texts: Second name or Surname in British English

texts:
I have recently been told by a Londoner that "second name" is the most common way of referring to one's surname. She explained that it arose from the fact that most people just use their first and last names, therefore "second name" and "last name" became synonyms.

This has given me some food for thought and I've become curious on a couple of points:

Is this practice in use elsewhere?
Does it cause misunderstandings when a person happens to have a middle name and, therefore, second and last name aren't coincident?
So, in this fictitious name, what could be called what?

Mary (first name)
Sue (middle name / ?second name? or ?second given name?)
Smith (surname / family name / last name / ?second name?)

On a slightly different note, when non-English names that have multiple surnames are involved, how would one refer to them? For example: Ana Maria Silva dos Santos Pereira, where "Ana Maria" correspond to 2 given names and "Silva dos Santos Pereira" correspond to 3 family names (typically inherited from both mother and father's side).

4) Would everything in between "Ana" and "Pereira" be considered middle names?


texts: Use of "take" in "take the Lord's name in vain"

texts:
What is the purpose of the word 'take' in the expression "take the Lord's name in vain"? I understand that it can be replaced with 'say' or 'use'. Does 'take' in that case just mean you are accepting the lord's name in vain (as in you're accepting the use of his name without purpose), like 'take something for granted'?
Maybe give me a few examples where the word 'take' is used in a similar way.
Background
That's the question; the following is more of a comment on it if you will.
Obviously you often take the purpose of a word in a sentence for granted, often because it's used regularly around you and you just pick it up. Now, just a little background, English is my second language, and I find that I often overthink the purpose of each word in a sentence, especially if I haven't seen the words be used in such a way before, in order to better my understanding of the English language. I also find that in my native language I do just take for granted how a sentence is structured because, well, I just picked it up without even considering the purpose each word serves in the sentence. However I find that if I know the alternative purpose of a word then I can make better use of it in the future and not just understand that one sentence but plenty other similar ones.


texts:
Are these correct?

1: They made a choice WHAT to wear

2: They made a choice WHETHER to go to Italy or the UK.

Or should we write "They made a choice ABOUT what to wear" and "they made a choice ABOUT whether to go to Italy or the UK".

Thank you


texts: Cellphone cameras have moved from a single lens to a dual lens arrangement in recent years and the next iPhone is rumored to have three. There's "Monoscopic" vision, "Stereoscopic" vision, but what's the word for "3-scopic" vision?


texts: What does this mean: "How much experience do you have gathering data for web analysis?"

texts:
I am trying to understand the following question:

"How much experience do you have gathering data for web analysis?"

I understand the concept of "web data analysis", and I understand "gathering data from the web for analysis", but the above question is not clear.

Perhaps I am being too literal or picky, but the question sounds like I would first gather data, then put it on the web, and then analyze it, which is not logical.

If you have any ideas, could you please provide a specific example of what kind of work would satisfy the question.

For example, maybe the question means I would download Apache Server logs from a website, import into Excel, and perform analysis?


texts:
Say the facts are

Method A produces score of 101.
Method B produces score of 102.

when using data set 1, but when using data set 2:

Method A produces score of 100.
Method B produces score of 1000.

Method B is better than Method A in both datasets; what I want to say is Method B performed much better with dataset 2.

Is the following sentence correct?

  Method B outperforms Method A in a greater scale in dataset 2 compared to dataset 1.


texts: Otherwise I would/could/might be playing now

texts:
Person A: Why are you sitting here and not playing with them?
Person B:

My leg is injured. Otherwise I would be playing with them now.

My leg is injured. Otherwise I could be playing with them now.

My leg is injured. Otherwise I might be playing with them now.

Are they all correct? (Not asking about the differences between "would", "could" and "might")


texts: Is there anything wrong with this sentence: "My class sizes range from 10 to 50 students coming from diverse background"?


texts: A word to describe coming up with new/more paths to the same destination

texts:
I am seeking for a word to describe coming up with new paths to the same destination.  I'm writing about engineers who, among other things, are trying to find new ways to build/create the same things as already exist.  For example, they might want to find many new ways to build a pencil, but that end up with the SAME PENCIL at the end.

I've flirted with refinement, but that implies getting better, and they're not always trying to improve the method, just expand and explore new ones.

Other words that seem related: variety, path proliferation, revamping, overhaul... I've even made up a word (I think) "optioning"

I am contrasting this to inventing, as in coming up with a way to make something totally new (like inventing a plane), and exploring, as in combining two things just to see what happens (think of combining two chemicals with no idea of what is going to happen). Then there's this, which is trying to find new ways to make the same thing...

I'm lost.  Please help!


texts: Is it ever correct to use "to English" as a verb?

texts:
I've run into this usage several times, in the comments of sites like YouTube, usually as a joke in response to having one's grammar or spelling corrected.
To paraphrase:

  I'll try to English better :)

Presumably implying that their English needs improvement through example, even if the original mistake had been a typo.
My question is, is there a serious context where using 'English' as a verb would be grammatically correct? Or maybe it's on its way to becoming a new word due to frequent incorrect usage?


texts: "How good A and how bad B were in their respective roles"?

texts:
The construction of this sentence is bothering me. Is it grammatically well formed? If not, what is the correct alternative?

  ... a prime example of how terrible Marina Sirtis and how good Brent
  Spiner were in their respective roles.


texts: Relative Clause Extraction from Subordinate Clause - Compare and Contrast These Sentences

texts:
Please emend the title; I'm tentative whether it summarises this question precisely.

I went into the store, which if I had seen from the road, I should have known to be a company.

I went into the store, which, if I had seen it from the road, I should have known to be a company.

I went into the store, which if I had seen from the road, I should have known it to be a company.

I went into the store, if I had seen which from the road, I should have known it to be a company.

1 seems the most natural to me. Would someone please compare and contrast the other 4? Are they grammatically correct? If so, how are they?


texts:
What can I call the following symbols?

~

`

^


texts: Is it incorrect to place the adverb after the verb? "Handsomely win" v. "Win handsomely"


texts:
"I make my way through each day, having lots of fun".

What does "make my way through each day" mean here?


texts:
Webster's dictionary gives one definition of villian as somone who opposes the hero giving no qualifications on whether the villian is evil or not. merriam-webster.com
On the other hand, other dictionaries and sites define it solely as as someone who's the opposite of a hero, i.e. evil, disliked etc.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/villain
Google
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/villain
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villain
So are both definitions correct? Is Webster's first definition a poor one?
(on as side note, can a dictionary have a poor defintion?)


texts: Should there be a comma before "though" when it occurs at the end of a sentence?

texts:
Consider

  I don't know how outdated it is though.

Should there be a comma before though, as in the following?

  I don't know how outdated it is, though.


texts:
The comparative for fussy is fussier.
But is it acceptable to say, for example, "Less affection will make the baby more fussy"?
(Is it so awkward to use "less X, more Y" in this way?)


texts:
What is the noun of "Receive"? I need to frame this sentence :

  This is the date of your (Receival/Receiving/receipt).

What is the right answer?


texts:
salt:

  For web developers, exposing your .git folder to the world is a novice mistake. It allows anyone to download your entire source code repository, which often includes database passwords, salts, hashes, and third party API keys or usernames and passwords.

slug:

  Is there any REST API for retriveing all the published posts from a specific category by category slug or category ID?


texts: How to say that something is very immature relative to something

texts:
I'm looking for an expression to describe a situation when something (e.g. technology, software, science) is much less developed than some other representative of this category. Thus, much more error prone or just not so pleasant to use than its better competitor.

I was thinking about something like:

  This technology A is light years behind this other technology B.

or

  This technology A is far away from this other technology B.

Where:

A - worse, immature, problematic
B - better, mature, fully-developed

Are these sentences correct? The second one seems wrong to me, but the first seems fine because in Polish we have coś jest lata świetlne za czymś1. What else could I use in this context?


texts: Tense used for giving comments on a place you have been to

texts:
I'm a bit confused about which tense I should use when, for example, giving feedback on a hotel where I have been staying.

Should I say:

  A) The room is clean and well equipped with basic amenities.

or

  B) The room was clean and well equipped with basic amenities.

Or, if commenting on the host I met during the stay,
should I say:

  A) The host is nice.

or

  B) The host was nice.

I appreciate any help!


texts: Should "translation" be plural in "specializing in English and German translation"?

texts:
I am specializing in English and German translations.

  I am specializing in English and German translation.

Are both sentences usable? Would the plural of the word highlighted modify the meaning of the sentence?


texts: As per title, what is the name of a group of dragonflies? Some friends say it is a mob, some say it is a hover. Anyone?


texts: I saw a friend's (A) picture on a social network. And a friend (B) of hers commented on it. Apparently (B) was having her finals exams , so (A) remarked "you should be the last person to comment on my picture, log out and study". My question , this expression" to be the last one" , is it correctly used here? And it means that she should rather be studying. Am I right?


texts: Is there a collective term to describe "coffee" and "tea"?

texts:
Any term to describe both of them — coffee and tea collectively?

I wanted to call it beverages but that also includes drinks outside coffee and tea. Also, I could call it hot drinks but that would also include any hot beverages.

Any ideas to call both of them collectively?


texts: Which is best: botany lab, botanical lab or flora lab?

texts: English is not my native language. Please, tell me how do I refer to a laboratory that studies flora: botany lab, botanical lab or flora lab?


texts: WhAt iS tHiS kINd oF caPiTaLiSAtIOn cAlLeD? - random capitalisation or intermittent capitalisation

texts:
We have upper case and lower case in English — Letter case

Examples: UPPER CASE, lower case.

We have word lengthening/ word elongation.

Examples: Nooooooooooooooooooooo, hiiiiiiiiiiii, hellooooooooooooo etc.

There are many other cases such as sentence case, camel case, snake case, lower camel case etc.

We also have random intermittent capitalisation like 'hOw aRE yOU' (mostly used in social media sites and chatting platforms, excessively used in Discord).

I quite often see them used on Discord and many other chatting platforms.
I call them 'sporadic caps', but I wonder if there's a specific name for it.

Does this kind of capitalisation have a name?


texts: 'Rollover'/'Roll over' in computer world

texts:
While Oxford Dictionary of English does not have definition of rollover, Wiktionary defines this word as "a graphic element that changes its shape or colour when the cursor moves over it"; in other terms, when we roll the trackball of a mouse over this element without having to click.

Also, it is common to use rollover as adjective and as verb, at least on internet.

Is this usage of rollover acceptable nowadays?

Since most people use now either optical mice or trackpads, has the term rollover become technically obsolete? If so, is there a better word?


texts: What is the phenomenon called when we use an incorrect sensory perception to describe something?

texts: My primary and most common example is to read something and say (or write) that it "sounds familiar". Text has no sound. I'm sure there is a technical term for this practice or phenomenon. What is it?


texts:
What is a verb meaning to make changeable or to make variable? For example,

  Though normally his opinions were final, a recent stroke had
  ___ed his mind.

  When group policy changed, a ton of files were ___ed.

If at all possible the word should be terse, but clear meaning is most important.


texts: I am a native Persian speaker, and I'm wondering what "difficult people" exactly means. In Persian, someone who works hard is literally called a "difficult worker", and someone who doesn't take work easy is called a "difficult taker". So I'm confused about what an English speaker means when he/she says "difficult people".


texts:
I know Americans commonly use "damn" or "damned" to describe things. Sometimes, more appropriately, it's even "darn" or "darned".
For example,

This damn/damned computer is too slow.

However, I can't wrap my head around when to use "damn" and when to use "damned". Or is only one of them correct?


texts:
I remember how you always…used to look out for me here. When that gang
  from “P.S.” one-oh-nine would come after me for my lunch money…

The speaker is Hispanic who lived in Bronx when he was a boy.

I googled 'P.S' and 'One-oh-nine' but I can't find any clue that helps me understand this dialogue. (It seems like 'P.S' is not 'Post script' in this dialougue. Please help me!

(My native language is not English. So please be kind to me. :-))


texts: Is it okay to use a colon within a bulleted list?

texts:
Question 1: Are colons  allowed in a list?

  Business writing skills: data entry, email, presentation and press release writing.

Question 2: Should there be only one and in a sentence?


texts: What is the meaning of "I read a book once"

texts:
I saw an image on Missed Connections few days ago, and the image text is:

  Friday, January 29, 2010
  - m4w - 23 (L train)

  How did you get those bruises? I wouldn't let anything happen to you.
  You were reading some book, and taking notes. I read a book once.

And I saw people comment below that the last sentence "I read a book once" is really sad... but I don't quite understand the hidden meaning of that sentence.

Thanks for your help.


texts:
Donald Trump said:

In the good old days this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough. And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily

Why didn't he say?

In the good old days this didn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough. And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily


texts:
Philanthropy:

unselfish concern for human beings, esp. as shown by voluntary service or donations:[uncountable]
[countable] a philanthropic act or donation.
[countable] a philanthropic institution.

[Word Reference]

Judging from WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary, “philanthropy” as an uncountable noun seems to mean a mental state (unselfish concern for human beings).

However, Merriam Webster Learner’s Dictionary defines “philanthropy” as [noncount] : the practice of giving money and time to help make life better for other people.

Does “philanthropy” as an uncountable noun refer to your intention/a mental state? Or does it include your real efforts and donations?


texts: (the omission of ) articles in front of dinner/ class?

texts:
I read on Purdue OWL names of languages/nationalities, names of sports and names of academic subjects do not require articles. But what are the other situations?

To be more specific, I saw the sentence "I'd been sitting here for 10 minutes before class started" in a grammar book, and I wonder why there was no article in front of class.

When I asked the writing lab, I got the answer that it's convention. I got another example from the person who answered my question, saying other common usages including "I'm waiting for dinner to start" or "Let's leave after dessert" are both correct.

Is it just convention? Is there any rule behind it? Thank you!!


texts: What does "running a gauntlet of fire" mean?

texts:
From the Wikipedia page for "Battle of Melle":

  Now Moltke broke off with the entire force and headed for Ghent
  running a gauntlet of fire from the various French posts along the
  roads and ways and abandoning the rest of the column, losing about one
  half of this force, including nearly 400 of the Royal Scots

What does the phrase "running a gauntlet of fire" mean in this context? I know "gauntlet" means a glove armor, but this phrase still doesn't make sense to me. Searching Google seem to yield results mostly related to gaming.


texts: What figure of speech is it when we say "This meat is swimming in fat."?

texts:
What figure of speech is it when we say:

  "The meat is swimming in gravy. I'll have fish instead."
  "Her eyes were swimming with tears."
  "They say he's swimming in money."


texts:
Is there a word to describe "the thing that makes an intersection"?

For example, the thing that drive is the driver, the thing that eats is the eater, and the thing that intersects is what? The intersector? The intersecter?


texts: Should it be "Happy Birthday!" or "Happy birthday!" when used as a two word sentence?

texts: I've always simply written it "Happy birthday!" but my wife recently said that "Birthday" should be capitalized as well. What's grammatically correct?


texts: Why "milk and sugar", but rarely "sugar and milk"?

texts:
For example

"Adam and Eve" is (almost) never said as "Eve and Adam".
Making tea: "milk or sugar", but rarely "sugar or milk".
Elevator: "up
or down" is more common than "down or up".

Some groupings are equally common in both orders:

"coffee or tea" / "tea or coffee"
"time and space" / "space and time"

Is there a word to describe this order?


texts: "Reflects that" versus "reflects the fact that"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  'The fact that' versus just 'That'

I want to write something similar to "This reflects the fact that his family is very supportive." There is this notion that "the fact" is redundant and so I thought maybe I could write, "This reflects that his family is very supportive." It sounds wrong to me. I think it is because his family being supportive is a verb whereas something must reflect something else (an object, a noun). So, "the fact", though redundant in a sense, is necessary in terms of structure. Any inputs?

Thanks.


texts: Can anyone help me understand the meaning of "crystallized thought"?

texts:
I want to get the meaning of the following sentence:

  if a program is crystallized thought, ...

Does it mean a well-planned program or well-made one?

Thanks


texts: How do I write a number range that includes all decimals of the last number?

texts:
I am trying to write out a number range that would include all decimals within the last integer listed. The number range will be used as a label on a web form, so it should be as concise as possible.
For example, if I wanted to list out something that included all numbers between 1 and 99.99999, what would be the best way to write this?
Currently, I have "1 - < 100 meters" which works, but is a little difficult to parse. I am wondering if there is a standardized way to write this.


texts: A Word for a Person who believes only things which are globally believed/accepted?

texts:
Eg. In religious belief, I only believe that marriage is only a physical bond. There is nothing to do with rituals. Because Globally, that is the ONLY common thing in a wedding. Rituals are totally different or even optional.

Another example is, God. He/She/It is there. It is globally accepted. But I won't believe about its physical address or shape.


texts: I wonder the reason why we must not use THERE in this sentence

texts:
Across the Chesapeake Bay from the rest of the state Maryland's Eastern Shore lies there , whose farms produce beans, tomatoes, and other garden vegetables.

Is this sentence grammatically correct? How is it stylistically?

My teachers has already said to me that the adverb there should be removed.

However, I have forgotten the reason for it. Could you help me why this sentence is not correct?


texts: In written English, do you write fractional inequality with a percent-plus or a plus-percent?

texts:
In written English, which of the following is the correct way to convey I have a greater than or equal to ninety percent success rate according to all measures?

I have 90%+ success rate across the board.

I have a 90+% success rate across the board.


texts: Etymology of "German" versus etymology of "germane"?

texts:
German is an adjective referring to anything from Germany. However, I recently stepped across this word germane meaning to be closely related.

Being interested, I looked up its history, and germane apparently came from the same original root as German comes from, the Latin germanus.

Can someone trace the etymology of these two words (German, germane) and show why they mean two different things?


texts: What does"take our life as we might find it" mean?

texts: In Mark Twain's "A Dog's Tale", there is a sentence like this,"said we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results" What does "take our life" mean? Also, what does "it" in "find it" really mean? Apparently "it" refers to life, but what does "find life" mean?


texts: What's a similar word to 'precocious' with a positive connotation?

texts:
Precocious, per its definition, describes a child in a positive light. But in practice, many tend to use it in a negative way, and I feel the negative connotation outweighs the positive. So even when you say 'precocious talent', it sounds like you're saying it out of spite.

Here are some opinions online that echoes what I am saying:

Wiktionary Talk
Yahoo Answers
Skeptopia
"Now freq. mildly derogatory, with connotations of overconfidence, self-assertiveness, or pretension" - Editorial Note from OED.

So is there a word similar to precocious, which does not carry this negative connotation? To describe someone is acting 'beyond his/her age'?


texts: What is the term for "‑ate" noun/verb pairs, and why can’t I find references to "hyphenate" used that way?

texts:
When you conjugate (verb, conjuGATE) things you get a conjugate (noun, conjuGIT).

When you precipitate (verb, ...TATE) a solution you get a precipitate (noun, ...TIT).

When you concentrate (verb, ...TRATE) something you get a concentrate (noun, often ...TRATE occasionally ...TRIT).

Is there a name for this category of words, where a verb ending with "ate" pronounced with a long A produces a noun ending with "ate" pronounced with [sometimes] a short I (or a short a/e/u in some dialects or for some specific words)?

And, as a followup, why can I find no reference or examples online of "hyphenate" being used as a noun to describe two words that have been hyphenated? There's an uncommon definition where it refers to the subject described by the hyphenated words, but that isn't the same as it referring to the words themselves. I’ve heard this term used many times in my life, often in the context of amateur fiction writers or college writing courses.


texts: How would the following sentences would be transformed?

texts:
Having Considered the question of expansion carefully the committee decided against the project.

Begin - Although _________________________________.

Someone had cut John's hair.

Begin - John _________________________________.

It looks as if Rahul has applied for the wrong job.

Begin - Rahul seems _______________________________________.

a) His uncle instructed him not to drive recklessly.
b) He told him not to drink at that time.

Join the above 2 sentences
Answers of above sentences according to me -

Although the committee considered the question of expansion carefully, they decided against the project.

John had his hair cut by someone. or John's hair had been cut by someone.

Rahul seems to have applied for the wrong job.

His uncle told him not to drink at the time of driving to avoid driving recklessly.

So are the my answers correct?


texts:
I recently learned the word butyraceous and immediately fell in love with it, likely because of my love affair with butter. A quick Google search did not give me anything for its etymology, though. I guess that it is similar to the etymology for the word butter, but the "-yracious" suffix (if that is what it is) confuses me.

So what is the etymology of the word butyraceous? Where does it come from and what is the history of its use?


texts: Which words have a long vowel before the suffix -ic?

texts:
In many cases in English, vowels followed by a single consonant are pronounced short (also called lax) when followed by the suffix -ic  or -ical, even if they are long in other related words. Some examples of this alternation: crisis, critic(al) (/aɪ/,/ɪ/); trope, tropic(al) (/oʊ/,/ɒ/); mania, manic (/eɪ/,/æ/).

There are exceptions, however, such as base, basic (/eɪ/,/eɪ/).

What is a list of these exceptional/irregular -ic words, and are there any generalizations or rules about them?

*For further description of this phenomenon from a linguistic perspective, see for example "English Word Stress: An Examination of Some Basic Assumptions," by Eric Fudge, in Essays on the Sound Pattern of English, edited by Didier L. Goyvaerts and Geoffrey K. Pullum, 2013.


texts: Mention the first immediate action in an '-ing' clause in front of the main clause

texts:
Page 585 of the Collins English Usage reads

To indicate that someone did one thing immediately after
another, you can mention the first thing they did in an '-ing' clause
in front of the main clause.
Leaping out of bed, he dressed so quickly that he put his boots on the
wrong feet.

However, I find the semantics of the example jarring, because leap is an action that takes just a moment, unlike for example He used to shave, comb and get dressed while cooking breakfast.


texts:
I’m wondering exactly which grammatical role the word hell takes on in  expressions such as

  Get the hell out of here

the hell in this case seems to modify the phrasal verb to get out (get out of here quickly may have a similar meaning depending on the context), so I would classify it as an adverb, even though hell itself is a noun. I suspect that the reason for using the hell is that there is no other way of forming an adverb out of hell in an obvious and easily understandable way.

Is the hell simply an adverbial phrase (in addition to being an expletive)? If so, is there a name for creating adverbial phrases from nouns in this way?

(Originally, I was interested in the analogous expression involving f*ck.)


texts: What is the difference between "I forgot" and "I almost forgot"

texts:
"I forgot" and "I almost forgot" appear to be interchangeable phrases meaning "I did not remember". But the fact that I hear the longer one used more commonly (especially in scripted television or literature) leads me to think that there is some special meaning conveyed; otherwise the simpler phrase would probably be used instead.

So what is the difference between "I forgot" and "I almost forgot"? Examples using the two phrases would be very much appreciated.


texts: Full-time or full time, part-time or part time?

texts:
Having a debate here over how to form the description of employment.

A) Bob works full time on the project.

B) Bob works full-time on the project.

The same applies for part time/part-time.

Which is (more) correct?


texts:
I'm trying to translate something from Japanese. The original is talking about a store that is very "wide", i.e., its sideways dimensions are disproportionately long. You could think of it as a place that has an enormous storefront, but doesn't go nearly as deep inside as you'd expect.

I can't however think of any suitable adjective to place in the attributive position for the noun (store), because somehow "wide store" doesn't sound right, and neither do all the other synonyms that I've tried.

Is there a good adjective with this meaning, or do I have no choice but to rearrange the sentence? In that case, how should I express this idea?

Using "wide" predicatively ("the store is wide") sounds a bit better but I'm still not totally sure about it. I thought I could say "expansive", but that doesn't quite convey the idea that it's only the width that is unusual, not both the length and the width.

I'd appreciate your opinions on this.


texts: What is the preferred plural form of "bus"?

texts: The OED states that both "buses" and "busses" are acceptable plural forms of "bus". Is one generally preferred over the other?


texts: Can you please elaborate in detail as to why there is an apostrophe d after the +1?


texts:
What is the general rule behind mixing tenses in sentences such as this:

"He said he was hungry" versus "He said he is hungry"

My colleague thinks you can't say the latter because "said" and "is" are in different tenses. But I think the first sentence risks confusing the situation completely as it can possibly imply that he he was hungry but is not anymore. The second sentence I think implies that he was hungry and probably still is.


texts: What does Pope Francis’s remark, “You can always add more water to the beans,” mean?

texts:
In connection with my question about Pope Francis’s remark I posted today, there was the following statement in the same article of New York Times (July 29):

  “In contrast, Francis spoke on the beach, engaged with the masses and
  was greeted like a rock star by followers entranced by his
  approachable style and homespun folksy adages. “You can always add
  more water to the beans,” he said at one point.”

What does “You can always add more water to the beans,” mean? What benefit do you get by adding  water to the beans? How does it relate to the basic value of Christianity?

Do you have the counterpart English adage to this?


texts: hierarchical representations of verb meanings

texts:
Nouns can quite easily be represented in semantic hierarchies...

...with "hyponyms" serving as specific instances of "hypernyms."

Q: Does anyone know of similar representations of verbs?

Some notes:

I'm looking for systematic representations of semantic relationships
I'm not looking for categorization of verbs by behaviour (for this, we can turn to books like English Verb Classes and Alternations by Beth Levin, which does argue that verb behaviour is determined to a great extent by meaning but does not arrange verbs hierarchically)
I'm not looking for WordNet, which groups words into "synsets" but does not represent verbs hierarchically

As an example: "get" can have the meaning of "come into possession of"; branching down from that meaning, we can identify "obtain" and "acquire," which mean "come into possession of by unidentified methods;" below "obtain/acquire," we might divide into "find" (come into possession of by chance), "receive" (come into possession of passively), and "procure" (come into possession of actively); below "procure" we might have "buy/purchase," "steal," "trade for," and so on.

Thanks in advance! And if the crowd feels that this question would find a better home in the Linguistics Stack Exchange, please let me know.

ADDED: I understand that in computer science hyponymy is expressed as an "is-a" relationship. How do computer scientists express the relationship among commands or actions?


texts: Synonym for "bringing together for the common good"

texts:
I'm looking for a word or shorter phrase to describe "bringing together for the common good" in an easier manner.

I thought about "cohesive" but that doesn't seem to imply that things were brought together.  There must be some synonym that focuses more on that things are being brought together for a good reason or cause.

In my writing I've thought about just using the phrase "bringing together for the common good" over and over but it seems verbose.

An example of usage -

"The technology is being used to bring together people for the common good."


texts:
Can you add -er to any verb to make a real and accepted word?
...word in question is Yelper.  I realize that it is a hunting tool- but the questioning party insists that it's proper to add -er to the word yelp as in the dog yelped...


texts:
I'm looking for the verb which could be used to indicate that someone changed the direction of a railway switch. Is it:

to turn a railway switch
to toggle a railway switch
to change a railway switch

Or something else?

Example sentence:
"The locomotive driver turned/toggled/changed/... the railway switch."


texts: Is it awkward to say "to play to / till exhaustion"?

texts:
I'm trying to translate the Japanese phrase 「遊び疲れる」 which is composed of two verbs, 「遊ぶ」 (to play) and 「疲れる」 (to be exhausted).
Literally, the combined form 「遊び疲れる」 means "to be exhausted due to playing", but I want to keep it as concise as its original Japanese form, which is just two words put together, instead of using that long-winded literal meaning.
That's how I came up with "to play to / till exhaustion", but I'm not 100% confident about whether this is awkward or not. It's fine if it's an obsolete usage of English or if sounds somewhat archaic.
If this is awkward or even grammatically incorrect, what would be an alternative? Please remember to keep it concise, because when that Japanese phrase is used to make a sentence, say, 「彼は遊び疲れた」, it's much less wordy to say:

He played till exhaustion.
He played to exhaustion.

than:

He played for such a long time that he was exhausted.
He was exhausted due to a long period of playing.


texts: What is the saying or idiom or word that means when "friends" don’t need you anymore it seems like they don’t know you anymore

texts: there are some people who are your friend in the time of need,and they ignore you the other times,so what do you call them? a poet calls them "flies around a sweetmeat".


texts: Questions about indefinite articles before uncountable nouns

texts:
I know that you're not usually supposed to use articles before uncountable nouns but that there are sometimes exceptions to this rule. I'm a bit stumped by when the exception applies and when it doesn't. So I was wondering if someone could tell me which is correct in these two situations:

Revenge, for example:

  "Is this really (a) revenge orchestrated by those people?"

Income, for example:

  "So, if we get (a) stable income and our organization grows larger..."


texts: What does "old man's milk" mean in this quote?

texts:
I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.— Thomas Jefferson

What does he mean by "old man's milk"?


texts:
In the following sentence why is it at the school not at school?

  They don't have to do their homework today because it's a holiday at the school.


texts: Word to express surprised, but not surprised

texts:
There are times when someone's actions are both surprising, but not surprising at the same time. Almost expected, yet still surprising.
Example: The Scorpion and the Frog
When the Scorpion strings the Frog in the parable, it is both surprising and not surprising at the same time. We're surprised because the scorpion just doomed himself; but not surprised because it is in the scorpion's nature to kill his prey.
Example: An Addict
When an addict has been clean for several years and then falls down the rabbit hole again, it is both surprising and not surprising at the same time. We're surprised because the addict has been clean for several years, but not surprised because the addict is an addict.
Question
What is a word describing when someone is both surprised, but not surprised at the same time? Almost expected, yet still surprising.
Phrases such as "in one's nature" doesn't express the surprised part. Ideally, this is a word that could be used in everyday conversations:

Joe: "Did you hear the Scorpion stung the Frog while they were
swimming across the river and they both died?"
Jane: "Really? Wow, that's surprising. I guess that's kind of
expected, though."


texts:
If I am going to a place named Coco (it's a bubble tea place), do I say I am going to Coco, or I am going to Coco's?

What is the use of the possessive term if it's a place?


texts: What tense should be used when present/past perfect is used?

texts:
Here is my sentence of which I am having some troubles ascertaining the grammatical correctness:

  I think that Rachel has told Brady that Bert would admit to the judge what he has taught about evolution was a fraud.

First, because I am talking about the content of a book, I use present perfect. however, I am not too sure when to use past perfect, with words such as "taught", and "told".

Second, I use "would" instead of will because Rachel's action of telling technically already happened (even though I am using present participle).

Third and lastly, I used "was" for the same reason I did for the second one.


texts: Is there an Infix phrase for "any of x are y" in the english language?

texts:
For a collection of objects x and predicate y, you can say "all of x are y". For example, "It is probably summer if all of the Tree's leaves are green". But you can also say "x are all y", for example "It is probably summer if the tree's leaves are all green." The latter is what I mean by "infix".
Similarly, for a collection of objects x and predicate y, you can say "any of x are y". For example, you can say "It probably isn't winter if any of the tree's leaves are green".
However I can't think of a similar infix version of this second phrase. That is, I can't think of anything like "x are any y" that sounds right or makes sense, e.g.  "It probably isn't winter if the tree's leaves are any green"  sounds like nonsense.
Is there an infix version of this phrase in the english language?


texts: Does "freak" have negative connotations when it's used to describe a person's interest in something?

texts:
Does freak have negative connotations when it's used to describe a person who's very or overly interested in something?

Like football freak or coding freak.


texts: Is there a single word that is a more vicious connotation of "competition"?

texts:
I'm writing a mildly dystopian scenario where competition is taken to vicious extremes, and I was wondering if there was a word that I could use (specifically a noun that was a synonym of "competition") to describe the sort of vicious, cutthroat ... _________ (the word that I want) that was going on.

I'm specifically looking for a word that doesn't refer to a one-off event (like "contest" or "tug-of-war"), but rather is more about the state of things.


texts: Are there words native speakers don't use?

texts:
This question reminded me of a question I've often asked myself: is there such a thing as a non-native vocabulary?

I can think offhand of three words that I have only heard from foreigners: the one in the question, touristic, the related folkloric, and academician (usually from Russians, even though the Russian equivalent, академик, is directly cognate to the actual English word, academic).

Is this a thing?  Are there other words in the same category? Or somewhere are there native English speaker who use these words?


texts: What does "falling and missing the ground" mean?

texts:
I don't understand the use of the phrase "falling and missing the ground". How can one fall and miss the ground? What does it mean?

Update

Apologies. I found the use of the phrase at http://www.scq.ubc.ca/how-to-fly/


texts:
This is an excerpt from an official Cambridge exams preparation book:

"Mike: Thank you. Lots of people ........(help) us last year and we want to thank everyone."

The task is to fill in the correct verb form of "help". Present perfect or past simple can be chosen. The correct answer is "have helped" according to the key. I disagree. "Last year" is a finished period of time in the past, so the past simple should be used. Am I wrong?


texts: Thesis/Claim at the end of a persuasive piece

texts:
When I was in college, my professor taught us a few terms that I am struggling to remember.

When learning persuasive writing, there was a term for when you write your thesis at the end. Throughout the piece, your content guides the reader to grasp your perspective, but you don't clearly state it until the end. This term is called _____? I tried searching everywhere but can't find anything. I believe it starts with a d.


texts:
Can someone advise on whether the definite article "the" is necessary in the following sentence?

  Though normally completed in one year on a full-time basis, allowances are made to extend that to 24 months to assist students who may need to juggle various other commitments. And from the 2014-2015 academic year, a new combined mode will be
  introduced.

Thank you.


texts:
In The Syntactic Phenomena of English, McCawley considers the phrase "a dark blue necktie", and concludes that "blue" in that phrase is simultaneously a noun and an adjective.  It modifies the noun necktie, so it must be an adjective, but it must be a noun also, since it is modified by the adjective "dark".  If "dark" modified an adjective "blue", it would have to be an adverb "darkly", since adjectives can't modify other adjectives.

But a skeptic might wonder whether "dark" actually does modify "blue".  Maybe, instead, "dark" modifies "blue necktie", and we are simply dealing here with a noun "necktie" modified by the two adjectives "blue" and "dark".  The problem with the example arises because a necktie colored dark blue will always be dark, itself.

So let's look for a less equivocal example.  A "dark polka dot necktie" might have dark polka dots yet still fail to be dark, because although each individual polka dot was dark, if the polka dots were small and on a light background, the polka dot tie as a whole might be light, rather than dark.  In that case, "dark" cannot be modifying "polka dot tie", so it would have to modify only "polka dot".

So, if a dark polka dot tie is not necessarily dark, then McCawley's analysis must be right.  Is it?


texts: Word for not being able to focus on one task

texts:
In Hebrew, my native language, we have a word describing the inability of one to focus on a certain task and instead thinking or doing one or many related/unrelated things. This word roughly translates to "being scattered" or "being dispersed". Are there any other more appropriate words to describe such thing?

Note: if this word can be used in the context of not speaking to the point during a conversation it also fits the usage of the Hebrew one.


texts: difference between I EXPECTED and I HAD EXPECTED

texts: What is the difference between "I expected" and "I had expected"?


texts:
I'm kind of confused about grammar here, and I wonder which one of the following sentences I should use for my website!

build unlimited websites for one price!

build unlimited websites for one flat fee!

build unlimited websites for one low price!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help!


texts:
Marc Gravell recently provided this answer to a question on Meta Stack Overflow:

  If you try Jeff's link above, and everything reports OK but it still doesn't work, please let me know. In the interim, there is a ghetto login route:
      http://{some site}/users/chat-stackexchange-login

  for example:  https://stackoverflow.com/users/chat-stackexchange-login

What does ghetto login route mean, here?


texts: diffrence between 'its' and "it's" as possevsive pronoun

texts:
Would to tell me  difference between the its
and it's please


texts: "Warm" is to "warmth" as "cool" is to what?

texts: Is there a word for "coolness" that corresponds to warmth?


texts:
The passage below comes from an article published by BBC.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39292389

  Dr Thomas said: "It could be to maintain health we need to be
  exercising much more than we do."

Am I correct in assuming that it would sound more elegant if you rewrote it as follows:

It could be that we need to be exercising much more than we do to maintain health.


texts:
I saw an american person (native) write this sentence.

Random stuf about him not not being able to make it in time and period. Then new sentence

"But, this time, George does arrive and they head to..."

I've read here that but after conjuction should not be used, does it mean it's wrong what this native person wrote?
The main issue is that he starts a new sentence with but, something that was not discussed here.
If it's possible to write comma after but I could make up sentences like this one:

"But, back then, while he waited, she was kissing Peter." Would it be correct?


texts:
When I was growing up in the 1950's, my mother used "piece" as a verb, meaning to snack on something outside of mealtime. She might say "Do you want to piece on something?" while offering me a cookie. Or she would tell me not to piece too close to dinnertime.
I have never heard anyone else say it excepet members of her family. She was born in southeast Kansas in 1926 to people of German and British descent.


texts:
It's not important, I just thought you should know.

and

It's not important, I just thought you would like to know about the phonecall.


texts: Pre(-)processing/post(-)processing hyphen presence in research publications written in UK/US English

texts:
Which of the following spellings of pre|post(-)processing are the most commonly used in research publications written in UK English and in US English?

pre-processing, post-processing versus preprocessing, postprocessing


texts: Chekhov and the omission of "be" verbs with progressive tenses in compound sentences

texts:
The following is an excerpt from a translation of Chekhov's story "The Student" published in the Norton Critical Editions. Given the prestige of this publication, one would assume what's printed to be, at the very least, grammatically correct.

Is the following sentence correct? If so, how might we parse it to warrant this judgement?

  The blackbirds were calling and a creature in the nearby swamps
  plaintively hooting as if blowing into an empty bottle.

Anton Chekhov's Selected Stories Texts of the Stories, Comparison of Translations, Life and Letters, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.

I don't why the author doesn't need to use the 'be' verb with the progressive tense in the second clause, like so:

"The blackbirds were calling and a creature in the nearby swamps was plaintively hooting as if blowing into an empty bottle."


texts: "Who having" vs "who has"—which construction is it?

texts:
This sentence is from George Eliot:

  Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

I would like to know why did she use "having" instead of "has"? Is it correct to say:

  However, today there are painters who, having learned that the grass is green.


texts: What is 'seven-headed bull' in the dialogue between King and Queen?

texts:
The following is an excerpt from the First Act (The Princess and the Woodcutter) of Make Believe, a play for children, written by A. A. Milne in 1918. Could someone help me understand this play clearly and fully by answering two questions?
Q1. I cannot imagine anything from the expression of ‘the seven-headed bull’. Is this a kind of fortuneteller, wearing something of seven-headed bull, or an animal god?
Q2. In the fairy tales of prince-hunting, interest in one’s meals or appetite has played an important role?

QUEEN: It is a pity that the seven-headed bull died last year.
KING. Yes, he had a way of sorting out competitors for the hand of our beloved one that was beyond all praise. One could have felt quite
sure that, had the three competitors been introduced to him, only one
of them would have taken any further interest in the matter.
QUEEN (always the housekeeper): And even he mightn't have taken any interest in his meals.


texts: “Not only . . . but (also)” correlative conjunction question

texts:
The amount of jobs that have been transferred out of state in the past five years is staggering; not only manufacturing jobs but white-collar ones have moved as well.

Is this appropriate usage of the correlative conjunction? It's comparing two noun phrases, but I'm concerned with the positioning of the verb phrase. Should the sentence be "Not only have manufacturing jobs moved, but white-collar ones have moved as well." Would it be redundant in this case?

Side note: This is an SAT question concerning comparisons.


texts: Using "and" with names that have "and" in them

texts:
I taught him Microprocessor and Interfacing and Professional Ethics.

Here Microprocessor and Interfacing is the first subject, and Professional Ethics is the second.  The same professor taught me these two subjects.

What is the proper way to write this sentence?


texts: What is an adjective that means constant with a negative connotation?

texts: The context is that the character is lamenting the fact that his employers are watching him in a suffocating way and restricting his freedom


texts: Taxonomy - how to describe something as plantlike?

texts: So I'm writing a story that features Chimeras or hybrid creatures, and I'm wondering what I would call a plant based creature. For other things like a spider creature or bird creature I would call it an Arachnid Chimera or an Avian Chimera, but I'm not sure what I would call a plant creature. Would it just be Plant Chimera or is there some Latin word that would work better?


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct / does it make sense?

texts:
I just don't know anymore. I've been trying to figure this one out for about an hour now. Is this sentence right?

  Inquiries as to if compensation payments or replacements of the phones
  will happen were ignored.


texts: Preposition: "[In] Which city are you located [in]?"

texts:
In which city are you located?
  Which city are you located in?
  Which city are you located?

I know the first is grammatically correct, and the second used frequently in conversation, but my question is this:

I know you would answer using the preposition such as “I live in Denver”, but is the preposition in necessary when asking the question as stated in the third sentence?

Case in point: “What time is the meeting?” This is something I’d say in conversation, but am having doubts as to whether I need to say, “At what time is the meeting?”


texts: Can one use "radical" to reference the base of a word in english?

texts:
In Portuguese and in some other languages, the use of the word radical indicates the base form of a word that can be derived in many other forms, but always keeping this radical, for instance: organize, organizes, and organizing

The radical (in Portuguese if you will) for those words would be organiz, or something similar to that. What would be the ideal term for that in the English language?


texts: Difference between "activities" and "techniques"

texts: What is the difference between "activities" and "techniques" in teaching methodology?


texts: A word meaning a word you need to look up

texts:
Often you'll see someone write a "Pompous Ass Word" online.  I'd really like to have a word on hand that has the meaning "A word you don't know so you have to look it up", or something to that effect.  So when someone else reads it and googles it, they hopefully have a little smack of self-awareness.

Example uses would be some sort of parody of their writing, or something like "Must you use a [...] just to sound smart?"


texts:
Question

I'm particularly interested in the meaning of apt, but while I was searching through some dictionaries and examples it struck me how close the words apt and fit seem to be. Thus: what exactly is the difference between apt and fit?

Etymology

As I understand from etymonline.com the word apt came from - next part copied from etymonline - from Latin aptus where it meant "fit, suited" which is related to apere "to attach, join, tie to". The Proto Indo European root is ap- and means to grasp, take, reach

Fit on the other hand seems to be somewhat more difficult to trace back. Etymonline states that mid 15th century it meant "suited to the circumstances, proper," though of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English noun fit "an adversary of equal power" (mid-13c.) which in turn might be connected to Old English fitt "a conflict, a struggle"

Additional Thoughts/Questions

Reading the etymologies above, would it be fair to say that the difference between an apt student and a fit student would be that:

an apt student is a student that has the right conduct/behaviour in regard to studying?
a fit student is the student that is (especially physically) well equiped to engage in a struggle, e.g. study?

Anyway, the above is just an example to get the discussion started, but if you have broader views on the difference of apt and fit please share them as well. Thanks in advance!


texts: What's the difference between "ludicrous" and "ridiculous"?

texts: What's difference between ludicrous and ridiculous? Are they completely synonymous?


texts: How to write this sentence in passive voice?


texts: What is a word for "having no effect on me"?

texts:
I am looking for a word that conveys the idea of having effectual bearing on one's life apart from any held opinion. Words such as "important" or "salient" are inappropriate, as they have connotations, or at the very least, alternate definitions, with reference to one's opinion. The word "relevant" is getting there, but it fails to convey the idea that what is being spoken of has actual effect on one's life.

For example, I may care very little whom my legislative representatives are, but my congressmen have a significant impact on my life.

  I don't care who wins the White House, but it is nevertheless ________ to me.

Conversely, I may care deeply that the A/C in my office be turned off on the weekend, but whether it stays on or not does not have any bearing on my life apart from any emotional distress it may cause.

  I hope they turn the A/C off this weekend, but at the end of the day, it's not ________ to me.


texts: "Er" added to name of sport, to refer to a player

texts: When creating the designation for a person who plays a particular sport, I usually add er to the name of the sport. Some examples are footballer, basketballer, and skateboarder. Is this acceptable?


texts: The correct usage of "of" and "about" with an adjective

texts: In a sentence, Why do we use "Proud of" and not "Proud about". This is in contrast with the usage "Sad about". Why is the usage different for Sad and Proud, when they are indeed both adjectives in this context?


texts:
According to the Chicago manual of style for bibliographies do authors with initials have two stops before the title?

So e.g.

Wells, H. G.. The Invisible Man


texts: Term for an event where you present on a topic/research for general knowledge sharing

texts:
My synapses are failing to fire, but I need help finding a word for an event/gathering where a topic or research is presented, usually to peers for general knowledge sharing and/or discussion.

We used to do them in college, for example about interesting ways to use analytical geometry in everyday life. I feel like the word was Latin in etymology, but that doesn't really narrow it down. I tried finding similar events on Google but no luck. Any ideas?


texts: My Home India will organise "Nest Fest - 2018" on Saturday at New Delhi to create awareness and celebrate the cultural diversity of the Northeast region, where Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb along with other Northeast leaders will also take part in the festival at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.


texts: Are the nouns "End" and "Ending" interchangeable?

texts:
The Free Dictionary says that Ending is "a conclusion or termination, a concluding part; a finale: a happy ending.", among others.
And for "End" it says "either extremity of something that has length: the end of the pier. 2. The outside or extreme edge or physical limit; a boundary: the end of town."

So, are they really different? Or can they be interchangeable?


texts: What is the origin of "blink" meaning short-range teleporation?

texts: In many games and even 1998's Charmed, a blink ability is the ability to instantly teleport several feet in front of you. Where did this term come from? Why is it "blink"?


texts: "I'm not going to have..." vs. "I'm going not to have..." vs. "I'm going to not have"

texts:
Is there a rule that governs when you change around the placement of "not" in a sentence relative to the verb? For example:

  I'm NOT going to Spain to have fun.

or

  I'm going, NOT to have fun, but to look for work.

or

  I'm going to NOT have fun and study instead.


texts: Is there a word to describe a person who's addicted to downloading stuff from Internet?

texts:
Well, that is exactly what I am :).

I just can't stop myself from downloading stuff (usually electronic articles, say, PDFs). To be more precise,  whenever I come across something that I think might be helpful to me (an arixv article, for instance), I'll try everything I can to get a copy onto my hard disk, even though most of the time it is not of the slightest use to me (and then I will yet try to convince myself that it might be helpful for "future reference"...).

Although the truth is I won't even take another look at most of the downloaded stuff as soon as I finish downloading, I still must keep downloading. Virtually everything that is useful, or seems to be useful, or looks as if it will be useful, I can't resist trying to download it.  I confess that I seldom use any of my downloaded files, but just owning them, just knowing that they are right there stored in my hard disk, I will somehow feel a bliss, an incredible sense of security, just like a miser counting his gold coins.

So here I am, a hopeless "download-aholic". What word would you choose to best describe me?


texts: Can I use 'Yours sincerely' when I write 'Dear Parent'?

texts: As a teacher can I sign off a generic letter to the parents of my class 'Yours sincerely' if I have addressed them as 'Dear Parent'?  Or should it be 'Yours faithfully'?


texts:
Can anyone suggest a meaning of "To it, to it!" not as intensifier, but on its own. The source is James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 454.35. It comes after a wordplay with "Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! and "Shanti shanti shanti" [Peace peace peace] the last line on TS Eliot's "Waste Land" but there Eliot also uses 'Tuit tuit tuit" a 16th century word meaning:
"to blame, reproach, taunt, upbraid," 1520s, twite, shortened form of Middle English atwite, from Old English ætwitan "to blame, reproach," from æt "at" (see at) + witan "to blame," from Proto-Germanic *witanan "to look after, guard, ascribe to, reproach" (source also of Old English wite, Old Saxon witi, Old Norse viti.

Nothing to do with the modern 'twit" term

  — There is some thing more. A word apparting and shall the  heart's
  tone be silent. Engagements, I'll beseal you! Fare thee  well, fairy
  well! All I can tell you is this, my sorellies. It's prayers  in
  layers all the thumping time, begor, the young gloria's gang  voices
  the old doxologers, in the suburrs of the heavenly gardens,  once we
  shall have passed, after surceases, all serene through  neck and
  necklike Derby and June to our snug eternal retribu-  tion's reward
  (the scorchhouse). Shunt us! shunt us! shunt us!  If you want to be
  felixed come and be parked. Sacred ease there!  The seanad and pobbel
  queue's remainder. To it, to it! Seekit  headup!


texts: I think grammatically the phrase "God bless America" is wrong; it should be "God blesses America", don't you think so?


texts: When you go to a restaurant and you want to pay by card, in american English, what do ask the waiter for? for them to please bring the card machine? or card terminal? or any other term?


texts: Are "shower gel" and "body soap" regional synonyms?

texts:
In Australia where I'm from solid soap has practically been replaced by shower gel except for the older generations. I expected that this type of stuff and its name came from Euro-English but now I'm in Japan where English isn't anyone's first language and the liquid soap in the shower is labeled "body soap" which I assumed was a translation by someone unaware of our "shower gel" idiom.

To my surprise everybody else here thought "body soap" was the normal name for this stuff and didn't know the term "shower gel".

So my question is are the two regional synonyms? Is "shower gel" only used in Australia? Or are they slightly different products neither of which is as popular in all English-speaking markets?


texts:
Is it right to put a comma before the dash that introduces a series?

  As the mentor of the original five interns, — Meredith, Cristina, Alex, the runaway Izzie, and the now dead George — Dr. Bailey...


texts: Why does Northern Ireland pronunciation sound similar to American?

texts:
Recently, I started watching a TV show The Fall, which takes place in Northern Ireland. Their intonations and accents are unique, but their pronunciation sounds a lot like North American English to me.

Here are some similarities I have found:

The 't' gets softened like in Americans English. For example, 'Peter' sounded like [pi:rɚ], not [pi:tɚ].
The 'r' which is not followed by a vowel is pronounced. For example, 'Peter' sounded like [pi:rɚ], not [pi:rə]
The diphthong 'o' sounds like [ou], as in American English, not [əu], as in British English.

Did I hear correctly? If so, why are there such similarities? Did the Northern Ireland pronunciation affect North American pronunciation 2~3 hundreds years ago?


texts:
What is it called when single letters are used as words in a sentence?

  I C A B.
  I C D B P!

  I see a Bee.
  I see the bee pee!

  F U N-E X?
  S I F X.
  F U N-E M?
  S I F M.
  OK I L F M N X!

  Have you any eggs?
  Yes I have eggs.
  Have you any Ham?
  Yes I have ham.
  OK. I will have ham and eggs.

I have been looking for this, at a low level, for years.


texts: What's the difference between "the third day running" and "three days running"?

texts:
Their meanings seem the same. Are there any difference between them?

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has Urged Hindus not together for a major religious festival as the country continues to register record numbers of coronavirus cases.【Infections are at an all-time high for the third day running with 234,000 new cases.】

Could " the third day running"  in this sentence be replaced by "three days running"?


texts: What is a less wordy way of describing how this car is situated?

texts:
I'm sitting on a bench in a park and I see this car sitting in the middle of a side street. Well, it's not actually in the middle of the street, but like right at the spot where you're about to make a right/left turn out onto the main road. It's been sitting there for about half an hour now. It's not an intersection where the car is at, it's just a side street that's leading off from the main road. If I were to describe what I had seen to someone else, how do I say it without sounding too wordy? For example, instead of describing all that I've just did above, is there a single expression that can describe the position of the car at where it's sitting, like "The car have been sitting at the [...] for half an hour now without moving, there have been no cars coming out or else it would have gotten chased off".

Edit: actually I've found a similar image:


texts: Present Perfect Continuous vs. Present Perfect

texts:
Which is correct, are both equally possible?

"I've had a cold for the last three days."
or
"I've been having a cold for the last three days."

"I haven't felt like this for ages."
or
"I haven't been feeling like this for ages."

Is there a rule? I browsed similar topics here but I can't find an answer.


texts:
I applied for a job position last year, and I want to continue to apply for it this year. Then I say, "My interest doesn't change", but I think "interest" is a little bit weak in this case, and "passion" makes the tone too strong.
What is the best word to replace the "interest" in this case?


texts:
Why don't we call a country the same thing everywhere?
In China, China is called zhong guo 中国 and the U.S. is called mei guo 美国 which means beautiful country. Is there a logical reason we don't just China what they call it? I understand we were not always the U.S. Also things like Mcdonalds are different in diffent countries.


texts: Use of "which" directly after a word that it is not pointing to

texts:
My question is about the following sentence:

  We have created a system to support operations of the devices, which processes and sends out data.

Would you say this use of "which" is OK? I'm not sure because the "which" comes directly after the word "devices" which it is not pointing to, instead the "which" is pointing to "system". I wondered if there was some kind of rule about that.


texts: Word for a person who is challenged to a bet

texts:
When I want to challenge my friend to do something (like a bet), what would you call such a person? Challenged person? Challengee?

For example:

  I challenge my friend to kiss a girl and he'll receive 4 pints. I'm
  the challenger, he's the [...]


texts: What's a liquid antonym of vitriol (used figuratively)?

texts: Are there any liquids (like vitriol is actually sulfuric acid) that we appropriate figuratively to mean high praise (i.e., the antonym of vitriol)?


texts: Condolence message: "I was sorry" vs. "I am sorry"

texts:
What is the difference in nuance between the following statements? Which would be more appropriate for a letter of condolence?

  I was sorry to hear that your mother has passed away.
  I am sorry to hear that your mother has passed away.


texts: "Difference between" multiple choices (vs. "among")

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “between” vs “among”

I learned that "between" refers to two objects or concepts and "among" refers to three or more. However, in situations when I am asking about distinctions, it seems correct to say, for example, "What is the difference between a horse, a zebra, and a mule?" as opposed to saying, "What is the difference among a horse, a zebra, and a mule?"

What is the rule for questions like this about the "differences between" several things?


texts: What word describes this (sort of bitter and exasperated) emotional state?

texts:
I'm looking for the word for the sort of bitterness and exasperation as excellently exhibited by Eric Birling of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls:

When Eric works out that Sheila has informed their mother of his alcoholism behind his back:

  Eric: You told her! Why, you little sneak.

When Eric finds out that his mother has inadvertently instructed the Inspector that he should be punished severely:

  Eric: You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother?

The word "sardonic" comes to mind, but this doesn't quite describe it; he's not making a wry comment to mock somebody or as an attempt at humour. He's frustrated to angry in both examples.

What word can I use to describe this? (Bonus points if it has a noun, adjective and adverb form.)


texts:
I watched a movie (On the rocks) and saw this dialogue:

A: I went to Sergeant O'Callaghan, Timmy... I went to his beefsteak
for his retirement...
B: That's my grandfather.
A: That's right. Gosh,
I don't know why I didn't make you right away. You're a ringer, dead
ringer.

I checked all meanings of "make" but couldn't see any meaning close to "recognize". But it obviously means "to recognize" here, am I wrong?


texts: What do you call hypothetical inhabitants living on the Moon?

texts:
I'm writing a fiction where inhabitants live on the Moon, so I want a name for them. I know that 'venusian' means 'of or relating to the planet Venus', 'martian' means 'of or relating to the planet Mars or its hypothetical inhabitants' and so on.

But, after having observed that 'moonian' is not a word, I wonder as to whether there is a term meaning 'of or relating to the Moon or its hypothetical inhabitants'.


texts: Is there a linguistic term for using a common noun as a proper noun?

texts:
In some situations, a common noun in a specific scenario is treated as a proper noun because it refers to a specific entity that satisfies the common noun.

Is there a special term for this phenomenon?

Examples:

"Go ask his father", said the teacher. vs "Go ask Father", said the mother.

and

"Most city halls have them", she replied. vs "City Hall has them", he stated.


texts: Sorting and citation of names like "Heather Mac Donald"

texts:
English and citation issue: A person, woman, Heather Mac Donald, the Mac part of the family name, right? Is it being used in sorting or would the person be sorted under Donald?

In sense of CSL 1.0.1 specification, is “Mac” a dropping particle, a non-dropping particle or something else entirely?


texts: Usage of 'customs' in lieu of 'immigration'

texts:
Over at the Travel SE beta (it's in private beta so I'm not sure how many here will be able to access it),  I came across a question whether the OP uses "clearance through US Customs" when I'm assuming s/he actually means US immigration. (Here, I'm relying on the definition that 'immigration' handles visa clearance, 'customs' handles tax collection for goods.) I have come across this particular usage earlier too, mostly among American travellers. Is this usage US-specific - and is it an 'error'*?

(* An error in the sense that the actual department at the airport, say, is US Immigration but people mistakenly call it 'Customs'.)


texts: Meaning of "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it"

texts:
Go on! Put an egg in your shoe and beat it.

What does "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it"  mean?


texts: Synonym for 'arrive independently' at same solution

texts:
In biology, convergent evolution describes the process whereby different animals acquire similar traits in separate lineages.

Two people can arrive at the same solution to a problem, or invent something, without the influence of each other.

Is there a word (or phrase) that sums up the coincidence of 'arriving independently' at the same solution? A convergent solution? Synchronicity?


texts:
Is it a rule that 'for' should follow after word 'search'?

Does any form of search should be followed by for?
For example,
searched for
searching for


texts: what is different between the usage noun and adjective?

texts:
for instance: economy project industry project; but economic problem industrial problem
  And         construction problem, construction project;
why can't i write economy problem?what is  different between project and problem?


texts: What is the form of rhetoric called which involves posing questions and answering them oneself?

texts:
Donald Rumsfeldt had a way of speaking in public, where to make his point more forcibly he would pose questions and answer them. Has Saddam Hussain bombed his own people? Yes. Has he begun the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction? Yes Are we prepared to see him terrorise his neighbours? No (This is not necessarily an accurate quotation, but just an example of the sorts of things he said).

But what interests me is this form of rhetoric which involves posing loaded questions and providing answers that make your point. Another exponent of this was Josef Stalin. In his case it has been seen by some historians as a technique he learned during his childhood education in a religious seminary. It was a form of catechism.

So what is the rhetoric called? Is it catechismic?  The word does not exist (at least not in the OED) as an adjective.

Edit. I have briefly looked at the former question.It is not entirely a parallel example - the OP complains that his wife does it in the course of everyday conversation. I am primarily interested in the development of an argument through this process. But the former question did bring out some interesting words - e.g. sermocinatio,- @Sven Yargs - which unfortunately does not have an OED entry. But I am also fascinated by the link to catechism, which I believe may be the provenance of this in some politicians. Someone has now come up with a suitable adjective - below.

Answer. I think the closest answer has been supplied by @Old English Lapdog. It seems to be the case that there are two distinct elements to this. One is that it follows the religious practice of teaching by question and supplied answer.  In that sense it relates to catechism. But in building an argument it is rhetorical. The word catechetical in its OED (sense 3) includes a reference to Socrates. 1711   J. Addison Spectator No. 239. ¶3   Socrates introduced a Catechetical Method of Arguing. He would ask his Adversary Question upon Question, till he had convinced him out of his own Mouth that his Opinions were wrong. So I am prepared to accept catechetical as the answer.


texts: What's the correct punctuation of "i.e." and "e.g."?

texts:
I'm confused about how to correctly punctuate these two. Can someone elaborate?
Here's an example:

She said that the pain was 100/10 – i.e. above the top of the scale.
She said that the pain was 100/10 – i.e., above the top of the scale.

I think that the first example is correct, but is it?!


texts: Immersed in real-world challenges, I never stop thinking how to make our world better.[Is this correct]

texts:
I've been asked to proofread an essay which consists of tons of these kind of twisted sentences. My question are whether this sentence is correct and in what case should there be a verb at the 'naked' sentence(clause?). Is there a way to test this that works every time? If this sentence is correct would the first clause change in past tense?

Thanks a bunch!


texts:
John met his wife when he was working in Brussels.

Why is "was working" correct and not worked?

My student noted that after when the past simple is used.

Thank you.


texts: What's a word for a non-communicable (non-contagious) disease that has still spread throughout a population?

texts:
Normally I would use forms of the words epidemic, pandemic, or infection but these would imply that the disease is contagious. Are there any words that mean a disease has spread but is not contagious?

Eg: "Instances of diabetes have spread throughout the city."


texts: If collective nouns use the plural verb form, are they plural in other contexts too?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, in British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms. How does this affect their property of being singular or plural in other grammatical contexts? We use plural verb forms, but do we then also use plural personal pronouns?

For example:

  England have won the World Cup!

Now is/are England actually plural, or is/are England just used with the plural verb form without being plural in other grammatical contexts?

  I am sailing to England themselves

or

  I am sailing to England itself?

Which one is correct, and why?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Other ways of saying whichs

Is the following grammatically correct?

  Sampling was mainly random, with the exception of some services which indexes, calculated with the Triadas method, were not satisfactory

The indices belong to the services.


texts:
In some song titles there is the letter 'ü', which isn't a letter in the English alphabet, but in the German. What does it mean? Is it some sort of emphasis?

An example for such a song title would be 'Yoü And I' by Lady Gaga or 'Where Are Ü Now?' by Justin Bieber.


texts: To advocate the act of not doing something

texts:
I'm looking for a word that gives the same meaning as advocate below, but with a negative twist:

  He advocates not doing drugs.

I want to present this better, and emphasize that "He" stands behind (i.e. advocates) not doing drugs.

This sentence, for example, does not work:

  He recommends not doing drugs.

Edit: To be clearer, ideally it would read as if he physically worked against it, like (I'd say) advocate implies.


texts: Does "there is doubt whether it will not ..." confuse the meaning of this sentence?

texts:
I was interested in the following sentence which appeared in an article titled “FROM SOUTH CAROLINA.; PUBLIC FEELING IN CHARLESTON THE LEADING MEN IN THE SECESSION MOVEMENT MISGIVINGS ABOUT THE ISSUE." in The New York Times (Dec. 9, 1860).

  The ensuing Convention will immediately pass the secession ordinance;
  but there is considerable doubt whether it will not be made to take
  effect at a much later day than was first contemplated.

Can someone clarify if the meaning of this sentence can wrongly influenced by the use of the word "not", as I think it is?

I would drop "not"; but I'm not sure on this correction because the presence of the fragment "doubt whether" that precede "not" confused me.


texts: What does the closing date mean exactly?

texts: There is a competition I am entering and the closing date is tomorrow (the 3rd of November). Does that mean they won't accept any of the entry's tomorrow or will tomorrow be the last day they accept entry's? (It is an art competition.)


texts:
This is a sentence from Colleen McCullough's novel The Thorn Birds:

  Girls were no flaming use at all; they just ate a man out of house and home and when they were grown up they went and worked for someone else instead of stayed put like boys to help their old father in his last years.

From my research it seems that 'instead of' is always followed by a noun or a gerund. But is the above usage wrong? I just want to know if I can use the phrase like this in the future.


texts: Please read and make sure you understand this important information - is this grammatically correct?

texts:
Can someone please tell me if this sentence is correct?

  Please read and make sure you understand this important information.

Or would I need commas?

  Please read, and make sure you understand, this important information.

Or do I mix it up and say:

  Please read this important information and make sure you understand it.

Thank you :)


texts:
I don't know how to express this.
I want to say that the ugliness of adolescence is hidden BUT not for adolescents themselves.
Is this sentence correct? is there a better phrasing?
"the ugliness of this stage is obscured but not to adolescents themselves"

Thank you


texts: When was "ladyparts" first used to describe the genitalia of a woman?

texts:
When was the word ladyparts first used to describe the genitalia of a woman?

I tried to look it up in the British National Corpus but it returned no results.


texts: Is it usual to contract would (e.g. Adam'd) after proper nouns?

texts:
I'm met with a tricky question, though not so essential I'd still like to know if places or peoples names can be joined by modal verbs.

I'm certain Adam wouldn't mind:

to Adam'd not mind.

Also I'd just like to clarify that it's to be used in a poetic context.

Thank you!


texts: Are certain English words cognates to Old English words?

texts:
For example, the English word spoor comes right from the Afrikaans spoor, meaning trail or track. This is from an identical Dutch word which is descended from the Proto-Germanic *spurą, from which came an Old English word- spor. (Also spurn)

Another example of this is with valkyrie, the English word for the choosers of the slain in Norse mythology. Etymonline says it entered English in the 1700s, from the Old Norse. (From valr + kjósa, the Proto-Germanic roots of which are from where choose and the Middle English wal come from.) However, Old English had a word for the Valkyries
too- wælcyrge.

So my question is, can we call valkyrie and spoor (plus similar borrowings, like falcon when we had the Old English fealca) cognates of the Old English words, or are they just borrowings?


texts: "They saw the bus to come to the station." What is wrong with this sentence?

texts:
Please, correct (if it needs) this sentence:

  They saw the bus to come to the station.

Should I use to here?


texts: "U.S. stocks were modestly higher at the opening bell Wednesday" vs. "... are higher ..."

texts:
Here's a news heading from CNN:

U.S. stocks were modestly higher at the opening bell Wednesday as political wrangling over the fiscal cliff continues to dominate the market.

The author used "were modestly higher"; why the simple past? Is it wrong to say "are modestly higher"? It is a state of being that is still true, so I suppose using simple present is okay.
And what about using "continued" instead of "continues"?

U.S. stocks are modestly higher at the opening bell Wednesday as political wrangling over the fiscal cliff continued to dominate the market.


texts: What is purpose use of 'ever' in this sentence?

texts: Very few people ever came that way. What is purpose use of 'ever'?


texts: Is it compulsory to use verb+ing with "should be"? Or can I use should be+verb+ed? My example - "something good should be reviewed" is it correct? Or "good movies should be reviewed"


texts:
I came across the phrase snake metaphor in the article of August 2nd New York Times reporting "Underwear run in the Central Park" under the title, “Got Briefs? This Run's for You.”

It was a hilarious and humorous report. But I was caught with the phrase snake metaphor in the following sentence:

  Maybe it was the shirt, though in truth the sensation was something like running with a Burmese python wrapped around your chest. Sorry; normally I try to limit myself to one snake metaphor per column.

As I found no entry of snake metaphor in dictionaries at hand or in Cambridge and Merriam -Webster online dictionary, I think this is a simple combination of words, not an idiom. But what does snake metaphor actually mean? Does it mean weird metaphor? Can we say snake joke?

I’m also not very sure of how I feel running with a Burmese python wrapped around my chest. Does it mean heavy and cold?


texts: Client compliance, client's compliance or a client's compliance?

texts:
I'm working on a job application covering note and I'm really struggling with one particular phrase. Here's the full sentence:

"I possess strong analytical and investigative skills as demonstrated by successfully investigating improper market trading, or analysing client’s compliance with FCA regulations."

Should it be

client's compliance,

client compliance or

a client's compliance?

The last one sounds a bit weird to me as it seems to take away the weight from the term 'client' and makes it sound random. On the other hand, 'client' is a singular countable noun, so under all rules I can recall, it needs to have an article. As it is the first time I'm mentioning any client in the note (and I don't expect the recruiter to know anything about it) I'm pretty sure using 'the' as an article would not be correct.

Not sure if it matters but the client in question is a corporate client, i.e. a business not an individual.

Please let me now if you have any ideas on how to approach this. I tried googling but it gets me absolutely nowhere.

Could also someone explain what would each of these phrases mean in practice to a native English speaker? Would any of them sound wrong altogether?

Thanks in advance!


texts: How to describe a person who does not want children?

texts:
I need a way to describe a woman who does not want children. She does not hate them per se, only will not have anything to do with them.

A couple of options I have gone through; a no-child female, a contra child headhunter. It is a logline for a story in which her ex-lover dies and leaves her with this unique child,

  When a unique post-apocalyptic baby is born, a retired _______ becomes its guardian...


texts:
I saw a sentence like:

  Maximum number of minutes are 60

but I feel like it must be "is 60" not "are" as we are describing about the word number here which is singular.

and after search I came across two different questions with two different answers (1 , 2) and I don't know what exactly is the correct behavior here and if I'm able to use both of them or not.


texts: "If it was not cold, I would like more" -- conditional

texts:
Now I'm having hard time on something.

I ate something yesterday and it was cold. Now grammatically, it must be

If it was not cold, I would like it more.

But I feel like it does not sound right, just because of 'like'. Is this correct?


texts: Which one is correct: "are (the) buses" vs "is (the) buses"?

texts:
This was a question from a test given to our students. The question was "What do you think the best form of transportation is for your city" Most of the students answer in this manner:

"I think the best form of transportation in my city is/are buses."

Which one is correct, "is buses" or "are buses"? Should there also be a definite article "the" before "buses"?


texts: Are "control", "direct", "lead", and "head" synonyms for supervise?

texts:
I need to know the following:

Is control a synonym for supervise?
Is direct a synonym for supervise?
Is lead a synonym for supervise?
Is head a synonym for supervise/supervisor/lead/leader?

I have looked these up in various thesauri and each one is different. While some thesauruses show some or all of the above words as synonyms for supervise, some do not. This is why I am looking for a clear answer to whether or not these words are synonyms for supervise.


texts:
On page 6 of The Remains of the Day, I read:

  ...my new employer in several other instances had had occasion to call upon such qualities as it may be my good fortune to possess and found them to be, I would venture, dependable.

This is a part of a sentence that I am having trouble with. Without the phrase "I would venture", I can understand this. I want to know how to comprehend this with the phrase.


texts: Using "at the present" or "nowadays" at the end of the sentence

texts:
I want to write a sentence using "at the present" or "nowadays" at the end of my sentece but I don't know if it is totally correct.

Example:

  A Programmable Logic Control (PLC) is a device commonly used and implemented by companies at the present.

or

  A Programmable Logic Control (PLC) is a device commonly used and implemented by companies nowadays.

Are they both correct?
Do I have to write a comma after companies?


texts: to take somebody vs to take somebody out

texts:
Is there a difference between the following two sentences?

I'll take you to a good restaurant in Paris
I'll take you out to a good restaurant in Paris

Does "to take out" implicitly mean that I am going to pay the bill and "to take" not?


texts:
What is the opposite of a false dawn, a false dawn being "a promising situation which comes to nothing".
The sentence I'm thinking of would be something like:
They started off well and it was not a false dawn it was ...?


texts: Isn’t “Take hits” a well-received English phrase?

texts:
I came across the phrase, ‘Take hits’ in the headline of Washington Post article (July 20) titled, ‘Federal workers will take hits in any deal’ which is followed by the following sentence:

  “No matter how the debt crisis ends, federal employees will take a double dose of a bitter pill. Even the best-case scenario of Congress and the White House agreeing on a plan to raise the debt ceiling would have federal employees taking a hit through whatever medicine is prescribed for Americans in general, in addition to money-saving measures aimed directly at the federal workforce.”

From the context of the above sentence, I interpreted “take hits’ implies ‘take a hard blow or damage.’ As I was unable to find definition of ‘take hits’ in dictionaries at hand, I checked into online dictionaries, and found that there is no entry of ‘take hits,’ but ‘take a hit’ meaning ‘inhale through the nose’ with one accord in Free English language Dictionary, Audio English net and www. definitions net.

Is my understanding of “take hits” in the sense of ‘get a blow’ right? Why apparently ordinary phrase like ‘take hits’ is registered in neither in ordinary dictionaries nor in online dictionaries, though ‘take a hit’ is registered in online dictionaries under sole definition, ‘inhale through the nose,’ which does not seem to me applicable to the above context?


texts: How can I refer to the population of a town keeping the name of the town?

texts:
There are words like New Yorkers, Londoners, etc.: (1) they keep the name of the city/town; (2) they refer to the people living in it. How do I fulfill both conditions for a small town called Somesmalltown? Say,in a sentence like:

  50% of Londoners went to a football match on Tuesday?

Phrases like “citizens of Somesmalltown” or “population of the Somesmalltown” seem to be out of place in this case, as I take it.

Does a phrase like Somesmalltown`s people,Somesmalltown people or similar sound right?


texts: Can all base forms of verbs express wish?

texts:
My text book says that base form of verbs can make sentences whose meanings are wish, for example, in "God save the queen." or "Grammar be hanged."

If the sentence's subject is third person and singular, we can tell this verb as base form because the verb should have -s in the end usually, but otherwise we can't tell because the sentence is the same with usual sentences which don't mean wish, declarative sentences, and I think it's confusing.

So I wonder if all the base forms can make "wish-sentences" or not.


texts: Are there words meaning “helping somebody to think different/freely/more widely”?

texts: This is what my uncle does to me. I want write him a letter in English.


texts:
Here's the sentence:

  Who knows how the prosperity you give becomes the prosperity you get

Is it possible to 'give prosperity'?


texts:
What is the difference between the two? Both are used in practice.

Examples for 'in contact with':

  To be or to not be in contact with someone. (Macmillan Dictionary)
  ...until the palm was in contact with the ball. (The Engineering of Sport 7)
  ...both feet are in contact with the ground. (Gait Analysis in the Science of Rehabilitation)

I find that the standard definition of the idiom 'in contact' (as per TheFreeDictionary.com) do not always apply. It works for example 1 but not for examples 2 and 3.

Examples with 'at contact with':

  ...their attempts at contact with their European counterparts. (Petersburg)
  Bent elbow at contact with the ball... (Teaching Tennis: The Fundamentals of the Game)
  ...the landing phase begins at contact with the ground. (Excercise and Sport Science)

The target subjects for both sets of examples are the same in the respective order. All examples are taken from credible resources.

How does the usage differ? Or is it just a matter of preference?


texts: Can one write 'Health behaviors'? I keep coming across this kind of usage in some research papers

texts: "Analyzing health behaviors of diabetics" was the title of a paper. I was wondering about the usage.


texts:
A word like "water" can't be introduced by an indefinite article unless one adds a qualifying word (a water droplet). Grass is like this (a blade of grass, not "a grass" with grass being a noun). The use of the definite article seems to presume talking about a group or a pluralized, collective idea (implying the introduction of a preposition "of" after a 'none some all' qualifier - all OF the water, which means that ultimately, one is speaking about the plural grouping of that which can't be spoken of in the singular).
Is there a term for a word that can't be spoken of in the indefinite singular?


texts: Word to describe someone who ignores your feelings or sentiments?

texts:
Someone who persistently overlooks your feelings or your sentiments. For example, if you show your love by all means and they appear to not care and take you as a joke.

What such person can be called ?


texts: I am taking morphology class this semester but I am confused with something. What is the root of the word hospitable? When I searched in internet I conclude that the root is the word host or at least hospitable. But then my lecturer said that it was come from the word hospice. I just could not understand what kind of word process and word formation involve if its true it is come from the word hospice. I really appreciate your help.


texts: Are bricks technically a type of pottery?

texts:
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the following as the third definition of the word "pottery":

CLAYWARE -
especially : earthenware as distinguished from porcelain and stoneware and from brick and tile

It defines "clayware" as "articles made of fired clay."
Bricks are (or at least many are) made of fired clay. Do such bricks count as "pottery"? I understand the "especially" part, but does "especially" here indicate common usage (i.e., most people usually mean it this way) or technical meaning (technicians and linguists would consider this distinction fundamental to the word).


texts:
None of these are taken.

Can I shorten this above speech like below:

  None taken.

Is this process grammatically right? If it is right then what are the rules behind it?


texts: How to interpose cross references to sections in the presentation of an outline

texts:
In academic papers the introduction usually contains a description of the outline of the paper, i.e. a description of the structure of the paper, such as a description of what goes in what section. In writing such a description one might want to interpose the cross references to sections instead of having them in the main flow of sentences, e.g. to write "I will start out with an introduction (section 1)" instead of "I'll start out with an introduction in section 1". What are the proper/best ways to do this?

Here's two examples. If parentheses are used to interpose the cross references to sections, then the parentheses might be distracting (especially if they occur frequently):

  I will start out with an introduction (section 1). After that I'll
  present some additional background (section 2). Then I'll present my
  position (section 3), argue for it (section 4) and present some of its
  applications (section 5). Finally, I'll sum up the main points
  (section 6).

If commas are used, then the disposition might get confusing (e.g. by confusing the list and the interpositions in the second sentence):

  I will start out with an introduction, section 1. After that I'll
  present some additional background, section 2. Then I'll present my
  position, section 3, argue for it, section 4, and present some of its
  applications, section 5. Finally, I'll sum up the main points, section
  6.

There might be other possible constructions, e.g. by use of semicolons or dashes.


texts: Is the construction "as... also" grammatically correct?

texts:
I came across the following sentence:

  "Every element of visual data can be viewed as in 3D also in 2D"

Is it correct to use here the construction "as...also..."?


texts: about the expression 'on someone's behalf'

texts: I know the expression 'on (someone's) behalf' usually reads or is understood as 'instead of someone' but I'm wondering if it's possible for it to have a benefactive reading, that is, if it can be used to express one has been benefited by somebody else's action. Can anyone help me?


texts: How exactly are the words 'evening' and 'night' used in English? Are there certain times when evening, and when night, are considered to begin? Do these periods overlap?


texts: "The imagination expended on the title being a fair indicator"

texts:
I am having trouble understading the following sentence, which is extracted from the NYT:

  Even those who have spent the last 14 years pining for a sequel to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” — by most accounts, the highest-grossing American romantic comedy — will rue that longing when they experience “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.” The imagination expended on the title being a fair indicator of how much was lavished on the rest of this embarrassingly awful retread.

I cannot find a principal verb in this sentence, confused by the structure. Can anyone please explain?

Thank you in advance!


texts:
I'm looking for some guidance on how to describe an industry according to it's revenue, and I'm seeking clarity around the correct usage of assigning a dollar value to an industry.

First and foremost, does the description:

  Ten billion dollar industry

Refer specifically to the annual revenue of an industry? Or is it ambiguously used to describe the annual profit, annual investment or even capital value - and thus requiring additional context to define the statement?

Secondly, if I were to write it numerically, which is more readable?

  $10 billion industry
  10 billion dollar industry
  $10 billion dollar industry

I feel like:

is grammatically correct, but awkward to parse because the leading dollar sign requires the insertion of the absent word "dollar", two words later.
is likewise grammatically correct, but more readily parsed.
is not grammatically correct because either the dollar sign or the word "dollar" is redundant.

I have seen 3 used from time-to-time - would it be considered acceptable use, or is it simply a common mistake, like "PIN number" Also, I'm happy to accept guidance on correct hyphenation!


texts:
"Let's fun in the kitchen"  or "Let's have fun in the kitchen"
which is correct grammar?
Giuseppe


texts: Is there any difference in plain meaning or nuance between "At the start, ..." and "In the beginning, ..."?

texts:
At the start, ...

This is from a book that I am reading now. It sounds very rare to me, so I am wondering when it is appropriate to use this expression instead of

  In the beginning, ...

Thanks.