning of common method bias in the sentence below?

  A second limitation concerns the fact that we only used self-report
  questionnaires. Common method bias may thus have influenced some of
  the results.


texts: Quoted Titles & Possessives -- Journalistic Style

texts:
The Associated Press (they never use italics) punctuates the possessive of titles in quotes like this:

  "Jeopardy!'s" subtleties of language ... . (actual excerpt from The AP)

If a question mark were used, would we do the possessive of the title in quotes like this? Yes or no?

  "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'s" followers ... .

I think the example above exactly follows the pattern of punctuation (with the question mark) as it does with the exclamation point. Yay or nay?


texts: Is "school" applicable to higher education?

texts:
I want to specify in my work calendar that I am away on Mondays because I study at the university on Mondays.
Is it correct to say Monday is a "School day"?


texts: what does "hold fat cats' paws to the fire" mean?

texts:
the fourth line :

gravity-defying: I think i can figure what it means - their pay is so high - but I don't get it that the way the two words combine. I mean, I can't see these two words' relation.

the seventh line

hold fat cat's paws to the fire ... what?? is it a metaphor or sth? why they need to hold a fat cat, and why they have to hold their caws to the fire.. cruel...


texts: Whether the same parts are omitted when noun phrases are juxtaposed？

texts:
I'm writing about an essay about general upper secondary education and vocational upper secondary education.
But when I have to put them together, I'm just confused, whether writing 'general upper secondary education and vocational upper secondary education' or 'general and vocational upper secondary education'.
Under what circumstances can people omit the same parts and under what circumstances can they not? Could you tell me the rules, please.


texts: I am a student of the English language, and also Psychology. If I were to translate Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy, should the emphasis (the first and most important word) be on Behavioral, Emotional or in Rational?


texts: Is there any expresion in English that means " in the right meaning "

texts:
In Arabic we say ¨in the right meaning¨ when we want to add an expression better than the first one.

E.g. ¨I am in best way today¨ or (in right meaning) ¨I am so happy¨.


texts: A word for somebody who tries to deflect the blame from themselves

texts:
What is the word for somebody who tries to shift the blame or maybe not shift the blame so much as they do something and they explain it away in a way that doesn't put it on anybody else but could easily be explained by the media or general Society  or racial issues  or outlandish explanation  such as God's will  what have you, anything but the truth that really they are at heart the one to blame the one with the issue the one with the law they are trying to explain it away like deflect the issue. It's never something to do with themselves personally anything but what the truth is.

I would say that the word is often used with the intent to be deceptive with others when you know the truth. Not liar not passing the buck perhaps justifying.


texts:
Because the weather is too cold, the teacher "makes" Ken close the two doors of the classroom.

In the sentence, can I use "have" instead?

How would you use "makes' and "have" in a sentence?


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct? If so, is it a good way to express it?

texts:
Below is an excerpt from a book.

  I’m a man who loves traveling by myself. On every vacation in university, I spent about 7 to 10 days as a backpacker, traveling around China. Since it was self-guiding tours, no guide would come to help me arrange anything.

As I understand, self-guiding tours is a plural form so it should be Since it were self-guiding tours. Is my understanding correct? Or should it be changed to Since they were self-guiding tours? Which one is correct?


texts: Meaning of 'no earlier than X days after Y'

texts:
I am having trouble understanding the following notice on the American Airlines AAdvantage (miles account) website:

  Note: Mileage credit requests can be submitted no earlier than 15 days
  after all travel is completed.

What does it exactly mean? Which of the following statements is the correct interpretation?

I have to wait for 15 days after all my travel is completed before I can request my mileage credit
If I want to request my mileage credit, I have to do so within 15 days after my travel is completed
Something else

In any case, I wonder, is the original statement grammatically correct?


texts: What do you call getting something in a video game at the very last second?

texts:
I remember there was a game in which you had to collect powerups while you were on a minetrack, and there were some jumps you had to make at the very last second to get certain power ups.

Basically, at certain points you had to jump off right as your minecart was leaving the trick, like right at the end of the track, otherwise you'd miss the powerup.

I remember there was a phrase to describe this, what is it called? Like getting something just right at the very last moment in a game.

It's like getting things down to the very last pixel in a game.


texts: What is the meaning of 'Oshkosh by Gosh'?

texts:
I was recently watching a TV series named Suits where a character said "Oshkosh by Gosh". I googled it and all I could find was the meaning of bagash from this site.

Urban Dictionary - Bagash

What does this expression mean?

(Also for people who asked in the comment for the episode, I don't know exactly which episode, but the scene was one where Harvey Specter and Mike Ross were high at Mike Ross's place, from Suits Season 2. )


texts: "Here is a list of all (the) modified files." Should I write "the" or not?

texts:
In this sentence:

  Here is a list of all modified files.

Do I write the before modified or not ?

I know that plural nouns often lose the article, but I'm not sure with this sentence.


texts:
I'd seen "why you" in a couple of translations, so at first I thought it was just an odd error. Then I heard it in Batman Arkham Asylum, where an inmate said it when Aaron Cash refused to tell him what he wanted to know. From the way it's used, it apparently conveys frustration or something, usually in response to someone who is stubborn and keeps annoying you, probably something like "Why do you keep doing this!? Stop it already!".

Is it a valid sentence people actually use? Or is it just "why you...", in other words just an unfinished sentence? If that's the case, where's the expected auxiliary (are/do)? I have no idea where even to begin to find out more about this; Google search has returned nothing but pathetic irrelevant results.


texts: What does "older faith" mean in this sentence?

texts:
I've come across a sentence in God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens and don't understand what older faith means here.

  "Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus," as the older faith used to say. “Within the revolution anything,” as Fidel Castro was fond of remarking. “Outside the revolution—nothing.”

I don't understand why Hitchens has chosen to use the comparative form of the adjective here. It is the opening sentence of a passage and I didn't add the preceding one because it is both too long and has no mention of any other religion than Christanity.

Thank you.


texts: Word or idiom for 'over-powered for the given collection of parts'

texts:
The specific passage I am writing is for people who propose to use a $2000 camera as a webcam. Unless their audio, lighting, and set are equal in quality to that camera, there is no reason spend that $2000, since all the other parts will limit the maximum quality of the whole.
A generic example would be in the Six-Millon Dollar Man program, where Steve Austin gets a bionic arm and legs and is shown being able to lift a car. In real life, his arm and legs could theoretically take the weight of the car, but his shoulder, torso, and pelvis would be crushed.
What word or idiom can I use to describe the camera (or the bionic arm)? I would prefer it to be more humorous than bookish, if you know what I mean.


texts: How to understand this "I not only" structure

texts:
I read this sentence from a book.

"I not only lost all my money - I also lost my passport".

Why it's not "I am not only.." or "I don't only..".
I don't know how to describe this kind of grammar, couldn't get much help from google.
Could you please explain this to me?
Thanks a lot.


texts: Might "see you shortly" be used to mean in a week's time?

texts:
I wonder if it's appropriate to say "see you shortly" when we both know that it's going to happen in a week's time. What I'm trying to say is that I'm looking forward to see the person, but I already used "I'm looking forward" and I don't want to sound repetitive.

I only heard "see you shortly" to refer to periods of time shorter than a day, so my concern is that it might sound confusing when we are talking of an entire week.


texts: Does "few" have some concrete/historical meaning as a noun?

texts: "A small few" - I've heard (and read) this used. It's made me think... is the word "few" meaningful as a noun rather than a pronoun? Or rather, does it have some historical origin in something usable as a noun


texts:
I saw a question asking which is the correct sentence. The answer is (B) but I don't understand why the other two are wrong.

(A) There are either exciting news stories or interesting jokes in this paper.
(B) There are neither exciting news stories nor interesting jokes in this paper.
(C)There are neither exciting news nor interesting jokes in this paper.

Please let me know why (A) and (C) are incorrect.


texts: What term or phrase means a person's "manner of speaking" in the general sense?

texts:
I'm looking for the word or phrase that could replace "a manner of speaking" in a sentence, as in "He used a halting, hesitant manner of speaking." Not a particular adjective, but name for what those adjectives would be describing...

It could be described as "speech pattern", but that's more technical or analytical in my mind. I'm looking for something more casually observant. I thought maybe "oratory", but that has a bit of a negative connotation, along with its synonym "rhetoric". I'm looking for a more neutral word.

Thanks, folks~


texts:
I have already used structures such as "I don't like him singing the song" or "I don't like his singing the song". It dates back to years age when I learned it. So I wonder if I can use the following structure:

  In these stories, the reader still expects the story to continue and receives no sign of the story ending.

where, I refer to ending as a gerund.
I am quite tempted to use this sentence and it sounds right. However, I don't know if It is correct grammatically and why if so?


texts:
I have always had doubts as to the exact meaning of intone. Here is how Vocabulary.com defines the word—

utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically

AND

speak carefully, as with rising and falling pitch or in a particular tone

Am I the only one who thinks these two meanings convey two opposite sense of the word? And if that's so— Shouldn't intone be a contronym? (I doubt I have ever read about intone being a contronym, though)


texts:
I am changing my e-mail signature on my phone to read:

  Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4. Please do not mistake my brevity and/or
  misspellings for apathy and/or ignorance.

I am looking for a better word than misspellings to describe my email that might be filled with typos.

"Misspellings" makes sense, but it doesn't feel like it truly fits in. I think it's because all the other nouns describe a quality (mass, or non-count nouns), while "misspellings" describe an actual, physical thing (count noun). "Error prone" sounds better, but doesn't make sense lexically. Is there a word that fits here that sounds like it fits with the rest of the nouns in the sentence?

I am more looking for a word that describes an email that is "full of typos", not a synonym for the typos themselves.

Thanks!

From suggestions, this is what I have changed it to:

  Sent from my phone. Please do not mistake my brevity and solecism for apathy and ignorance.

Thanks for all your help.


texts:
Which one is correct?

  They have been working together recently.
  They have been working together for a long time.

And which one is correct here?

  They have been good friends recently.
  They have been good friends for a long time.


texts:
My question is about the expression 'in turn'.

As in, "Some teenagers talked, laughed and whispered in turn."

Does this imply that the teenagers talked, laughed and whispered together and then began talking again, and so on, or that each teenager took it in turns talking, laughing and whispering?

For extra credit, how might you articulate both meanings more effectively?


texts: What do you call someone who asks many questions?

texts:
I am looking for a word meaning "a person who asks many questions", with positive connotations (one who is curious about things, which is good). Preferably a noun.

The word preferably should be unambiguous and clear to non-native speakers; preferably a bit humorous, and clearly saying that this person has good qualities, such as curious and eager to learn.

I know such words in other languages: Russian почемучка "a curious child who wants to learn all things and asks his parents many questions" (positive), Spanish preguntón "questioner" (I think neutral).

Context: At a conference, we give several awards. In the audience, there is always somebody who asks questions at all presentations, which is good and shows his/her active involvement and attention. We want to encourage this behavior by giving an award. All other awards are called with nouns:

Best paper
Best poster
Best presentation

so we want to have an award in line with this, like:

Best why-boy
Best questioner
Best inquisitive mind

The award is in a way humorous, so "why-boy / why-girl" would be adequate (if I get right that it has positive connotations), but having the word gender-dependent is not convenient. "Questioner" does not seem to have too positive connotations (and is not humorous enough). Then "inquisitive mind" seems to be the best option, but it is too long and  not quite correct ("best mind"? "most inquisitive"?).

This is also why I need a word that is unambiguous (to avoid misunderstanding!) and easy to understand by non-native speakers: most of the attendees of the conference are non-native speakers, so a too fancy word can confuse them more than encourage.


texts: A better alternative to "taking out pomegranate seeds by hands"

texts:
Today, I found the usage of the verb "peel" in OffSet site, which says:

  Man's hands peeling a pomegranate.

I am sure that "peel" can easily be used in "peeling potatoes", as we strip off their outer layer (skin in general). But in sense of taking out pomegranate seeds, I am confused ... wether to use "peel" or not.

People often use the phrasal verb, as in:

  Man's hands spooning out the pomegranate seeds.

But saying "spooning out ..." will totally be wrong, if the man uses his hands, rather than a spoon.

Is there any other way to describe the image given below.

  A man _____ the pomegranate seeds.


texts:
What can I use instead of 'for nothing but'?

In contemporary Britain, these groups are constantly placed in the public eye for nothing but negative stories.

or is it OK in this context?


texts: Sentence stress and word linking with the problematic Y?

texts:
the question: Can I use your bathroom? phonetically looks like: [kə_naɪ ˈyuz yər ˈbæθˌrum]

I think the stress should be on the verb USE and the noun BATHROOM.  Am I right?
Some dictionaries show the reduced form of "your" as /yər/ and some show it as /jər/.
As far as I know /y/ can be both consonant and a vowel. If I decide to use /y/ in "your" as a vowel I can link the two words "USE + YOUR" together [ˈyu_zyər] because "z" is a consonant, but If I decide to use /jər/ with /j/, [ˈyuz jər] can't be linked together because there are two consonants.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!


texts: How would the use of the past perfect in the 'by the time' clause be understood?

texts:
Until recently, I was sure that when past simple and past perfect simple were used in a sentence joined by by the time , past simple would always come in the time clause.I encountered the following sentence:By the time they had finished their homework, it was time for bed.This use is new to me as I know that by the time means that when a happens b happens.

I appreciate your help.


texts:
In spoken English (at least in America), passives are often formed with "to get" rather than "to be;" I would wager the majority of the time:

he got hit by a car
I get driven to work
I've gotten called for jury duty eight times

Are there specific verbs that prefer "be" to "get," or vice-versa, or semantic differences between these forms? I cannot think of any.


texts: Is there a word or two that can replace 'greater than or equal to'?

texts:
... alternately, 'less than or equal to'?

If nothing exists, can you suggest something new to be widely adopted?


texts:
Does this sentence require a comma before including?

  He has written on a range of moral issues including poverty, globalization, and euthanasia.


texts:
I see some examples with adjectives taking place after nouns they define like

I want to go to a city close to Istanbul
Have you ever had a friend kind to you?

But what about their -st or -most(superlative) ones?
Are sentences below grammatically OK?

I want to go to the city the closest to Istanbul?(The longest version is "the city that is the closest to Istanbul")
Who was your friend the kindest to you?

I know we can say "the closest city to Istanbul" or "the kindest friend  to you" but I'm asking about the ones above.
Thanks


texts: What is the meaning of "make a certain sense of something"?

texts:
I have faced it in the text below:

  This logic was meant to strengthen Howard's aspiring workers, just as it made a certain sense of the Peabody Trust's housing rules imposed on the poorest of the poor in the nineteenth century; rigidity begetting independence continues today, as the logic of military-style camps for juvenile offenders in America.

Richard Sennett, Respect in a World of Inequality, Penguin, p.176.

Cambridge Dictionaries tells me that to  make sense means

  to be clear and easy to understand:
  This last paragraph doesn’t make any sense

What does the author mean by saying, “to make a certain sense”?


texts: Origin of the phrase, 'Look the other way'?

texts:
Does anyone know the origin of the phrase, "look the other way"?

It is generally used today in any situation where one person allows something to happen without acting.  They need non literally look the other way, so when and how did that non-literal usage come to be?


texts: Is there a difference between "note-taking" & "notation"?

texts: Is there a difference between "note-taking" & "notation" when referring to the process of writing notes? I've read the dictionary definitions and I'm still not clear on it.


texts: Differences between "carton" and "box" (Express service)

texts:
What's the differences between "carton" & "box"? I didn't know which word to choose when using express to send samples.

From the Internet, some say that carton is a smaller box, and some say that cartons are made of paper/boxes can be any kinds of materials. I'm confused if these are correct. Please clarify for my reference.

Thank you!


texts:
Can the experts please weigh in on this?

I think there are two typos in this statement. Am I correct?

"There are plans to add support for such categories Python, but it
unfortunately looks like they won’t be realized in the near future."

should be changed to

"There are plans to add support for such categories to Python, but
unfortunately it looks like they won’t be realized in the near future."

We need to add a "to" before "Python", and "it" should be moved to appear after "unfortunately". While placing the "it" before "unfortunately" is grammatically correct, it's not standard English and that's not how a native speaker of English would speak or write. Am I right or wrong?


texts: Is it One and half year or One and half years when used for work experience

texts:
While writing a resume , I have come across this question while specifying work experience.

  Total Experience of One and Half Years

or

  Total Experience of One and Half Year

This may seem duplicate question , but I have read     Which is it: "1½ years old" or "1½ year old"? but it was inconclusive when it came to time span referred for any activity.


texts:
I'm looking for a noun that describes a person A, who loves person B, but person B doesn't reciprocate. Person A suffers because he or she can't have person B and is not interested in relationships with others.

The shorter the word, the better (ideally -- single word).

Sample use in a sentence:

  It poured as if it rained tears of all people who suffered from unrequited love.

I need a substitute for people who suffered from unrequited love.


texts: Occupation vs. Job vs. Employment vs. Profession

texts:
What's the difference between those, if any?
(In the U.S., in case it matters.)

Edit:
Well, the reason I ask is that Google+ has both an "Employment" section and an "Occupation" section. :P Confused me as to what that meant.


texts: Shouldn’t we use "lots of" with plural nouns and "a lot of" with singular ones?

texts:
Is it correct to say "there are a lot of aspects" like here (see the first comment) or here?

Shouldn't be "lots of" used instead? I was sure that the correct form is "lots of" for the plural form.


texts:
from podcast transcript

  WOOD: So one, when he has 45 minutes to get up on stage, I want people to pay close attention to the logical flow of his argument, to the evidence he's providing, to the lack there of, right?  I want people to see what kinds of questions make him backpedal, what
  kind of questions make a pause, right? Where is he - because this is
  in the public sphere, in the political sphere. When you're getting
  things done, it's always going to be contentious, whether the issue's
  welfare, whether it's crime, whether it's taxation, it doesn't -
  right?

I have two questions:

What is the meaning of the bold sentence from the paragraph above, what's the point of adding "right?" ?
And what does "it doesn't" refers to?

Thanks for answering!!


texts:
I had an editor who was very picky about the use of the adverb "also" used with the past tense of "to be." According to her, there was a difference between "was also" and "also was."
For example: to say someone "was also" a high school teacher means he or she was a high school teacher in addition to being something else.
As in, "The serial killer was also a high school teacher."
Whereas, "also was" is the correct usage for saying someone shared an attribute with someone else, as in, "Andrew was a serial killer, and his sister Marie also was a serial killer."

But as anyone who's ever worked with more than one editor knows, they tend to be idiosyncratic, and all have their own little pet peeves. And they go on to become our pet peeves (one of my first editors took umbrage with "over" used to mean "more than" -- to this day I still feel a twinge when I see that usage).

I did some searches on usage of also and did not find any evidence to support her position -- but I know some of the fine points of English usage can be abstruse, so I decided to come here, where the grammar black belts congregate ;)

I read the post on "should also have named" "also should have named" with interest, and it sheds some light. But I'm not convinced this rule (if it really is a rule) applies to all verbs, let alone compound verbs.

Is some of this a matter of just avoiding awkward usages, even if they are technically correct -- or anyway, not blatantly grammatically incorrect?

Thanks!


texts: is first syllable stress on "frequent" becomming the norm for verb form?

texts: several TV shows lately have put the stress on first syllable in the verb form of "frequent".  I looked up several dictionary/pronunciation sites and they only give first syllable emphasis option for noun and verb.  however other more esoteric sites confirm (what I assume to be) correct verb/noun difference.   any comments?


texts:
In the acknowledgments of my thesis, after a long list of names, I (also) want to thank

"[...] all other supportive people whom I have inevitably left out".

Does this look appropriate? In particular, I'm concerned about the usage of "whom" vs. "who". I tried to google the phrase "who(m) I have left out", but both versions yield millions of hits. [about 10:1 who vs. whom].

Note that I'm no native speaker, but write English by feeling.


texts: Verb meaning "redeemed", but without implying a previous corruption

texts:
Corrupted changes something from a base state to a worse state. Redeemed returns something from the worse state to the base state. I'm looking for a word describing a change from the base state to a better state, without implying a previous fall.

"Capone corrupted Chicago. Giuliani _____ New York." (well, depending on your politics.)

"Alice corrupted Bob, leading him into a life of vice."

"Claire ____ Dennis, leading him to a life of virtue."

Thesaurus has not been helpful, as it gives antonyms for corrupt the adjective, but not the verb. Lexipedia was similarly unhelpful.


texts: What is the difference in meaning, if any, between these two past perfect simple and continuous sentences?

texts:
Past perfect simple and continuous can normally be used interchangeably with verbs like work, wait, sleep, etc., but I think there have to exist some differences in meaning. I would like you please to help me find out the differences the following sentences may arise:

John found it difficult to wake up early this morning because he had worked hard the night before.
John found it difficult to wake up early this morning because he had been working hard the night before.


texts:
"I am writing in response to your mail."

What does it mean by "in" in this sentence?

Is "I am writing for response to your mail." acceptable?


texts: What is a polite way of talking about a recently-deceased person?

texts:
In my language (Arabic), we say things that can be translated to:

Mr X, God have mercy on him, was ..
Mr X, God puts him in heaven, was. . . .
Mr X, God forgive him, was. . . .

How does one talk about a recently-deceased person in English in similar terms?


texts:
I apologise if this is a simple question.

In the following sentence:

I can have your car towed away.

What type of phrase is the final part "towed away". If I'm right in saying, it is not functioning as an object?

I=subject
can have= verb
your car= object
I'm puzzled as to what the remaining words are functioning as.

Thanks!


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is it OK to add a question mark to show inflection?

Can we say in a conversation "You went there", and by stressing the statement, mean "Did you go?"

I know one normally asks, "Did you go?". But is the above form also a possibility?


texts:
I have read these idioms:

" Beat someone to the punch/Beat someone to the draw".

I know their meaning, but I am confused about the grammatical usage.
Here are two examples from freedictionary.

I wanted to have the new car, but Sally beat me to the punch.

I planned to write a book about using the new software program, but someone else beat me to the draw

Now my question is that wouldn't it be had beaten according to meaning of already completed action before past tense, i.e. wanted and planned.


texts: What do we call the stream-like leftovers of water sticking to a glass surface?

texts:
From a Russian document:

Лабораторная посуда считается чистой, если вода, стекающая по стенкам, не оставляет капель или «ручейков».

Translation:

Laboratory glassware is considered clean when the water running down its walls doesn't leave drops or "rivulets".

But I'm not sure about "rivulets". What is meant in the original text are elongated, thread-like drops that would make the laboratory beaker hard to use, because these drops will make measurements imprecise.
I wonder what the natural-sounding English term would be for these.
From a website dedicated to titrations:

Laboratory glassware have to be perfectly clean before it can be used for any type of analytical work. There are two reasons for that. If the glass is not perfectly clean, water will not wet its surface, and it will be present on the glass surface in the form of droplets. It is impossible to account for volume of these droplets, so you will never know what volume of the reagent was used - and as the precision of the volume measurements is the basis of the precision of the volumetric methods, dirty volumetric glass means huge errors.


texts: Noun that describes something which checks for uniqueness between separate entities

texts:
I'm trying to determine a better word to describe a role for an entity that checks for uniqueness between two objects.

For example: if I wanted to check for duplicate records in an excel spreadsheet, is there a single non-compound word to describe the tool which executes that action.

Right now we are going with "DuplicateChecker", but it feels a bit ... unrefined.


texts:
A sentence in a book,

  It will be evident that poet’s function is not to report things that have happened, but rather to tell of such things as might happen , things that are possibilities by virtue of being in themselves inevitable or probable.

‘by virtue of being in themselves inevitable or probable’

Does the meaning change if the PP goes behind?

‘by virtue of being inevitable or probable in themselves’


texts: to give options to "if you do not mind "

texts:
Can I tell "if you do not mind ?much?"?
Or how can I leave me with some freedom in taking and changing a decision?


texts: "why are u putting ur coat on for?" vs "What are you putting your coat on for?"

texts:
This comes from a classic song "Baby it's cold outside". In one of James Taylor's versions he says "why are you putting your coat on for?" and it just got me because I had always thought you would say:

  Why + are you doing that?

or

  What + are doing that + for?

never

  Why + are you doing that + for?

So, is the song really wrong?


texts: What do you call someone that believes he is the only living being?

texts: What do you call someone that believes he is actually the only living being and that everyone and everything that exist (besides him self) is a state of his own mind? I am not referring to a narcissist