texts: A single word for "atoms and molecules"?

texts:
My professor often expresses frustration because, inconveniently, there is no word that groups together "atoms" and "molecules". "Microscopic particles" is totally insufficient.

I now find myself experiencing this frustration.

Chemists/Physicists often find themselves saying, especially in Statistical Mechanics, e.g. "Of a set of N atoms and molecules, we select one at random." If we say "particle", it excludes molecules. If we say "molecules", it excludes atoms.

As a bonus, is there perhaps such a word in another language? e.g. German or French?


texts:
Is "metonymically imply" redundant in this sentence:

  The poet shows this distance from the divine by identifying the stomach and womb as definitive traits of the human condition; these organs metonymically imply that human beings are susceptible to both deception and physical desire.


texts: Can an object be assigned to multiple *categories*?

texts:
I am thinking about the very generic word category and was wondering:

Does the definition of the word category relate more to kind of a box (an item may only be in one and only one box at a time) or more to some kind of a tag (an object may have multiple tags)?


texts:
What do you think Shakespeare meant by this expression, which occurs in one of his sonnets?

  “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
  I summon up remembrance of things past,
  I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
  And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
  Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
  For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
  And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
  And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
  Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
  And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
  The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
  Which I new pay as if not paid before.
  But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
  All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.”


texts: Should I use the singular or plural verb form with "one or more"?

texts:
Which of these is correct?

  "If one or more of these situations apply to you ..."
  or
  "If one or more of these situations applies to you ..."

I think that "more" takes precedence over "one," so I would use the plural, "apply." Am I right?


texts: What is the term called for writing in present tense even though the text is in past tense?

texts:
I read this in a grammar book recently but I can't recall what the specific term (if any) is called for something like:

  He was 18 years old.

I don't remember if it is the same example, but the idea is generally similar. The text is written in past tense, so the example above should also be written in past tense. However, since he is currently 18 years old, not formerly 18 years old, the grammar book stated that it should be written as:

  He is 18 years old.

Even though the text is written in past tense. Again, the example might be incorrect and my recollection might be a bit off, but the general idea is there.


texts:
He wiped [his glasses] against his grubby wind-breaker... He smeared the sweat from his cheeks and quickly adjusted the spectacles on his nose.

Source: Lord of the Flies, William Golding

I have difficulty understanding how the person "smears" the sweat from his sweat. The dictionary meaning of smear is to blur the outline of, to spread a substance over something, or to coat something carelessly with a greasy substance.

Applying these meanings, does the line mean the character is coating his cheeks with sweat? But is the sweat not coming off of his cheeks? How is he spreading/coating/blurring his cheek with sweat? And the sample sentences I found are usually smear on something, or smear with something. What does "smear from" in the quoted line mean? Here, the quoted line seems to read something like "he wipes the sweat from his face".


texts:
A news article today says

The force’s rural crime team lambasted the owners of more than 200 cars who drove to the top of Snake Pass, a trans-Pennine road between Sheffield and Manchester on Saturday, and then expected the police to rescue them with their “magical snowmobiles”.
“We’ll deal with what we can, but our underpants aren’t on the outside and we can only knock so much common sense back into society,”
Guardian

Is this merely a reference to fictional superheroes (such as Superman) as in

Elite readers

Or is there more to it?


texts: What is a good word that means "group of groups?"

texts: If you have a bunch of groups of different things, and you group the groups into a bigger group, what do you call the bigger group?


texts:
Is plannable, (e.g.: this task can be planned, it is plannable) an actual word in UK English?

It's one I see used quite often (mostly in business scenarios, both spoken and in emails) but haven't been able to find in on-line dictionaries and is always underlined by spell-checkers.

Research suggests that it's in fairly common usage although not in any dictionaries. I found some examples and interesting comments here: proz.com/forum/linguistics/…


texts: What is the relation of my brother's wife's nieces to me?

texts: My brother married his high school sweetheart who has five siblings who all have kids that have grown up calling me aunt.  What relation would my sister in law's nieces and nephews be to me?


texts: Could somebody please help me out with articles?

texts:
Being Russian, I am having a fairly hard time understanding the concept of articles usage in various situations. Also it is hard to find truly elaborate manuals online. So here I would like to give an example that I find unclear.

1)  In fact, in one zoo, questions of animal safety arose when two red pandas were found dead after being exposed to rat poison. (Why is there no article required here before "rat poison"? Is it because the poison is an uncountable noun?)

2)  Let's talk about spoilers: why 'spoiler culture' is demeaning to the real power and beauty of film. (Why is there an article before "real power" here? I would assume that the word power is also uncountable)

Thank you!


texts:
The usage of "It was" with "could we" in the following sentence seems intuitively wrong, but I don't know how to properly explain it:
"It was only after they were observed, could we explain certain phenomena."

These seem better:
"Only after they were observed, could we explain certain phenomena."
or,
"It was only after they were observed that we could explain certain phenomena."

And these seem better yet:
"Only once they were observed, could we explain certain phenomena."
or,
"It was only once they were observed that we could explain certain phenomena."

Could someone enlighten me as to the grammatical concepts at work here?


texts: Can I use "clipper" for someone whose hobby is watching and sharing video clips?

texts: One meaning for clip is a short part of a film or television program (Longman, retrieved 4/21/2016). But, clipper does not refer to a meaning close to film clips. Can I use, however, clipper to refer to someone whose hobby is making, watching and distributing clips, for example on Youtube? If no, what would be the alternatives?


texts: is this sentence all in the past tense? I'm struggling to write in the past tense but use active words?

texts: The turf wicket at Cook reserve in Bedford has been vandalised on Sunday after diesel was poured liberally across all five cricket pitches, rendering them unusable.


texts: What is the meaning of 'busts up a chiffarobe'?

texts:
According to this wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chifforobe,

    "Chiffarobe" appears frequently in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.[7]
For instance, Tom Robinson "busts up a chiffarobe" for Mayella Ewell

What is the the meaning of this phrase?


texts:
1)The corporeal, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual sides of human life have all been stirred by the hurricane the likes of which has never been seen in the history of the Earth.
From The Vakhtangov Sourcebook by Andrei Malaev-Babel

2)They finally destroy him in a steel works, in a fight to the death the likes of which have seldom been seen on the screen.
From Movies of the 90s by Jürgen Müller

"The likes of which" is both followed by have and has, and the result of Google book search is almost a tie.

What is the correct usage?


texts: What are the meaning and possible origin of "word!" and "word up"?

texts:
Several times, I have had conversations, all over instant messenger, finish with "word" or "Word up G".

As it ends a conversation, I am guessing it is like "goodbye".

My question is what is the meaning of "word" and "word up g"? Also, what is the origin?

I am more interested in the meaning as that will help with understanding its usage.


texts: Are there any general terms that encompass a large number of things such as soil, sand, silt, clay, mud, and gravel?

texts:
My question is in the title, the below paragraph is the backstory for anyone interested. I just want to know if a general term that refers to any broad class of materials anything close to what is listed exists in English, or if not, in another language which I may borrow a word from. After all, English is kind of a language of loan words.

I'm working on some code to help me categorize items in various video games for efficient sorting and I've run into an issue. I need to put materials "from the ground", or "natural blocks", together into one category, and I want it to be divided into solid "stones", and something else. What should I call these remainders, which are all more granulated sorts of naturally occurring ground materials generally?


texts:
Why is it common in English to address animals as "it"?

It's not an inanimate or abstract object, they have a gender and they're alive.

A chair, idea, tree, rock, etc are an "it", but why does English speakers address a dog, cat, bird, fish, etc as "it"?

Isn't male the "default gender" in English?


texts: Why do some words ending in -o take the -es plural?

texts:
According to Oxford Dictionaries, most words ending in -o take the regular -s plural, but some take the -es plural. For example, these take -s:

photo / photos
zero / zeros
avocado / avocados

But these take -es:

potato / potatoes
tomato / tomatoes
torpedo / torpedoes

Most sites suggest that there is no rhyme or reason and that English Language Learners simply need to memorize which take which (although some words like 'halo' admit both pluralizations).

Other sites suggest that -o words that take -es have something to do with life. For example, 'potato' has something to do with life. Is the explanation acceptable? If not, can anyone provide an alternate explanation?


texts:
"abuse" is often defined as improper usage.

When speaking about an illegal drug, it seems impossible to properly use it (I mean here recreational consumption, not specially licensed medical or research use). So then, is any consumption automatically abuse?

EDIT: I see that somehow, several users appear to have misinterpreted my question. I would like to clarify:

Even substances which are illegal may be used legally by people such as medical doctors and scientists, by special permit. Obviously this is not abuse. It falls within the special exemptions provided by the law. I am asking about using the word "abuse" to describe use of these drugs outside such special permits, when the law considers the use clearly illegal.


texts:
I am not clear about the use of no and not . I have come across two sentences
like:

  All I asked was time, not money.
  I met this person about a month ago. I remember his name, what he was wearing and his hair texture, but no face.

In sentence 1 not is used whereas in sentence 2, no is used. Why so? Can anybody explain?


texts: Does "spent it" imply a whole period in the following sentence?

texts:
Last spring, Mario spent it sending letters, pretending to be someone he wasn't.

Does spent it imply that Mario spent that whole spring sending letters? Or not necessarily?


texts:
From The Silence of the Lambs (1988):

"Marilyn Sutter saw it upstairs. Chilton was blowing off about "The Search for Billy
Rubin." Then he went to dinner with a television reporter. That's where he was when
Lecter took a walk. What a pluperfect asshole."

While I am aware of the pluperfect tense, the above usage of the word strikes me as rather exotic. ODO only lists the grammatical definition in its British English reference. But it provides an additional definition under its American English entry:

[as modifier] more than perfect:
they have one pluperfect daughter and are expecting an ideal little brother for her

Webster defines its alternate sense as utterly perfect or complete along with a note on its origin:

late 15th century: from modern Latin plusperfectum, from Latin (tempus praeteritum) plus quam perfectum

I'm curious as to how this odd-sounding construction made its way from the grammar book into common parlance. Is it used in this sense only in the US? Is it still in use?
(Although I see it used in other languages, I believe that pluperfect is no longer the term of choice in English grammar.)


texts: What nuance ‘I’ll leave it at that' carry? Does it mean total agreement with, or commitment to your partner?

texts:
Yesterday’s (August 22) Washington Times picked up the following quote of Mr. Paul Ryan in its “Today’s Quote”

  "Mitt Romney's going to be the president. The president sets the
  policy. His policy is exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the
  mother. I'm comfortable with it because it's a good step in the right
  direction. I'll leave it at that."

I was caught up with the last phrase of Mr. Ryan’s remark. What does “I’ll leave it at that” exactly mean? How different “I leave it at that” is from ‘It’s up to him.”

Is Mr. Ryan totally agreeing with what Mr. Romney says, or there is some reservation, resignation, or tongue in cheek, whatever that implies some distance from the other party’s view?


texts:
Homological mean the word describing itself (like "word" or "written"). Is word "homological" homological?
Thank you very much and sorry for my ignorance.


texts:
I am working on a history of pioneering tradeswomen in which several women's last names change during the two-decade time period. What is the best way to deal with this? Should I include both names at the outset? Explain the new last name when first referring to the woman after the marriage? Use both last names following the marriage? The fact of these marriages is not part of the story told in the book.

I.e., Patty Wong was hired as one of the first electrical tradeswomen in 1974. Ten years later, she re-enters the story, but her name is now Patty Eng.


texts:
We all have heard this proverb in Urdu and Hindi

  धोबी का कुत्ता न घर का न घाट का

Literal translation

  The dog of the washerman belongs to neither the riverbank nor the house

An alternative:

  The dog that runs after two bones, catches neither

The original Hindi proverb suggests the idea if someone comments on you

  धोबी का कुत्ता न घर का न घाट का

They mean to say you are caught between two things because you do not belong to either of two things, or because you try to do two different things and fails at both.

This proverb was used by Mirza Saud who was a renowned Urdu poet, for Mirza Mazhar Jaan-e-Janaan's poetry as a scorn. Mirza Mazhar was a renowned poet of Persian. He later on did some stupendous and chromatic poetry in Urdu as well, however, initially he was not very comfortable in Urdu poetry.

His instructor advised him to start poetry in Urdu instead of Persian as the days of Persian poetry in India were numbered in his view. Mirza Mazhar's initial experiment in Urdu poetry was a disaster. The Urdu poets of his time did not take his arrival in their domain with joy. He was barraged by insult and one such poetic insult became proverbial:

[cut off by OP]


texts: Past Perfect Continuous/Past Perfect or?

texts:
Which tense should I use in the following example?

Is it OK to use the Past Perfect Continuous if I want to explain to someone that I had been working in some company for 10 years, without mentioning - before I finally quit, or maybe I should use the Past Perfect - I had worked in that company for 10 years… but also without mentioning - before I moved to… ???

Thanks!


texts: Why 'a friend of mine' is not 'my friend's friend'?

texts:
I have some questions about the expression "a friend of mine" and I'm quite confused with it. Actually I have found some threads about this topic but they don't hit my point. I'm not a native English speaker.

General people may interpret that "a friend of mine" is "one of my friends" but it sounds to me like "a friend of my friend" or "my friend's friend" who I may or may not know him/her. I was taught that "mine" is a possessive pronoun and it's used to replace the noun mentioned earlier; for example, This is Adèle's book so the book is hers.

Why "a friend of mine" is not "a friend of my friend"? And why "a daughter of mine" is not "my daughter's daughter" or "my grand daughter"?
Why we use "a friend of mine" instead of "a friend of me" to mean "my friend" but we use "a part of it" to mean "its part"? "Mine" is a possessive pronoun but "it" is an object pronoun.

I probably have read all things people trying to answer the questions but I still haven't found the comprehensive rules yet. Can anyone give the comprehensive rules for using the double-possessive form?

I myself may conclude that:
1. The double-possessive form is used when the personal subject pronoun is used.
2. If the noun indicating that the owner is a person or people, either the double-possessive form or the noun itself is used but slightly different in interpretation.
3. If the possesser is an animal, robot, or any inanimated objects; the objective pronoun or the noun itself should be used.

Anyway, is there any mistakes or leakages in those rules?

so I can say that:

  a friend of mine = my friend
  a computer of yours = your computer
  a house if his = his house
  a book of hers = her book
  a school of ours = our school
  a car of theirs = their car
  a part of it (not a part of its) = its part
  a shirt of Mary's = Mary's shirt (Mary has many shirts)
  a shirt of Mary = Mary's shirt (Mary can either has only one shirt or many shirts)
  a wing of a bird = a bird's wing
  a leg of a robot = a robot's leg (one of the robot's leg)
  an office of an engineer = an engineer's office (one of the or only office(s) of a certain engineer)
  an enemy of France = France's enemy (one of France's enemies)

Is that correct?

Thank you for all of your answers. They are very helpful.


texts: What word is used to explain the omission from writing or words that are superfluous or can be understood from contexual clues

texts: The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or can be understood from contextual clues


texts: Difference between 'casualty' and 'victim'

texts:
I thought that "casualty" means a person who is hurt due to an accident, war etc. Or an accident itself.

But in these examples "casualty" is used in a more general context, doesn't look like there is any war or accident implied:

  1.The environment was often the first casualty of rapid industrialization and its preservation should therefore be given due
  priority.
  2. I won't allow myself to become another casualty of these people.

Can "casualty" really be used outside the context of accidents, wars etc?
If so, what's the difference between "casualty" and "victim"? Can those be used as synonyms?


texts:
Is there a rule which determines whether it allowable for a word to be "merged" with "all" to make a new word starting "al-"
e.g.

1)All together -> Altogether
2)All right -> Alright

The first is generally accepted. Whereas I believe the second is technically not (certainly my English teacher used to condemn it).


texts: What is the origin of the term 'blue ruin' for low-end gin?

texts: I've looked on google and so far I can only find definitions and usage examples. I'm particularly curious where the 'blue' comes from as 'ruin' makes intuitive sense


texts: Single word meaning "containers used to transfer"?

texts:
I have a sentence of the form: "Y can be viewed as containers used to transfer X", where X in my case is genetic information. It feels like this sentence could be simplified to something like "Y can be viewed as a xxxx of X", but I cannot find the proper word. In my particular case, the context is: "male gametes can be viewed simply as containers used to transfer genetic information", and the issue came up when answering a question at Biology-SE.

So, what I'm looking for is a replacement for "containers used to transfer". I've been thinking about using vessel, but dictionaries usually focus on vessel as a container of liquids (e.g. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vessel), beside the obvious meaning of vessel as ship. To me, vessel also feels a bit awkward to use in this case.

Can vessel be used in my sentence?
Is there another more suitable word to use?


texts:
I need to write a formal letter to a group of people consisting of two females and two males. One of the females is unmarried.

"Dear Sirs" must be out of the question. "Dear Madam / Miss / Sirs" also doesn't sound right; "dear all", "hello" or "hi" all sound to informal. As there are four of them I thought about "Dear Group", but I'm afraid some may take this the wrong way. Using their names as in "Dear Ms Black, Ms Brown, Mr Green and Mr White" could also be a possibility I guess, but it doesn't sound good to me either. Not being a native English speaker only makes finding a good solution more difficult.

Good ideas, anyone?


texts: Past vs. perfect in present-tense narrative

texts:
When telling a story using the present tense, should events at a specific time in the past be recounted in the past perfect or in the past tense?

For example: I know to writeJack entered the room and sat down. The fight had drained him, and he needed to rest., but isJack enters the room and sits down. The fight drained him, and he needs to rest.orJack enters the room and sits down. The fight had drained him, and he needs to rest.correct, and why?

(To me, the latter seems obviously correct, but someone recently insisted to be that the former is correct, and I could not defend or explain my position, so I'm asking here.)

Please note that I'm asking according to traditional (prescriptive) grammar.


texts:
Is it correct to say: "Could you please let me know if there is any team looking for an intern willing to start immediately?"

Thanks
Rgds,


texts: What's the meaning of "wrought", "in its own right" and "in legal system after legal system" in the following sentence?

texts:
I have a hard time interpreting the meaning of "wrought", "in its own right" and "legal system after legal system" in the following sentence.

That inquiry is important in its own right, as the challenges wrought
by platforms are upending significant areas of regulation in legal
system after legal system.

Although I already know what "wrought" and "in its own right" mean, it's not easy to understand contextual meaning of those phrases.

"wrought" can be used as both adjective and verb. In the sentence I quoted above, I think it is used as a verb. As a verb, "wrought" means 'work'. But it sounds weird if put 'worked' in place of 'wrought'. I guess the challenges wrought by platforms mean the challenges resulted from or caused by platforms. Please clarify this point.

"in its own right" is used to say that you have something or achieve something on your own, without depending on other people. I felt the phrase "in its own right" in the sentence I quoted sounds weird or unnecessary. Am I right?

I'm not sure how to interpret "(legal system) after legal system".


texts: Word for people who just comment rather than act on something

texts:
Is there any word referring to people who sit and comment rather than act.

Example: Reading morning newspaper headline, sad news and discuss over tea rather than act and do something toward it.


texts: Words or phrases for "showing an expression"

texts:
The sentence is:

  He suddenly showed an extremely shocked expression."

Are there any good replacement for the verb/the phrase, like using "look", or "face" instead of "expression".


texts: Are periods placed inside quotes, or outside?

texts:
If, for example I have this sentence:

  He started a website, SaveSandy.org, however this website is currently “Under maintenance”.

Does the period go on the outside, or the inside of the quotation marks?
I've seen various newspaper and web articles with it on the inside, and on the outside.

Which one is it? And if possible, preferably give me a source, to verify your claim? Also, I'm talking about American English, not British. Thanks.


texts: "I grip the steering wheel like I grasp TO my memory of that day." Is that "to" wrong? Omit, or change to "at"?

texts:
In the sentence above, is "grasp to my memory of..." wrong? It feels wrong, but I can't articulate why. I might say "grasp at my memory of" or perhaps omit the preposition all together.

I fear without a preposition though, it implies the memory was actually grasped, instead of implied movement towards/in the direction of. Odd because it's a metaphorical grasping, not that that should matter.

So what should it be? At, to, or nothing?


texts: Why is "proceed" spelt "-ceed" and not "-cede" like "precede"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Origins of the “‑cede/‑seed/‑ceed” suffix

The pronunciation of proceed is exactly like that of precede with the only difference being the o instead of the e.

What rules of the English language dictate that it be spelt with the ending -ceed instead of -cede?


texts:
Someone overheard me say "How does 1:30 sound?" and suggested that the preferred way to phrase this question (i.e., when scheduling a meeting) would be to ask "How does 1:30 work?" or "Does 1:30 sound good?"

In my mind, all three phrasings sound natural, and I've always used the "How does 1:30 sound?" construction. Is anything out of place here?


texts: Is there a readily-understandable antonym for "foundation"?

texts:
I'm trying to describe a process where there is one stage that serves as a foundation (base) for the intermediate stages, and then a final stage that serves as, well, the opposite. The idea is that Stage A provides broad support that underpins the other stages, and then the final Stage X provides an overarching conclusion. I'm trying to draw parallels between the foundational stage and this one, so I'm trying to find set of words that describe the same type of function though at different ends of the process.

My sample sentence (using A and X as placeholder names) is as follows:

  Stage X serves as the ______, opposite the Stage A foundation.

The closest word I could think of was endcap – for example, if you think of a fence-post, this is the cap that goes at the end. However the mental image I have of an endcap is a pointed triangular structure, which implies that all things converge, which is not accurate in this situation.


texts: Choosing the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph

texts:
The sentences given below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labeled with a letter. I have to choose the most logical order of sentences from among the given choices to construct a coherent paragraph.

  (a) Similarly, turning to caste, even though being lower caste is
  undoubtedly a separate cause of disparity, its impact is all the more
  greater when the lower-caste families also happen to be poor.

  (b) Belonging to a privileged class can help a woman to overcome many
  barriers that obstruct women from less thriving classes.

  (c) It is an interactive presence of these two kinds of deprivation—
  being low class and being female— that massively impoverishes women
  from the less privileged classes.

  (d) A congruence of class deprivation and gender discrimination can
  blight the lives of poor women very severely.

  (e) Gender is certainly a contributor to societal inequality, but it
  does not act independently of class.

I identified the opening sentence as (e), then I thought as the paragraph needs to be logically connected, the next one must be (a) Similarly, turning to caste.... The reason is both Gender and Caste are the contributor to social inequality. But this is wrong when I saw the answer.

The correct order is EBDCA which I am not able to figure out. Kindly help me out as English is not my native lanaguage.


texts:
In aviation radiovoice it is common to say 1) "Request to cross CTR (controllzone)", but an english native explained to me that 2) "Request crossing CTR" sounds more correct to him but he couldn't explain why.

Since that day I wonder if he's correct and what's the difference between these two sayings (the same as stop doing /stop to do?)..?

Thx for help


texts: What does "ambush Prince Charming's wife" mean?

texts:
In the 2014 film “The Other Woman”, there is an exchange between several characters

  King Kate: So what do I do now? So I'm, now I'm Barb Melman?      Barb Melman got divorced and now she has cheek implants and lives in a
  condo in Norwalk and has to go on dates. I am not equipped to go on
  dates. The last time I was single, I was 24 and the dating pool was
  everyone. And now it's like a shallow puddle of age-appropriate men
  who are old and gross and I don't want to do that.

  Cameron Diaz: I know that you think that it's that bad, but honestly, it's a lot worse. You know why? Because even if you meet a
  nice guy... and when I mean "nice", I mean that he's, like, not an
  obvious sociopath... you can't even actually get excited about it.

  You know why?  Because it's just a matter of time before someone gets
  bored and unhappy and is saying that it's over, and that's a happy
  ending. A shitty ending is that there's lying and cheating and you
  ambush Prince Charming's wife.

What does Cameron Diaz mean by "... and you ambush Prince Charming's wife."?


texts: "You all need to put your right feet/foot in front of your left"

texts:
My friend is trying to convince me that the following statement is correct when talking to a group of people.

You need to put your right feet in front of your left.

To me, the following sentence seems correct rather than the former because every individual in the group only has one right foot.

You need to put your right foot in front of your left.

I'd love to know which of these is correct, or if they are both are right then why (or why not).


texts:
A friend and I are having a debate about a most perplexing piece of English grammar. Now, I am a native English speaker, and he is Polish - this means that he is rather clued up on the grammatical side of things, whereas I know diddly squat, but know what feels right.

We were discussing Poland's next world cup match tomorrow, when Poland plays against Colombia, and I wrote to him after he me sent a heartwarming video (jokingly, of course), that 'I think threats of stoning if they don't succeed would be more effective.'

He replied that such a sentance should be in the second conditional tense, and thus go like 'I think threats of stoning if they didn't succeed would be more effective.'

So after a lively debate as to whether this is the second, first, or not even a conditional, I have no choice but to turn to the denizens of the interweb, to ask them to apply their grammatical expertise to resolve this vital question.

Thanks in advance,
Conor


texts: To place in comparison or to put in comparison

texts: Which one is correct, "to put in comparison" or "to place in comparison"?


texts:
What's a word for having your identity stolen?

In other words, "robbed" is to your stuff as X is to your identity.


texts: "Wash hands of" — why not "off" instead of "of"?

texts:
The phrase "wash hands of" is supposed to mean giving up or having nothing to do with something.

But why is it "of" and not "off"? Using "off" sounds more like giving it up and distancing oneself from the object/subject.


texts: What is a synonym for "conscious of reputation"?

texts: I am attempting to describe a group of companies that are conscious of their reputation. Is there a single word that can replace the phrase?


texts: What does “haul something out” mean as an idiom?

texts:
I found the following quote of Mike Nichols, director of the hit revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway in the article titled “How Oedipus Wrecks” in March 24. New York Times:

  “My father was proud once when I won a horse show in boarding school. And he was proud when I was brave when I broke my arm. And man, I’ve hauled those out innumerable times.”

As I’m not familiar with the expression, “haul something out,” I looked for the definition without success in OED and CED.

There was an entry of “hauling out” as a noun in Wikipedia, defining it as;

  Hauling-out is the behaviour associated with pinnipeds of temporarily leaving the water between periods of foraging activity for sites on land or ice. Hauling-out is necessary in seals for mating and giving birth and non-reproductive aggregations, termed "haul-outs".

I also found the following answer to the similar question on “haul out” in www.englishforums.com/:

  (haul out is) to take a heavy-handed approach to justice. It is a US phrase. I guess it comes from the slightly stereotyped image of the sheriff going into the saloon bar and "hauling out" ...

However, I think neither applies to Mike Nichols’ statement, “I’ve hauled those out innumerable times.”
What does “haul something out” mean? Does it mean “experience / get over problems" or simply "pull something out”? Is “haul something out” a popular day-to-day phrase?


texts: How to say: "this number has not been rounded"?

texts: Let's say I count some items and the result is exactly 1000. How do I convey the fact that the actual count was 1000, and that I didn't round the number? It should fit into a sentence like "Overall, we found 1000 items that are related to X."


texts: Dead as a doorknob: idiom changes due to misuse

texts:
Most (if not all) of us have likely heard the phrase "dead as a door-nail."
However, I have noticed that a large portion (ok, all) of my American university students of the last 5 years erroneously think that this phrase is instead "dead as a doorknob."
I assume this might be due to the relatively infrequent use of the word/phrase door-nail in common speech, especially when compared to "doorknob"  (e.g., see here, here, or here).

In fact, most of my students are unsure what a door-nail is (though many can guess).

I assume that if my students represent a broader trend, there is a chance that the idiom might actually permanently "change" from using doornail to doorknob in the not so distant future.
My question: Is there a word or phrase to describe an instance in which an idiom actually changes due to a change in common (mis)usage?


texts: What is the difference between "archetype" and "prototype"?

texts: I'm very confused by the difference between "archetype" and "prototype", and even more baffled when to use which. Can someone clarify?


texts: English and Double Abbreviation Possibilities

texts:
I've always wondered (and as a child caused quite a few frowns from my English teachers) working this out..

If we can abbreviate words like:

Would and Not to Wouldn't
Could and Have to Could've

What stops intertwining the two examples to:

Could and Not and Have to Couldn't've

e.g.

  Joe wasn't even there so he couldn't've been in that race.

I do apologise if this comes across as a really silly question…!

Regards,

Ade

update
I've seen a good post (which has a few posts leading off of it) (thanks rathony), but what I was more looking for was the correctness "grammatically speaking". (Both American English and British English sides would be interesting to hear). Although many seem to say that it goes down well in literature, loads have even thrown in a few of their own double-abbreviations in the comments (chuckle), but I can't seem to get a definitive "these are the do's and don'ts of abbreviations and grammatical (written, not spoken) correctness"

update **Another few posts which show some "vague" examples, but I see no blatant iteration of "double plurals". I've seen questions, I've seen examples but no definitive answer as to whether it's correct or not..
Both there  Oxford Dictionary and Webster Dictionary make utterances of the double plurals, but there's no exact example...

****Wouldn't've been more logical to post links to something directly related? (sorry, had to be cheeky and post that!)

To outline my question "Is the use of double plurals correct or not". i.e if were to teach English Language (British or American) to students, how would I define this?

(Sorry, This has plagued me since I was a teen! -- even got sent to the head-master for being a Smart-Alec lol!)... So any direction would be helpful! (Both British or American English help)


texts:
This room had been cleaned when the last tenant moved out.
This room has been cleaned when the last tenant moved out.

Are the two sentences correct? If they are, I want to make sure that the difference between the sentences is cleaning the room before and after moving out.


texts:
I want an adjective to define someone who is very knowledged of many things, even unusual stuff.

I know about polymath and its uses, but I was searching for a word more general, that could be used in this phrase:

  Ken Jennings is a very _______ man. He won 74 editions of the Jeopardy! Game Show.

As exemplified above, it would be more general even being used in the context of trivia knowledge.

While this question is a great question by itself, it has never been stated that the "person who is very knowledged of many things" actually enjoyed studying.


texts: Present tense and past participle, How do they co-exist?

texts:
'Macbeth is written by Shakespeare', is a valid, grammatically correct sentence. But curiously it contains the verb 'to be' in the present tense, with a past participle. We can recognise that the sentence is in the passive voice, but what is the tense of the verb(s). Is 'written' working as a verb, or as another part of speech?

Now we can also use 'is' and 'written' in the same sentence, but in separate clauses, such as in:

'Written by Shakespeare, Macbeth is a masterpiece'. How has the role of the verbs changed?


texts: "As we know a person longer, our point of view could change"

texts:
Is this sentence correct? Is my Usage of the word "as" acceptable here?

Thanks.


texts:
From Eric Temple Bell’s Men of Mathematics:

  All this [definition of “function” and substituting numbers for variables] is familiar to anyone whose grammar-school education ended
  not more than thirty or forty years ago, but some may have forgotten
  what they did in arithmetic as children, just as others could not
  decline the Latin mensa to save their souls.

Mensa from Wikipedia:

  Mensa, meaning table, can refer to the following:

  Mensa International is an organization for persons with high IQs.
  Mensa is a southern constellation.
  Mensa is a term used by geologists to refer to an extraterrestrial mesa.
  Mensa (restaurant) is a type of restaurant that specialises in cheap food for students.

I’m not sure whether any of these four meanings can fit the context. Maybe mensa was some kind of restaurant or school textbook?

I think the third meaning below may make sense:

A table.
A table of food; meal, course, feast.
A sacrificial table, altar.
vocative singular of mēnsa


texts: What is the term for happy and anxious at the same time?

texts: For example if somebody becomes president they are surely feeling happy, but at the same time probably anxious. Is there one word for that?


texts:
I'm going to  say what's on my mind and it just might affect your
  homeostasis.

Is homeostasis correctly used?


texts: A word that means a pseudo joke that has underlying meaning

texts:
Example 1

Yesterday, I had a conversation with my roommate regarding the possibility of getting a workbench.

She remarked:

  If this is anything like the whiteboard, you'll just take it over completely.

I responded in a slightly defensive manner to which she retorted that she was "just joking". I acknowledge that there is truth in what she said because I have used the whiteboard a lot and I think she took the chance to convey this to me in the form of "a joke".

Example 2

Imagine a conversation amongst two friends: Waldo and Enrique.

  Enrique: Waldo, do you know why you can't find a girlfriend?

  Waldo: Not this again.

  Enrique: My friend, it's because you smell as bad as you look.

  Waldo: I don't smell!

  Enrique: Of course, I'm just joking my friend. Let's get a drink.

Example 3

Imagine a child who wants to admit their feelings to a parent, but out of embarrassment they add the just kidding clause.

Example 4

Imagine a man (Carter) working at an office and he is having a conversation with the CEO of the company (Candice).

  Carter:  How did the presentation with the customers go?

  Candice: It went alright, but there are still a lot of concerns to
  deal with.

  Carter:  That's too bad. * puts pen down on desk, stands up and
  exclaims * I have an IDEA!

  Candice: Let's hear it!

  Carter:  You should promote me and then we can lead this company to
  world domination!

  Candice: Oh lord. Sit down Carter, I should have guessed.

In this example Carter made a joke, but did not add the just-kidding clause. However, the important point here is that the joke has the underlying meaning--he wants a raise.

Background

This phenomenon is the reason behind the phrase:
There's a grain of truth in every joke

Many articles talk about this, but I haven't come across a word for this.
Pyschology Today has a good article about this, but doesn't have a name for this.

Sarcasm is probably most often referenced for this because most examples involve hurtful/negative sentiment; however, these pseudo-jokes are not limited to contexts with negative sentiment. In a deeper sense they are related to underlying desires that people want to subtly convey (see example 3 & 4).

I would like to add that I believe Sarcasm is more common in this respect because it is easier to pull off a joke in negative context rather than what is in example 4 (at least in Western culture).

I'm looking for a colloquial word or phrase that describes this type of joke.


texts:
From Geoffrey Hunter's Metalogic, p.5:

  ... a thing is an English word only if it has meaning.

It got me thinking: is this really so? Is it possible for there to be an English word that is absolutely void of meaning, i.e. meaningless?

Can I not come up with a word on my own, and not give it any meaning whatsoever? Do made-up words enter the "gates of English" if and only if they have meaning?

P.S. I don't know if this question is more suitable for Linguistics.SE (or, perhaps, Philosophy.SE under the 'philosophy_of_language' tag?), since I am interested in an answer for natural languages in general as well. I have focused on English probably because the book I'm reading is in English, the statement was made by a native speaker of English, and English is the language I am most familiar with.


texts: Is there another linguistic term for "non-continuous verb"?

texts:
Recently, I encountered the term "non-continuous verb" used by an English language learner to describe verbs that can't be put into the present progressive (for example: "possess"; no one would say "I am possessing"). Although I found the term on at least one website (EnglishPage.com), and at least one question here at EL&U (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/349938/present-progressive-with-non-continuous-verbs), I find the term confusing. It suggests that the verb is not continuous, when in fact it is continuous by its very nature. It strikes me that a term like "inherently continuous" would be more accurate. My questions are the following:

Is "non-continuous verb" a favored term among linguists?
Is it a favored term among English language teachers?
Are there any widely accepted alternatives?

UPDATE: I would not consider this question a duplicate of one in which someone asked whether the verb "attempt" was punctual or durative, even though those terms are useful here. First of all, that question was restricted to a specific verb. Secondly, the term "stative" was not mentioned in that discussion.


texts: Word for someone who unnecessarily/unlawfully accuses another

texts:
Context: Person A alleges without proof that person B infringed on the rights of person C. Person A has nothing to gain or lose.

The closest I got is champerty, but here person A has something to gain.

  The investing of money into an individual's lawsuit.

There's also denunciator, but it doesn't capture the essence of the A-B-C relation.

  One who denounces, publishes, or proclaims, especially intended or coming evil; one who threatens or accuses.

In the context of defense, not accusation, there's white knight, which is also derogatory. Colloquially, it's the closest, but it's not right.

  Someone who unnecessarily defends someone else.

A compound word or phrase would be acceptable (note: it was suggested I mention that in the new asking dialog).

Based on the first answer:

A "slanderer" A harms B's reputation in front of audience C.
An "accuser" does not necessarily need a C.

Both are not the same as with "white knight" or the A-B-C premise in the question.

"Meddler" may come close, if somehow is combined with "accuser".


texts: What is the exact meaning of "bid him be of good heart"?

texts:
“He is a prophet of this people,” Waraqa assured his cousin after
hearing her story. “Bid him be of good heart.”

What is the exact meaning of "bid him be of good heart" here? Pls help.


texts: Is the phrase "it is people like you" correct?

texts: My friend and I had an argument whether the usage of the phrase, "It is people like you that..." was correct. I insisted that since the subject was people, a plural, the corresponding verb could not be singular - is. His argument was that 'people like you' should treated as a group. Please advise.


texts:
Washington Post (April 9) carries a review of now topical Apple watch under the title, “Should you buy an Apple watch?” It begins with the following statement:

  This is a good product with a bright future. - - Anyone who was hoping
  that the Watch would flop out of the box and fall short of the high
  standard that Apple boasts for its products is going to be
  disappointed. There's also no doubt, from these reviews, that Apple's
  smartwatch is immediately the best of its kind on the market.- from The Washington Post.

I found “Something flops onto something” as an example of “flop” usage as a verb in Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, but was unable to find either “flop out” or “flop out of the box” in both Collins Cobuild and Concise Oxford Dictionary at hand.

What does “flop out of the box” mean? Is it a popular turn of phrase?


texts: Should the second part of a semicolon-separated sentence be capitalised?

texts:
In another question this example of semicolon usage is given:

  When dinosaurs agree on something, they often high-five one another; dinosaurs are all about high-fives.

However, I have also seen the following style before, where the second part acts like a regular sentence with the first word capitalised:

  When dinosaurs agree on something, they often high-five one another; Dinosaurs are all about high-fives.

I can see the reasoning: the semicolon is bridging two sentences. Which one, if any, is correct? Is it simply a style issue?


texts: "I actually might have to X" vs. "I might actually have to X" vs. "I might have to actually X"

texts:
Even if there are four fan headers on the motherboard my computer case accommodates six fans (3x140mm, 3x120mm) so I actually might have to purchase an external fan hub.

Where should I put the word "actually" in the sentence? Should it be before or after "might", or placed before "purchase"?


texts:
An exercise asked me to rearrange the sentence "Put your money not in trust" such that there is no ambiguity to its meaning. At first glance I thought that "Put not your trust in money" sounded right, but thinking it over I realized that "not" is a squinting modifier here.

  (Put not) your trust in money -- Don't put your trust in money.
  or
  Put (not your trust) in money -- Put someone else's trust in money.

I looked up "Put not your" and found that it is used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in

  Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

and in Psalms 146.

  Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

These quotes make me feel unsure of my reasoning, so I'm not sure what the correct answer ought to be.


texts:
What would be a term for  something/somebody that gives a person confidence, motivation, strength or hope in times of trouble? The scenario I have in mind is of a person facing a real life-death situation, they're absolutely overcome by the atmosphere at that moment, to act at such a time seems almost impossible/worthless to them. Then suddenly they get a glimpse of the most important person/thing that matters to them. This inspires them to act and fight in that situation. How would we describe this person or thing? A motivator seems a rather uninteresting or dull term to me. Following two scenarios might further help understand the nature of the person/thing in question.

1) Jenna is a middle-aged woman, fighting cancer, her situation is really hopeless, she doesn't think living is worthwhile, but then she thinks about her baby, who's still very young and needs his mother to help him find his feet in the world. This gives Jenna a reason to persist in her cause to fight cancer for a little longer. The boy gives her a hope, reason, strength and motivation to live.

2) Arthur, plays as a striker for a football club. His team are mid-way through their match with their local-rivals, and haven't scored a goal yet, they know if they don't win the game, their cup-run would be over, Arthur sees the look on his team-mates and the coach, they're all looking very glum. This invigorates Arthur, albeit paradoxically, to give in his best. He scores a goal and his team win the match. The look on the team-mates gave Arthur something to fight for.


texts: How to call when each of a group pays and shares expenses?

texts:
Me and my friend are flatmates. I spend $100 for bills, he spends $60 for shared groceries. Every once in a while we balance out our expenses; in this case my friend gives me $20, or makes a $40 expense for something else we need.

How to call this small economic system, where shared expenses are made by more than one person from their own wallet, and everyone exchanges money to clear any debts?


texts:
Loops allow stored programs to execute statements repetitively. The MySQL stored
  program language offers three types of loops:

  Simple loops using the LOOP and END LOOP clauses
  Loops that continue while a condition is true, using the WHILE and
  END WHILE clauses
  Loops that continue until a condition is true, using the REPEAT and
  UNTIL clauses

  With all three loop types, you terminate execution of the loop with the LEAVE statement.

Is there some kind of explanation as to why we don't need the definite article the coming after all but before three loop types? I think I have encountered this particular grammar structure before but at the time no one seemed to know the answer (but that was on the Yahoo question-answer service).

Yet another thing that bothers me here is why is there no the in front of execution? Like, you terminate THE execution of the loop with the LEAVE statement. Any thoughts?

Thank you.


texts: Is there a difference between the phrase "a night out" and "a day out"?

texts:
I've been working on a book about Idioms & Phrasal verbs.
As I was working, I came across the following definition for the phrase a night out: An evening you spend out of the house enjoying yourself (also a day out)
I made some research from which I got the following definition of a day out: A day where you go out somewhere for fun or enjoyment - macmillan dictionary
From the same dictionary, day is defined as one of the periods of time that a week is divided is divided into, equal to 24 hours. Now from cambridge dictionary, we get new datum: A period of 24 hours, especially from twelve o'clock one night to twelve o'clock next night.
I've read some examples from the following dictionaries too: https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/day-out and https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/day-out
They do not specify whether it's all day long or a specific period of the day. Thus the definition given in the book I'm reading is wrong, isn't?


texts:
I am struggling with understanding when I can use if/when interchangeably. The situation is like this, I meet my friend outside who is heading to the dentist.
I say (in that situation, knowing he is about to see the dentist in a while):

  If you are going to the dentist, you should brush your teeth.

But I can say that in general:

  Children, if you are going to the dentist, you should brush your
  teeth.

Should it not be better/needed to use 'when' in any of these sentences? I still feel like 'if' means 'maybe it is going to happen' while 'when' 'it is going to happen at some point'.


texts: Order of pronouns and proper names in a sentence

texts:
Which is correct?

  Because he reads, Bob knows a lot.

or:

  Because Bob reads, he knows a lot.

Assuming the former, the follow-up question is, what happens with "when", "as", "after" and other conjunctions?

Are these also correct?

  As she read the letter, Alice smiled.
  When she heard the news, Alice called Bob.
  After she ate, Alice went for a walk.


texts: Term for time feeling short when happy, long when sad?

texts:
Is there a term that describes "when happy time feels shorter, when sad time feels longer"?

I can only think of "time perception" for the time part but nothing for the feelings part.


texts:
I wonder what "structure" should one use, "to not" or "not to"?
Is there a difference? is one more accepted?

  "It's human nature to not do what someone else wants"
  "Like I needed another reason not to like dogs."

Can those sentences be re-written as:

  "It's human nature not to do what someone else wants"
  "Like I needed another reason to not like dogs"


texts:
I'm writing the following sentence and I want to know whether wish is the right word or not. When I reading it to myself it doesn't sound good. Since I'm writing this to a professor I don't want to make a bad impression on him.

  I wish I am qualified enough to be accepted in the *** University and your research team.

Is there a better word than wish in that sentence?


texts: Is the use of the word "cracker" as a racial slur so common that it cannot safely be used to refer to certain hackers?

texts:
I always liked to use the word "crackers" to refer to people who overcome computer software or security restrictions, as opposed to "hackers," which (supposedly) originally meant people skilled at computing.

A while ago, I used the word in my conversation with a speaker of AmE, who did not know of that use of the word and thought I was using a racial slur.  This could have been a problem since I am not Caucasian myself.

While I could use other words like "script kiddies" to roughly mean what I meant by "crackers," this left me with the following question: is the use of the word "cracker" as a racial slur so common that it cannot be used to refer to certain hackers without causing misunderstanding?  My assumption is that it may depend on where you are: if you are in the Deep South, probably the word is more commonly used pejoratively than elsewhere.  But I don't know that for sure.


texts: What's a word for the contents of a book are different and more helpful than the cover depicts

texts:
The book's cover is "People Can't Drive You Crazy If You Don't Give Them The Keys" but the content of the book is more about changing yourself and your perceptions and attitude and more. TOC snapshot, Part 1:  Stuck in a Crazy World, Part 2: Changing Someone Else, Part 3: Changing Yourself, Part 4: Changing Your Environment, Part 5: Putting It Into Practice.

BTW... Really good book.


texts: Is there a term for the other 2 months in a quarter?

texts: The organization I work for has monthly volunteer opportunities, and quarterly volunteer opportunities. The trouble comes when someone serves quarterly (say, the 1st Monday of each quarter) and we need to fill the other 2 first Mondays of the months in that quarter. Is there a term for that time frame?


texts:
From Steinbeck's Cannery Row,

  If one of you fellas wants to kind of edge into my cellar without my wife seeing you, they’re on top of the side stringer on the left-hand side as you go in.


texts: Term for putting someone else's name on one's work?

texts:
This is the "Later Letters of Paul" effect, also seen in historic Chinese philosophical writings. One uses the name of a famous or canonical figure to lend credence or divine attribution to one's own writing. One want's one's ideas accepted more than one wants to credit.

Sort of the inverse of plagiarism.

What is the term for this?


texts:
This might be a simple one, but I'd like to have your opinion/authoritative statements: I write a thesis in a technical modelling context, where a mathematical model operates on a discrete set of timesteps (or time steps?). Paramaters/Variables that are defined over this set are then called timeseries (or time series?).

A Google battle yields the one-word expressions as clear victors, but dict.leo.org does only like the two-word expressions. So which one is to be preferred? Or is there even a difference in meaning between both variants?

Conclusion: after a temporary confusion from a third option "time-step", I settled for the two word versions for both words.


texts:
What does "Doesn't half go on" mean?
The full context:

"..said Dad impatiently. 'You don't go to Llanpistyll to go shopping.'
'Obviously not,' said Mum. She sighed. 'I like shopping.'
'So do I,' I said. Dad sighed too. Even more impatiently. 'Boys don't like shopping,' he said. 'I worry  about you sometimes, Tim.'
I worry about my dad sometimes too. He
doesn't half go on. And on and on. "

(From "Buried Alive", a children book)


texts: Formatting numbers in a book about mathematics

texts:
Would anyone be kind enough to point me to a reliable source (preferably on line) where I can find definitive answers to how to format numbers consistently within a book about maths aimed at popular readers.

In particular, the use of thousand dividers (UK/US style commas)

Dates, eg, 'written in 1992' don't have them.

Long numbers, eg '10,000,001' seem clearer with them in text, but then you get lines that include things like '3141/1000'. Should this be as just typed, or '3,141/1,000'?

Examples of other things I should look out for would be very welcome. Thanks


texts:
I am reading a book and found a sentence which wasn't able to understand:

  The Pensées is simply the compelling "Thoughts" of mathematician, physicist, and religious thinker Blaise Pascal.

To compel means to force. But I was thinking, is that what it really means in this sentence?


texts:
Consider this sentence, please:

That was my first time driving a car.

What type of clause is "driving a car"? Is it a reduced relative clause, gerund clause, or an adverbial participle clause?


texts: Is "bench press" a valid name for the bench used for bench pressing?

texts:
Someone asked this on Russian.SE:

How should one express the concept of "take turns" in Russian?
For example, taking turns using the bench press in the gym, or taking turns on the Xbox controller or iPad.

I was under impression that "bench press" was the exercise, not the apparatus, but they have reassured me you can call that the apparatus too:

If the bench comes with a barbell and safety rack and is clearly designed for bench pressing, then the whole apparatus can be referred to as a bench press. So, "Someone's already using the squat rack" and "Someone's already using the pull-up bar", but "Someone's already using the bench press". This might be colloquial, though.

So can you call a bench used for bench pressing a "bench press"?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "turns out"?

texts:
What is the origin of "turns out" as it appears in the phrases below:

It turns out
As it turns out
Let me know how it turns out

What is turning, what is coming out, and from where?

I can't find anything on the phrase, but my guess is something either food related, e.g. meat grinding, or perhaps something to do with film projectors (although I suspect the phrase is older than film).


texts:
We use the so-called zero conditional when the result of the condition is always true.

What about following situation.
Let's say that we have a poorly written application. :)
and I complain that it simply does not work.
It is always true for this version of application.
Zero conditional sounds good to me.
Is it wrong to use first conditional here?

"if I press a button it crashes."
"if I press a button it will crash."

thanks!


texts: What does "in s****" mean in the following context?

texts:
I was reading a short story when I stumbled across the following sentence.

  "[H]e overheard his dad say it wasn’t worth its price in shit."

I was a bit surprised with the negation. I'm used to the following use of the phrase:

  "It is worth its price in shit."

I understand it like: "The price you pay for it is fairly low compared to its value." But in the sentence from the story, I get a bit confused. Should it be considered like double negation? The father is not happy with the price that he wants to stick in a "swear-word" somewhere in the sentence, no matter what... Or am I missing something subtle here?

I couldn't find the meaning of "in shit" via Google. The only idiom I could find is "happier than a pig in shit", which obviously has nothing to do with the use I quoted.


texts: What is the meaning of "duh" in this sentence?

texts:
Though I know the meaning of each word except 'duh', I have failed to realize the meaning of the following sentence.

  Why do researchers get so many grants to do stuff that's like, well, duh?

Would anybody like to explain the meaning of above sentence?


texts:
In a scene from my book, a character, Nastia, has been shot and she's taking small steps to a staircase. But as she staggers, at one point, she can't handle the pain so she tumbles down the stairs and knocks out. With the way I phrased it below, I just don't feel like it gives off a very professional or emotional vibe to it. Are there any suggestions on how to properly phrase the ending? (In bold).

  Small steps carried Nastia towards a staircase, as if she'd forgotten
  how to walk. But it wasn't that. She had forgotten what it felt like
  to be free and for the first time in a long time, felt painfully
  liberated. She staggered until she could no longer handle the pain and
  tumbled down the staircase, knocking out.

As I said above, it doesn't seem to be the most professional in terms of how it's phrased. I also don't feel like it gives off the vibe of the emotional scene, just because of word choice.


texts: How to understand "we are to considering"

texts:
I sent a question to recruiter asking if they are considering candidates from Europe (or from US only). I received such answer (excerpt):  "...At the moment, we are to considering candidates based outside the U.S..."

It feels like something is missing between "we" and "are". Or everything is ok, and they are considering candidates outside US?

Thanks!


texts: Word for being intentionally humourous and dense to misrepresent a point

texts: What's that word for when somebody in an argument is being intentionally humourous and dense to misrepresent a point ? Thank you very much


texts: What does it mean to `Muse through a document"?

texts:
I remember I learned this word "muse" while listening to a vocabulary builder audiobook.

I believe it meant "to go through a document very carefully".

I tried to google the meaning of the word but I could not find anything except "a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.".

I also have used this word in several emails (I emailed: "I will reply soon after musing through the document"). I feel like this is not the spelling of the word or I heard something wrong.

Is there another word that expresses that someone is reading a document very carefully and with attention?


texts: What words do you use to describe a good arguer?

texts: What do you call a person who makes very good arguments in a debate or in a general discussion?


texts: Does English have different words for different-looking owls?

texts:
French has le hibou and la chouette for owls with and without little tufty ears, German has der Kauz, der Uhu and die Eule for a similar (but not identical) distinction, Spanish has la lechuza and el búho.
Does English have a similar words for owls that look different (not the species name, but based on some shared characteristic)?


texts: Redundant usage of "the" in names/titles is incorrect?

texts:
Which is correct?

1) The "The Lord of the Rings" series is popular.

2) "The Lord of the Rings" series is popular.


texts: Children caught by an adult doing something wrong, relaying the blame onto each other

texts:
Here's the basic situation: two fairly young children, boy and girl, caught by an adult after doing something really wrong (i.e., for example, breaking some sort of precious vase or something like that). What would be the least awkward way to run the classic dialogue, i.e. something like that:

Adult: Who did that?
Kid A: He did that (pointing at B)
Kid B: No, she did that (pointing at A)
Kid A: Don't believe him, he's lying
Kid B: Nah, don't believe him, she's lying

I.e. children try to relay the blame onto each other, trying to persuade the adult by their statements.

I bet in reality there would be much shorter phrases. I believe that (2) would just "him", and (3) would be just "her", but I'm not really sure how to shorten (4) and (5).

So, basically, my question is how to say miror-phrases (4) and (5) in shorter way.

In fact, I'll feel great if someone could come up with some classic English book that features a scene like that where I can borrow some lexicon and statements?

Semi-related: Word for someone quick to blame others - although note that I'm not looking for a word how to call these children, but rather a figure of speech for (4) and (5) itself.


texts: Verb agreement with two gerunds as subject

texts:
I would like to know which of the following sentences is correct:

Translating and adapting texts for different audiences composes the key of this theory

Translating and adapting texts for different audiences compose the key of this theory

The word "texts" is related to both subjects, hence the doubt. Lastly, is the use of for in "for different audiences" correct as well?


texts: What is the official abbreviation of "week"?

texts:
I have tried searching in a number of places but could not find a reliable article/documentation that lists the official abbreviation of "week".

There were however a couple of articles that said that there is no official abbreviation for week.

If you do know the abbreviation, also please share the source.


texts: Are there any differences between “zeros” and “zeroes”? Is any of them more correct, more often used, more modern? Are there differences e.g. between British English and American English in the usage of the two forms?


texts: What is a word for "experts' self-serving practice"?

texts:
Is there any word to refer to the practice of experts in a given field aiming at maintaining their position as experts, rather than producing anything that could possibly challenge their position?

I would like to describe this concisely, if possible in one -ism word, rather than as "experts' self-serving practice".

Is there any existing word for this?  If not, could you suggest a neologism?


texts: Is rivulet grammatically considered as a diminutive of river?

texts:
The word rivulet is not listed in Wikipedia's list of diminutives.
Is it considered as a diminutive of river in formal grammar?


texts: Correct punctuation to separate the elements of this sentence

texts:
The sentence in question is

  Returns the value of the function as if it were attached to this attribute ( ) under a fast evaluation ( ) according to the current state.

It feels like there should be some punctuation in the place of the ( ). Should they be commas? Should the first be colon and the second a comma.
Should there be punctuation at all?

Although I understand the words let me add that English is not my first language.


texts: What's the difference between "umbrage", "offense" and "affront"? Is it like only the second word is now in use?


texts: Noun describing the act of controlling one's own mind

texts:
There's mind control, but it refers to controlling someone else's mind.

Is there a noun describing "mind control" or "thought control" in the sense of controlling one's own mind or thoughts?

Is concentration the closest it gets?

Edit: I'm looking chiefly for the mental, rather than the physical, aspect of "mind control", like abstaining from distractions, etc. This question may be somewhat hypothetical.


texts:
I've read once about "x stories" .. Want to know if there is any difference between stories and floors.

Or they are just alias for each other used in different variations of English language?


texts: A verb for the quick head-turning of a bird

texts:
I'm sure the reader has seen a bird move its head about, no? When a bird is curious or wary, it moves its head about quickly, almost jerkily.

I have thought of using these words: bob, wrench, flick, tilt, wag, shift, waggle, pump, snap, flip, and dip. I like a few of them, but I was hoping some of you fine people could provide a word with better specificity.

In a sentence:

  The crow flicked its head about, wary of my presence, gawking at me with beady eyes.


texts: Does "more recently" just mean "recently" here?

texts:
Here’s the context:

“In England’s residential nurseries in the 1960s, there was a reasonable number of caregivers, and the children were materially well provided for. Their IQs, though lower than those of children in families, were well within the average range, up in the 90s,” Zeanah told me. “More recently, the caregiver-child ratio in Greek orphanages was not as good, nor were they as materially well equipped.

Usually "more recently" implies a comparison between two recent events but here we are talking about something that happened more than half a century ago so I wonder if "more recently" just means "recently here. Thanks!


texts: I want to asking question to my collegeous in email; the situation are there is a "marketing budget" and the second parties told me they have an event with embassy i confuse are they purpose to using their marketing budget or they just as a bridge to give me a project, so the question are; is it this event using the existing budget? Or this is a paid event? . Please advise thank you


texts:
Is there a verb that means "the act of replacing a word or phrase with an ellipsis"?

"Ellipsize" doesn't seem to be in the dictionaries. Is there a word for this?


texts: What is the structure in the sentence: "The reason scientists believe that..."

texts:
I have this sentence from one of my IELTS books:

  One of the reasons scientists think that there is a link between stress and cancer is the idea that there may be a cancer-prone personality

At first, I think that the main subject of this sentence is "one of the reasons", the verb is "is", and the object is "the idea". But after a while, I think this sentence can be rewritten like this:

  Scientists think one of the reasons that there is a link between stress and cancer is the idea that there may be a cancer-prone personality

which makes me think the real main subject is "scientists", and the main verb is "think"

So I have 2 questions here:

What is the main subject and main verb in this sentence?
If the original sentence is "scientists think one of the reasons...", then what mechanism allow us to move object "one of the reasons" before the subject "scientists"?


texts:
Which is correct?

Equipment is gloves and glasses.
Equipment are gloves and glasses.

I'm editing a book, and this translation I'm working with has been confirmed by the client, so terms cannot be changed or added.


texts: Articles in captions. Do not use definite article

texts:
I read in http://cdn.elsevier.com/promis_misc/cageogfamay.pdf :

Do not use the definite article („the‟) in figure or table captions. Why?

What is with „a/an‟?


texts: What is the proper usage of the article "a" when a pronoun begins with "the"?

texts:
I believe I am stuck with only these two options, but would appreciate an alternative usage. I am somewhat limited on sentence structure as this application is part of a mail merge document.

The purpose of the business is to own and operate The Tutoring Center franchise location.

OR

The purpose of the business is to own and operate a The Tutoring Center franchise location.

Since the business will be a franchise (one of many), I feel the article "a" is necessary. Help is much appreciated!


texts: What's the opposite of "server"/"server operating system"?

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe a computer that's not a server. I know that in some contexts the opposite may be "client", but that implies the ability to form a network connection to a server, which is not necessary in my context. It can just be a standalone computer or any computer which does not run a server operating system.

I'm also looking for the opposite to "server operating system", for example, a word to describe all Windows operating systems that do not have "Server" in their name (Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, but not Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008) – not necessarily restricted to Windows, though.


texts: What is the origin of suffixing "-ass" to adjectives?

texts:
I am spending one month in the US and it seems that everything is "big ass", "lame ass", and "crazy ass". What is the purpose of modifying every adjective with "ass"? Is this an Americanism or some global trend which I have yet to notice (I don't watch television). Where did this phenomenon begin?

Medicine before the disease: I have seen the relevant XKCD comic.

EDIT: I ust found this from another E.SE page. It does discusses the phenomenon but does not mention the origin. Is this phenomenon not new?


texts:
I read an article about collocation which includes an example:

We can say highly sophisticated, and we can say extremely happy.

highly happy and extremely sophisticated would be wrong.

How can I learn to get collocations right?
Are there any rules or has this to be learned word by word?


texts: I'd like to know which one is 'the main verb' in the given sentence

texts: One fine summer morning at the beginning of harvest, in 1771, I think it was, Mr Earnshaw, the old master, came downstairs, dressed for a journey.


texts: "X coupled with Y results in..." or "...result in..."?

texts:
I'm struggling with the use of the word result/results in a sentence:

  a gentle introduction coupled with the style of its presentation
  results in a lovely experience.

  a gentle introduction coupled with the style of its presentation
  result in a lovely experience.

I thought because there are two elements combining to a "result" the second option would be correct. But I'm second guessing myself now. Can someone help please?


texts: Is "Not at all" grammatically correct in this sentence?

texts:
There was an English question in my English test that confused me a lot.

- What if I fail the exam tomorrow?
A: - Be confident.
B: - Not at all. You can make it.

I think A is the correct answer but I can't explain why B is wrong. Can you explain to me?
Thanks a lot.


texts: What does "trail" mean in this sentence?

texts:
But market expectations have long trailed the Fed's, and still do.

source: http://www.businessinsider.com/market-risks-repeating-1994-bond-sell-off-2016-5


texts: What's the difference between "kind" and "type"?

texts:
For example:

  This is some type of mushroom.
  This is some kind of mushroom.
  There are different types of books.
  There are different kinds of books.

I think that they are all valid sentences, but somehow I have the impression that a type is a bigger group than a kind.

Is this correct?


texts: What's the word for something that can attack?

texts:
Something that is attackable can be attacked, taking its passive meaning. However, I'm looking for its active meaning, i.e. something that can attack. Is there a word for this in the English Language? Is it just attackable too?

For example, this would be used in sentences like: "All the attacking units are [something that can attack]s".


texts:
My friend and I were playing this game, in which we were complimenting others.

For example, she said, "You're so pretty, all the boys want to 'holla' at you."
Then I said, "You're so pretty, that all the girls just want to grab your face."

I was just wondering if 'that' is necessary for this type of context, and is it formal to add the 'that?' If so, is a comma needed before 'that'? Please explain!


texts:
I'm trying to find a single adjective that would fit the best to the following person's trait:

  One who thinks knows everything/best, and often doesn't listen to orders and instead completes some task his/her own way.
  This person, while intelligent, is right about 50% of the time, when doing things its own way.

So far I've thought of independent, idiosyncratic and stubborn, but these words don't imply the "knows everything/best" part of the trait.


texts:
In my answer to the question about the opposite for bug in programming, I referred to 'bug' as a slang word.

Shaun Wilson, in his comment insists on 'bug' being a term that derived from a historical process:

  "bug" is not "slang for error", "bug" is a historical term derived
  from the process of fixing old vacuum tube based computers from
  yesteryear, where a moth or similar would find its way into the
  computer causing a short (and an error in programming). Thus the term
  "debugging" was born, and still, today, we refer to programming errors
  as "bugs". Often users refer to things as bugs which are not, such as
  feature changes, or unexpected behaviors which are not bugs (but were
  otherwise unintended.) This is also why we have a running joke about
  certain bugs being features

While the above is a great note on the etymology, I still do not agree 'bug' is a term if used in computer programming; the term is something that is singular in meaning, singularity is a property of a term. Something other than one official term may be slang. In case of a live bug in vacuum tube it was the term describing the object literally. In case of computer bug, error is implied, and 'bug' is a figurative description.

So the question is: if a word used to be a term because it described an object literally (real bug), now is used figuratively (computer error), does it remain a term or is it a slang word?


texts:
My apologies if my question is not appropriate for this forum. In mathematical writing, one often needs to let certain letters denote certain mathematical objects. For example:

"Let X be a number. Let Y be a set."

I am confident the following examples are correct ways to combine the above two sentences into one.

"Let X be a number; let Y be a set."
"Let X be a number, and let Y be a set."

However, I do not know if either of the following are correct.

"Let X be a number and Y be a set."
"Let X be a number and Y a set."

My question is this: which of the latter two are grammatically correct (or incorrect) and why?


texts: How to refer to sexuality in a fictional universe of one sex?

texts:
Notch, the creator of the game Minecraft, has said in a blog post that there is only one sex in the game, and any animal can breed with any other animal of the same species.

He uses the word "homosexual" to refer to this.

"Homo" comes from the Greek - 'same'.

Is there a more specific word for this?  Or is it just a bit of an odd situation and thus kludging English words to fit is fine?

Edit for more clarity: In this question when I talk about "sexuality" I mean "sexual preference" - what word can I use to describe the sexual preference of creatures in a fictional world where there is only one sex?


texts: What do you call a name which has an adjective / describing word as part of it?

texts:
E.g. Charles the Great, Charles the Rash, Edward the Confessor, etc.

I'm reasonably sure there was a word for this .... * scratches head *


texts: What is the word for "changing values of a set, but not order"

texts:
I'm looking for a word that roughly means "changing values of a set, but not order". I have been wrongly using "Permutation" or "Permutate", but that means changing the order of a collection, not the values if I'm correct. I'm writing a program that, each loop, changes the values of a collection (according to some rules) and renders the resulting image. What would that action be called?

Example:

[1.2, 2.3, 0, 1] -> [1.2, 2.5, 1, 0]

Sample Sentence:

"Each loop, the collection of parameters is xxx and a new image is rendered"

I've tried looking here using "change value of" but haven't really found anything satisfactory. A single word is what I'm looking for...I really hope there is one.


texts: Capitalization and hyphenation of proper noun declensions

texts:
I'm transcribing some speech and I came across

  One of the accusations that certain non-Orthodox Christians level against the Orthodox is that we worship idols.

However, I am not certain on how to style the word "non-Orthodox" properly.

Is there a reference I can consult here? Is there one right way, or are multiple forms acceptable?

For example:

"Nonorthodox" makes sense because 'nonorthodox' is a normal word, but should be capitalized as part of a proper noun.
"non-Orthodox" makes sense because "Orthodox Christian" is the base term, but Nonorthodoxy is not a specific class of Christianity.


texts: "the title, the introductory clause," but "a table of contents"

texts:
In the following paragraph:

It’s standard for a contract to consist of the front of the contract,
the body of the contract—what the parties are agreeing to—and the back
of the contract. The front consists of the title, the introductory
clause, any recitals, and the lead-in. In longer contracts, it might
include one or more of a cover sheet, a table of contents, and an
index of definitions.

Why does the author use "the" for title, but "a" for cover sheet?


texts: Is there an adjectival form of the word "personality"?

texts:
Is "personal" the right adjective for the noun "personality" in the context of "of a type of personality" ? If personal is not the right adjective, is there another word for it.
contrived examples

(a) The drastic difference in people's reactions to the event is attributed to the differences in their cultural backgrounds and their personalities
(b) The drastic difference in people's reactions to the event is attributed to their cultural and personal differences.
(c) For reasons that were attributed to by a difference in the personalities among team members, team A succeeded in finishing the task before the deadline while team B failed to complete the task.
(d) Due to personal differences among team members, team A succeeded in finishing the task before the deadline while team B failed to complete the task


texts: Can I say "What's the sense of (something)"?

texts:
I came across this usage in a sentence from an exercise, which is:

  What's the sense of having a public open space where you can't eat, drink or even simply hang out for a while?

Does the usage here sound natural? And how is it different from "What's the point of (something)"?


texts:
Can anyone think of a phrase we would use to describe a situation where something is the opposite of "out of date"; that is, it's "too new"?

For example, a banana that's been sitting around for ages and is inedible could be described as "out of date", but a green banana that's not yet ripe is at the opposite end of the spectrum.  Another example might be an engine part that is too old for a particular model of car; it would be "out of date".  But what about if the car is old enough that the part's design has been updated since the car's manufacture, and the replacement part would now be "too new" to operate with the car's engine?

Obviously one way to deal with this latter situation is to turn the sentence round and descibe the car as "out of date", but is there a succinct way to keep the "too new" object as the subject of the sentence and describe it as the opposite of "out of date"?


texts:
What is the idiom for "throne always succeed by their sons only"?

What i means is: there is no chance for new talents.


texts: "Everybody else in our party {has/have} missions of their own."

texts:
Here is my passage:

  Everybody else in our party [has/have] missions of their own.

Now, Everybody else in our party has a mission of their own sounds pretty straightforward. But as soon as I make mission plural, it doesn't sound right. Yet plurality should reflect Everybody else, shouldn't it?


texts:
Most stock markets lost ground after their recent gains.
  They're not prepared to give ground on tax cuts.

These are all the examples I could dig up in my dictionaries. I don't quite understand the meaning because every dictionary says something different.

Does give/lose ground mean fail completely or lose an advantage or both?


texts:
I've seen many sentences where the predicate contains 'get' and at the same time I've seen many sentences where the same predicate doesn't contain 'get'.
For instance, what is difference between these two sentences:

I back.
I get back.

When should I use get with verbs?


texts:
If someone is playing songs on the guitar and people are singing songs related to that playing, how do you say it most naturally?

We are singing songs to the guitar?
We are singing songs under the guitar?
We are singing songs with the guitar?
We are singing songs while someone plays the guitar?


texts: What should I use between "triple" vs. "all"?

texts: If I have 2 pens and I want to say all of them are green, I can say "Both of them are green" but if I have 3 pens should I use "Triple of them are green" or "All of them are green"?


texts: Is “spend (a lot of) pixels” becoming an idiom?

texts:
I found the expression, “spend a lot of pixels” in the article titled “Handicapping the Veepstakes: Romney’s Rules of the Road” in today’s (April 25) Time magazine. It begins with:

  “We’ve spent a lot of pixels analyzing some of Mitt Romney’s vice presidential options. There’s a reason for this, and it’s not simply because surveying the field and weighing the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses is a popular parlor game.”

I remember that Mitt Romney once mentioned “waste trees” to mean “waste papers.” What does ‘pixels’ represent for here? Is it TV time, or PC usage (for analysis)?

Is “spend a lot of pixels” a received expression today, or just the Time writer’s purple verse?


texts:
How would I say that a phrase or word has "lost it's meaning due to constant repetition."

Take the word "awesome":
"Awesome" used to denote a situation in which the speaker (or writer) was overwhelmed with "awe." "Awesome" is now used as a measure of how "interesting" something is and isn't terribly high on that rating scale.

How would I describe the loss of meaning due to the constant repetition of the word "Awesome"?

Take George Santaya's words "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it":
People often say this phrase to try and instigate action but because of it's overuse, it no longer has any meaning. It's just something people say when they talk about The Holocaust, or the bad grades they got last semester in college.

How would I describe the loss of meaning due to the constant repetition of the phrase "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"?


texts: Should I consider the phrase "filthy rich" offensive

texts:
I am not a native English speaker. Somebody used this sentence when talking about me.

  Unless his parents are filthy rich everybody needs some form of income.

While most dictionaries define it as "extremely rich", some define it as "very rich, possibly having become so by unfair means".

The answer at Origin of the phrase "filthy rich"? also didn't tell a clear distinction between both meanings. So, in context of the given sentence, should I consider it to have a negative connotation or not?

The full context is this discussion in the comments on a sister site. See the fourth comment.


texts: Can Paradoxes have 3 contradicting ideas?

texts: I learned that a paradox has 2 contradicting ideas in my English class before but can a paradox have 3? If there is an example out there please do tell me.


texts: Please help me with this long sentence, I don't know how to divide it

texts:
On page 11 of his 1996 book, A History of Western Political Thought, J.S. McClelland writes the following 78-word sentence:

  The constraints which a properly constituted polis based upon law were supposed to put on the more outlandish tendencies of human greed and ambition are easily confused with ideas of constitutional constraint and limitation which since the eighteenth century inform the Western European and American traditions of liberal constitutionalism, and the ease of that confusion is compounded by the fact that modern constitutional theory is in part based on a particular reading of ancient constitutional thought and practice.

My problem is that I find it hard to divide this sentence into small parts so I can understand it better. The subject is the sentence’s first occurrence of the word constraints, but is its verb were or is its verb are?


texts: How to better phrase "I'm Alec who enquired about..."

texts:
I'm writing an email to an angel investor I met recently.

The context is:

  Hi John,

  Pleasure to briefly meet you at the ... event last Thursday. I'm Alec who enquired about the best way of taking my iPhone app, ..., to market.

The "I'm Alec who" feels clunky. How can this be better put?


texts: "Reduction of"? "Reduction in"? Either? Different?

texts:
For example: "This has led to a reduction in/of the severity of poverty."

I tend to think "a reduction in" refers more to intensity and number, whereas "a reduction of" emphasizes the action.

As in:

1) "The President called for a reduction of troops in the region." (Emphasis on what he wants the Pentagon to do.)

2) "The President is working toward a reduction in HIV cases." (Emphasis on fewer cases.)

1 and 2 are very similar, but there is a subtle difference. At least, to me. I can't find the grammar rules regarding whether or not there's a difference in these prepositions in this context. Maybe they're interchangeable?


texts: Expressing wish using past perfect and simple past

texts:
What's the difference between these two sentences? One uses past perfect, the other uses simple past. Which is more appropriate for wishing that something really happened in the past?

I wish I had studied English.
I wish I studied English.

Am I required to specify an event when using the past perfect? E.g.

I wish I had studied English before I came to the United States.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “Fluids” versus “liquids”?

What is the difference between fluid and liquid?


texts:
I've been having an argument with a colleague about this sentence, could you please let me know which one of us is correct:

  There are no shortage of applications for our product in this
  space.

She is convinced that are should be replaced by is, and I think it should stand as it is. Thanks for your help!


texts: Which of the following two phrases correct: "I expect better of you" or "I expect better off you"?


texts: What is the etymology of the phrase "age of majority," meaning, e.g., 18 in the US? Does it have something to do with democracy, the age at which one can vote, and the fact that democracy is based on the will of the majority? Or does it come from some other, unrelated sense of "major" or "majority?"


texts: What is the proper way to spell this word? This in the context of writing a curriculum for children distinguishing living vs non-living things. Is it non-living or nonliving?


texts:
What does the writer mean here by "second employee" in the below sentence?

  Later that year, I left my job as the second employee at Pinterest–before I vested any of my stock–to turn it into what I thought would become my life’s work.


texts: Is English in the process of creating a nominative absolute in compound objects?

texts:
I have been observing the increasing frequency of the use of the nominative in cases such as:

Mary always has a huge disagreement with you and I.
If you have a problem at school, you can let your father or I know.
When you find the answer, be sure to tell Bob and I what you've learned.

People are not saying:

*Mary always has a huge disagreement with I.
*If you have a problem at school, you can let I know.
*When you find the answer, be sure to tell I what you've learned.

The key difference appears to be the presence of the "and" which has a curious effect on the case of the constituent parts of the compound object.

My initial supposition was that this is a hypercorrection, reacting to schoolteachers' correcting sentences like "Me and Bob went to the store" to "Bob and I went to the store" by simply saying "and I" whenever possible. This is made more possible by the distance between "I" and the preposition or verb before the compound object.

However, the nominative has been showing up in both parts of the compound object, even those with proximity to a transitive verb or preposition. All of the following have been found in student papers or online sources

During Rob's documentation of he and Beth's day...
My dad got tickets to the premiere of the new Star Wars tickets for he and I! Early birthday gift!!
Please stop asking what happened out of respect for she and I. Just know it’s over.
Ask not for whom it tolls. It tolls for he and she.
Nothing’s gonna change not for we and you
My friend jumps too. It is breathtaking how fearlessly – almost recklessly – she throws herself between he and I.
Indy wrestling was good tonight. Really good. Onto White River Wrestling tomorrow vs @twitterhandle for he and I’s second battle!
He promised the leader of the cult he and Rosemary’s baby in order to help his own acting career.

It is difficult to imagine even these speakers forming phrases like I thought this was for he and Nothing’s gonna change for we, and He promised the leader of the cult he baby. And yet, the proximity to the governing pronoun here does not seem to have done its work.

Is it possible that a new rule is emerging in which such compound objects are placed in a nominative bubble that is unaffected by the syntactical demands of the surrounding sentence:

My dad got tickets to the premiere of the new Star Wars tickets for {he and I}! Early birthday gift!!
Please stop asking what happened out of respect for {she and I}. Just know it’s over.
Ask not for whom it tolls. It tolls for {he and she}.
Nothing’s gonna change not for {we and you}

Any thoughts about what's going on?


texts: What's the word for a specific kind of inhalation after crying?

texts:
Sometimes people who are just coming off of bout of crying take what could be described as a stuttering inhalation.  It's more easily observed with little kids than adults.

Is there a better word for that?


texts: Is it "five hundred thousand" or "five hundred thousands"?

texts:
I googled "500,000 in English" then I got five hundred thousand.
I wonder, if we say...five dogs then why five hundred thousand?
Actually, in my view, it should've been called as: five hundreds thousands
What's the reason behind all this?


texts:
This question is in reference to the use of the word "hand" in "right-hand side" (and applies equally to the left).

My question is what does "right-hand side" say/imply that "right side" doesn't?


texts:
What may a "complete sentence contain"? May it contain a "subject" and a "verb"?

May it contain an "object" and/or a "subject"?

I thank you.


texts:
In the phrase sustain an injury, the sense of the verb strikes me as out of line with its other senses, most of which can be replaced with either support or continue.  Can someone suggest a chain of metaphor by which this usage arose?

I would blame it on TV news, but Wiktionary cites an example in Shakespeare.


texts: I've always felt that it's something of a contradiction to be very or highly ambivalent.  It's grammatically correct, as far as I know, but is it stylistically acceptable, or is my sense of linguistic style correct?


texts:
Are there general guidelines for using "anniversary" vs. "birthday"?

E.g., birthdays are generally for... well, birthdays. It's also used for some notable historical dates regarding countries ("Our nation's birthday") and cities.

Is there a meaningful, generally-accepted differentiation?


texts: What is the meaning of the word "connection" in: "Shortly after my marriage I had bought a connection in the Paddington district."

texts: I am quoting from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, "The Stockbroker's Clerk", by Arthur Conan Doyle. Does "a connection" mean "a clinic" or "a business" or something else? I looked it up in 3 online dictionaries but couldn't find anything.


texts: I am looking for the word that expresses the relevancy of an event as it follows the next in a series. But the relevancy is NOT from one event to another (especially no causality); the events follow each other in a manner that is chronologically relevant to another situation. All the "synchro"  words denote simultaneity (e.g. "synchronicity"). I want to denote sequence.


texts: Can I use the word "impotence" and not refer to erectile dysfunction

texts:
I wonder whether I can use the word "impotence" to describe something as being weak or as it having fallen off.
I'm using this word in the "about me" page in stackoverflow.

Software, being soft, breaks our fated chains of martyrdom
and escorts us out from the cave; the cave of scarcity. We are to
progress into a new age, the cerebral age, if you will. The age where
self interest will be de-demonized, but also lost due to
its own impotence. We are freed from animal self-indulgence into a
world where man acts, just acts.