texts: Do Americans also typically use the word "aesthetic" spelled that way?

texts: As far as I know, the word "aesthetic" can be considered the "British" or "European" way of spelling the word, like "caesium" or "haemophilia". The spelling "esthetic" (which replaces the ae with e as so many American spellings of those words do) does exist, but I've barely ever seen it written that way anywhere. Do Americans also typically use "aesthetic"? If so, how come?


texts: Synonym for "utilize" that means "to use without waste"

texts:
I'm looking for a synonym for utilize that sounds less dry and emphasizes that nothing is being wasted.

"The program utilized all the supercomputer's resources."

Ideally, this word would make the word "all" redundant.


texts: Would the phrase “No worries!” be understood outside Australia?

texts:
In Australia, No worries! is a very common way of saying You’re welcome.

I wonder whether it is used this way in other English-speaking countries.

The phrase’s meaning can be understood easily enough in context, so it should therefore be safe to use, but I’m still curious whether it would sound natural to non-Australians.


texts:
A typical conversation on a bus:

  Alice: Have we reached our stop yet, Bob?

  Bob: No, Alice. Two more stops to go.

  Alice: Do you mean "two more stops, then ours" or "one more stop, then ours"?

I find it hard to express concisely and unambiguously how many more stops there are until we have to get off the bus. Any suggestions?

A few thoughts. Obviously, "next stop" is pretty clear. I find "next but one" unambiguous too, but then "next but seven" is getting a bit awkward. What if the bus is sitting at a stop while you speak - should that stop count or not? I wonder if one could find a way of counting the number of journey sections remaining, rather than the number of stops remaining.


texts:
I often see lists written as follows (using em dashes to elaborate a list item):

Item 1—explanation for item 1
Item 2—explanation for item 2

Is this generally correct, or are colons preferable?


texts: Does "five hundredth" mean 0.05 or 1/500?

texts:
What does "five hundredth of a second" mean?

To me, "five hundredth" means 1/500 or 0.002. But I've seen people use it to mean 0.05 in sports (e.g. Athlete won the 100m sprint by five hundredth of a second). I think 0.05 should really be "five one-hundredth". Which is correct?

Note we don't have this problem in the 'tenth' magnitude, as "five tenth" and "fiftieth" are distinct.


texts:
I have a question regarding "if" conditionals with could.
"If they see us, they could kill is."
"If they see us, we could start something between us."
They "could" mean "might", as in, the person is only stating is as a possibility, and not a guarantee if the condition becomes true?
How about:
"I might go to the party if my mom lets me."
"I could go to the party if my mom lets me."
Do these convey a possibility, and not a guarantee (if the conditional becomes true).


texts:
I am teaching an English book and there is this sentence makes me confused:

the heart pumps blood round the body....

Should it be around the body? If not, what is the reason and what's the difference?


texts: Why is "high" pronounced "hiy" but is not spelled that way?

texts:
Why is "high" pronounced "hiy" but is not spelled as the latter, but the former?

Wouldn't "high" be read as "heeg-h" or "haig-h"?

The other possible duplicate's examples all have a "t" prefixing, and also, the accepted answer for that question does not address why GH is occasionally pronounced out.

Example's of other words starting with "GH" is Ghillie, or ending with GH as in Edinburgh.


texts: Usage of "let" with an inanimate subject

texts:
Can anyone help me and explain if the usage of "let" together with "these things" is grammatically correct in the following passage?

  We have created many useful things such as airplanes, trains,
  computers, medicines, as well as institutions such as schools,
  universities, hospitals and banks. Without them the modern world would
  not exist. These things let us travel far and wide, gather
  information quickly, educate ourselves, and treat diseases.

In my grammar textbook, they say you cannot use "let" with an inanimate subject. Personally, I didn't find the sentence strange when reading, but it should be wrong and corrected according to the grammar book. This sentence sounds OK to me; is that because the subject is a pronoun, "these things," although "thing" is still inanimate.

And if that is the case, how about this sentence below?

  Airplanes and trains let us travel far and wide.

This does not sound too awkward either, but to be grammatically correct, does the sentence below look better?

  Airplanes and trains enable/allow us to travel far and wide.

Please anyone help me find out if you cannot really use "let" with an inanimate subject. Thanks!!


texts: Word for a solution that already exists but found the same solution by intuition

texts:
When I am in confusion, I tend to find a solution to it by myself and it works too. Later, when I google it, I realize that a few others have found similar solutions too. So, basically I was not reinventing the wheel, but got a solution that is common, but mostly by intuition. It can be adding a certain ingredient while cooking though I am not really aware that it could help, or probably adjusting the correct light while taking a photo.

Is there any word or phrase for this? Does common sense fit in here?


texts: Single noun for "based on the previous experience with them"?

texts:
I have a sentence like this:

  I've chosen them based on the previous experience I had with them.

Now is there any noun that I can use to replace the last part of the sentence?


texts: Could you please help me analyze the grammar/structure of this sentence

texts:
"They have betrayed that puzzling dictum “To thine own self be true,” so often quoted approvingly as if it represented the wisdom of Shakespeare rather than the hot air of Polonius. ” What’s to become of me? What’s to become of me?” wails Eliza Doolittle, realizing her middling dilemma."

I am particularly confused about the expression "what is to become of me." Does it mean "what I would become?" If it is, then why the sentence would be structured like that?


texts: "beginning" is to "prefix" as "end" is to "suffix" as "middle" is to... what?

texts: The word "prefix" describes something affixed to the beginning of a word and the word "suffix" describes something affixed to the end of a word.  What is the analog of these for something affixed to or making up the middle of a word?


texts: Word or phrase for a temporary solution that ends up becoming permanent

texts:
Is there a word or phrase for something that is meant to be a temporary solution to a problem, but because it gains enough momentum ends up becoming the permanent solution? Ideally the word/phrase should convey the idea that the temporary solution is less than ideal.

The closest thing that I could find was this, but it describes something that was intended to become permanent all along: is there a word for temporary-but-may-become-permanent.

As an example, while deciding on which scheduling program is the best one to use, someone throws together a spreadsheet to use in the meantime. Eventually, this occurs:

 (Source: http://xkcd.com/1667/)

(and the scheduling program was never heard from again; except in lamentations and wistful remembrances.)

The spreadsheet would be considered a ___ solution.


texts:
This time you put the big rocks in the bucket first, followed by
  pebbles.

I know the meaning of this sentence, but I don't know the structure of this sentence because of "followed by."

How can I rephrase this sentence to explain?

What's omitted between "first" and "followed by" ?


texts: Word for someone obsessed with an unreal or alternate universe (eg. trekkie, but in general)?

texts: Is there a general term for someone obsessed with an unreal or alternate universe/reality?  Like a Trekkie or someone obsessed with Star Wars, such that they research and spend time philosophizing about that alternate universe/"reality" and maybe even ordering their life around some of those philosophies?


texts: "Tightly connected to" or "Highly connected to"

texts: What if I want to say topic 1 is tightly connected to topic 2? It's like to say quantum theory is "tightly connected" to applications like nuclear bombs etc.


texts:
So I recently had a question of how to translate a seemingly simple phrase which gave rise to a really puzzling dilemma. The phrase itself was "the eye which had been operated on", it was passive. However, the original language only used one single adjective + "eye", and I wanted to somehow retain that so as to not make the translation too wordy.
One option was to simply say "the treated eye", which was OK. But I also wondered whether I could use "operate" as an adjective. Which led me to 2 options: "the operated eye" and "the operated-on eye". The latter seemed to be more suitable because we normally say that surgeons "operate on" an organ/limb/tumor/... and people have operations "on" parts of their bodies, so I ought to keep the preposition. The former sounded a little ambiguous, since "operate" could be confused with "manipulated, controlled" as in a "machine which is operated from a control panel".
My question is twofold, I guess. Am I correct in thinking that phrasal verbs may be used as hyphenated phrasal adjectives and, if so, is doing so appropriate in this particular case?


texts:
My brother recently adopted a seventeen year old girl, and she’s one of my favorite nieces, but I’ve reached a dilemma. I’m marrying her older sister, and now I don’t know what to call her.
She’s technically my niece, and my sister-in-law. What do I do??


texts: What is an unambiguous term for a square standing on its corner?

texts:
I'm helping write descriptions for a catalogue of Pacific artefacts, and have stumbled upon a problem. A fan is shaped like a square, with a handle coming down from one of the corners. What is the most unambiguous term to best describe this fan:

rhombus-shaped fan
square fan
diamond-shaped fan

Something else?


texts: Can "hand in hand", "face to face", "miles and miles", "coast to coast" be considered "irreversible binomials"?

texts:
IRREVERSIBLE BINOMIALS - Irreversible binomial is a linguistic term coined by Yakov Malkiel  in a 1959 article in the linguistics journal, Lingua, and refers to pairs of words on either side of a conjunction such as and that are always used in a particular order. For example, bread and butter, salt and vinegar, fish and chips, meat and potatoes, gin and tonic, time and tide, cloak and dagger, ladies and gentlemen, knife and fork, and head over heels.

  A noun phrase consisting of two nouns joined by a conjunction, in which the conventional order is fixed. Examples include bread and butter and kith and kin. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/irreversible-binomial

Some so called "irreversible binomials", however, use the same word twice.

  hand in hand
  arm in arm
  face to face
  cheek to cheek
  louder and louder
  lower and lower
  on and on
  round and round
  miles and miles
  over and over

I've gone through a few lists of irreversible binomials where this kind is included. To me it makes no sense to call them "irreversible". Does it?  Are they?


texts: Why do we say "who you were" and not "whom you were"? Isn't it the object of the verb?

texts:
I have a grammar which says that "whom" is used when it follow a preposition.

E.g: to whom am I speaking. to whom it may concern.

The grammar also says that "whom" is the object form of "who".
E.g. He was a person whom everyone regarded as trustworthy. (Whom is the object in the sentence.) "However, this is now felt to be excessively formal by most speakers and who is commonly used instead." (VINCE, M. and SUNDERLAND, P.,2003).

I'm reading "Inferno" and there is this sentence:
"Nobody had any idea who you were (...)"

Wouldn't that be whom? Is "who" in that sentence an object? You is the subject and who would be the object.


texts: "Soldier sleeps - the service continues" (Russian idiom/saying)

texts:
What are English equivalents for following Russian idiom: "soldier sleeps - the service continues"? In Russian it means that "you have a rest, but your work is still being done".

UPD from comments:

For example, you have a rest on the sea, and you still come royalty for previously written a book.
you relax, and the money will still come to your account
Your text can be paraphrased - do / not do - you have the same result. That is, anything from you does not. That is correct. But I would say that you're doing something, and there comes a time when you have to depend on nothing.
Example: you are the boss and taught their employees to do their job without your help. Ride the sea. Relax. Now nothing to depend from you. But you know that your staff will do everything as it should.
For example, Joanne Rowling wrote "Harry Potter" books, and may the relax a long time - the money for the books will be coming for a long time,
ie hard work you at first, and then you can use the result of a very long


texts: A word or phrase for the boring writing style "thing after thing after thing", like a "ledger"

texts:
Suppose you want to write a story. Your final writing is like the following:

  This morning Doe got up at 7:45am. Then he brushed his teeth. Then he had
  breakfast which was prepared by his mom. Then he spent the whole morning
  reading a novel. He had lunch with his parents at 1:00pm. After lunch, he
  took a nap for about 20 minutes. Then he went out with his friends and
  spent a good time in the afternoon. ...

This is not story-telling. This is event-describing. In Chinese, we call this kind of writing a "ledger" which suggests "boring; too many unrelated details; without a proper focus".

Note, however, that "ledger" is only used as criticism when the writing's original intent is story-telling.

What is the English word or phrase to call such writing?


texts:
I've got two questions for you.

Number one: I've always been confused about what I call "a question in a question" (maybe there is a technical term for that but I don't know it). What I mean is... which one of these two sentences is correct?

1) Can I ask you where are you from?

or

2) Can I ask you where you are from?

Then I have a second question which is quite similar to the first one: should I say

a) I would like to ask you where you are from

or

b) I would like to ask you where are you from

Thanks for your help.


texts: A word for when you are almost crying, but not quite yet?

texts:
You know how sometimes you want to cry, but do not cry.  Maybe a few tears are shed, but you mostly just choke up.  The urge to cry is there, perhaps overwhelmingly, but you suppress it somehow and don't actually cry.

Is there a word for this state?  I've always used "crying" but it really isn't quite crying yet.


texts: One word for items used as replacement in an informal way

texts:
What would be word used for items used as replacement (like when someone returned a product in a grocery store)?

An example would be,

For returned items:

Total Items Returned: 777

For those used  as replacement:

Total Items ______: 12

I was thinking of using replaced, but that would mean "Items that are replaced", rather that "Items used as replacement"

The format is like that because it will be used in a program


texts: Is there a strategy for searching for idioms by meaning rather than by words?

texts:
Say I want to find an idiom that means wasting time/effort, now if I were to search Google or a dictionary with the query

  An idiom that means wasting time/effort

I would get idioms that actually contain the words "wasting", "time" or "effort" in them, but may or may not (often not) mean wasting time/effort.

Thesaurus or search engine, they wouldn't return the idiom "flog a dead horse" which could be the correct answer to my query "An idiom that means wasting time/effort".

So, is there a way to search by meaning?


texts:
ABC presenter's pronunciation for his Prime Minister -> Abbott ;
  original programme

The presenter, as do other Aussies in the programme, pronounces Abbott as /ˈɛb ət/, while dictionary.com has /ˈæb ət/. Is the dictionary wrong?

When they in Australia call their Prime Minister /ˈɛb ət/, others do /ˈæb ət/?

Or /æ/, dragged by /b/, has approached to /ɛ/?

(When people say /ɛ/ instead of /æ/ it's called broad accent in wikipedia.org, I don't believe they are using it.)


texts: What does "A mile wide, an inch deep" mean?

texts: I read the phrase "USA intellectualism: a mile wide, an inch deep". What does it mean?


texts: Old English instead of Latin in early Britain

texts:
For almost 400 years, Britain was a Roman province. During that period, naturally, Latin was an important language in the region. When the Germanic tribes invaded the British Isles (around the 5th century), they brought with them several Germanic dialects that ended up becoming the predominant language, known today as Old English.

At the same time, other Roman provinces, such as what we now call France, Spain and Portugal, were also being invaded by other Germanic tribes. But, instead of imposing their own languages, the Barbarians themselves became "Romanized" and began speaking the local Latin dialects. If that process had also happened in Britain, they would probably be speaking a Romance language today. So, why did it not happen? How could the Anglo-Saxons manage to displace the original language spoken by their conquered people?


texts: What is the word for the response to a ping

texts: Someone may say, "I'll ping him and see if I can get a response." If I want to ask if the ping was successful, how can I refer to the response? Is there a more clever way than "Did your ping get a response?" I feel like pong may be clever, but not very clear.


texts: Why is embassy spelled with E but ambassador with A?

texts:
It seems both words are related to each other through French roots (ambassade, ambassadeur), both of which are spelled with an "A" in the front.

Why and when was the initial letter of "embassy" changed to "E"? Does this also occur in other words?

Edit:

Wiktionary gives the following etymologies for ambassador:

  From Middle English ambassadore
  from Anglo-Norman ambassadeur, ambassateur
  from Old Italian ambassatore, ambassadore
  from Old Occitan ambaisador (“ambassador”)
  derivative of ambaissa (“service, mission, errand”)
  from Latin ambasiator
  from Gothic  (andbahti, “service, function”)
  from Proto-Germanic *ambahtiją (“service, office”)
  derivative of Proto-Germanic **ambahtaz* (“servant”)
  from Gaulish ambaxtos ("servant"; also the source of Latin ambactus (“vassal, servant, dependent”))
  from Proto-Celtic *ambaxtos (“servant”)
  from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mbʰi-h₂eǵ- (“drive around”)
  from *h₂mbʰi- (“around”) + *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”).

and for embassy:

  Modern variant of obsolete ambassy
  from Middle French ambassee (“mission, embassy”)
  from Old French ambascee (also enbassee (“message for a high official, official mission”))
  from Old Italian ambasciata
  from Old Occitan ambaissada (“embassy”)
  derived from ambaissa (“message”)
  from Late Latin ambactia (“service rendered”) (attested also as Latin ambascia)
  from Proto-Germanic *ambahtiją (“service”), ambahtaz (“follower, servant”)
  from Gaulish *ambactos* (“dependant, vassal”, literally “one who is sent around”)
  from Proto-Celtic *ambaxtos (“servant”)
  from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mbʰi-h₂eǵ- (“drive around”)
  from *h₂mbʰi- (“around”) + *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”);

  compare Latin ambactus, Old Irish amos, amsach (“mercenary, servant”), Welsh amaeth (“tenant farm”)).

It is noticeable that all these predecessors start with an "A" sound, only the latest change introduces an "E".

Here is also clearly mentioned that embassy is a modern spelling, but it does not explain when or why this change occurred or if similar words have undergone the same change.


texts: Are there other acceptable juxtapositions of polysemes?

texts:
An advert for BBC iPlayer read [I've dropped the comma]:

  Making the unmissable unmissable.

The first 'unmissable' obviously has the sense 'too good to miss', and the second 'always accessible' - but they're polysemes, different senses of the same word.

This is neither the reduplication for emphasis of say 'very, very small', nor that used for establishing the authenticity of a referent as in say 'coffee coffee'. And the use of different polysemes in close proximity is usually best avoided:

  ?It's odd that all the numbers are odd.

  *It's a hurricane but not a hurricane. ['It's a hurricane but not a hurricane hurricane' works.]

'He wears short shorts' is a famous pairing, but here, the polysemes are intercategorial.

Are there any other idiomatic usages of different polysemes?


texts: What does "a composer of no ordinary merit" mean?

texts:
I'm not sure I'm grasping the meaning of the last two words.

  My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit.


texts: What does ‘a one time deal‘ mean in this context?

texts:
All the extra nutrients result in an explosion in plant life. But since the addition of this food is usually a one time deal, the ecosystem cannot support all the extra flora.

What does "a one time deal" mean in this context?


texts: What is the etymology and literal meaning of 'Cock a snoot/snook'?

texts:
I've been using this expression all my adult life but have no idea what it means or where it originates.

Google searches lead me to the description of it being to do with putting your thumb on nose and wiggling four fingers. This is not an entirely satisfying conclusion to my quest. Can anyone elaborate?


texts:
Question (d) The reader's frame of mind:

(i) What grammatical name is given to describe the above expression?

(ii) What is its function in the sentence?

(https://i.stack.imgur.com/zFME1.jpg)


texts: what is the most appropriate structure of this sentence?

texts:
I want to say that I banged my head against wall because some one said something stupid,

how to put it in a sentence?

Is

I banged my head against wall 'on' this stupidity?

or

I banged my head against wall 'for' this stupidity?


texts: What is the aural equivalent of eye-witness?

texts:
On the news this morning, the following was said:

  "Eye-witnesses say they heard two explosions"

Somehow this seems wrong, because the witnesses did not use their eyes, but their ears. Yet the phrase "ear-witness" sounds wrong.


texts: Hypernym for "audiobook", "podcast", "speech", etc.?

texts:
I am looking for a short and concise term (preferably one word) that can be used as a hypernym for essentially everything that contains (audio) speech (e.g. audiobooks, podcasts, recorded news bulletins, recorded performances of comedians,..).

Does such a term exist? I've thought about 'speech', but that seems to be more adequate for e.g. political speeches, and not so much for audio books and the like. But maybe I'm wrong.


texts: What does "inquiry" mean in this context?

texts:
From here:

In a bulletin dated June 2, officials said the owner has five years to make a claim for the treasure.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told CNN that several inquiries had been made about the gold and were being checked. Not details about the nature of the checks were given.

At first I thought an inquiry meant "a claim for the treasure" in the same way it is mentioned in previous paragraph. As if a lot of people claimed the treasure and these claims "were being checked" (for truthness, as the sentence says).
But it turned out that most definitions I found for inquiry refers to "a claim" but "for information" only (instead of an object, a thing), or an "investigation". As if who made the inquiry was the police (not the people).
If inquiry here means simply "investigation", what would "an investigation being checked" mean?
Thanks!


texts: Capitalization of "Theorem 1" in mathematics papers

texts:
In many mathematics papers, I read sentences like:

  With an appeal to Theorem 4.5 we get …

Is the capitalization of theorem in this case correct? If it is correct why do we capitalize the word?


texts: Are there any English dialects that fully distinguish singular and plural second-person pronoun?

texts: I know that "y'all" and "you all" are common in many English dialects and are often used as pronouns. Are there any dialects in which the number marking of the second person pronoun has become obligatory? That is, I'm looking for dialects in which "you" (or something similar) always refers to the 2nd person singular, and the 2nd person plural is always expressed with something similar to "y'all".


texts: What is the origin of "man on the spot"?

texts:
What is the origin of "man on the spot" ?

The Free Dictionary defines on the spot and uses as an example man on the spot.

  on the spot -  at the place in question; there; "they were on the spot when it happened"; "it had to be decided by the man on the
  spot" (Emphasis added)

Some evidence suggests that the origin of the phrase refers to decisions made by officials of the past British empire and actions taken by them.


texts: Ask for a more concise phrase than "fundamental physical and chemical properties"

texts: Is there a more concise phrase to say "fundamental physical and chemical properties"?


texts: What's a simile/noun used to describe something shaking violently?

texts: I'm looking for a simile or noun that can be used to describe something shaking violently. For example, The room shook as hard as --insert thing that shakes violently--..


texts: Can you include two to + infinitives in a sentence

texts:
When you're writing a list of actions in the form of infinitive verbs, do you include "to" before each of them?

For example, "Ann wants to learn to read and to knit."

I tend to think you'd only include the second to if you were trying to emphasize the second verb.


texts: Is there a word to define a period of four months?


texts:
What's the opposite of "authenticator"?

An authenticator is:

  "a person or thing that authenticates."

What do you call the person who is being authenticated?
Assuming the use case where a person authenticates another person.


texts: "There is X ways to..." vs "There are X ways to..."

texts:
I wrote an essay and returned it to my teacher who told me that it was perfect except for that one mistake with the usage of there are:

  There are currently 192 218 546 ways to set up..."

She marked it as incorrect. She told me that I should use "is" in lieu of "are".

As I am pretty sure that I have it the right way, I decided to ask the community here this question.  I find this community is the most accurate and by far the friendliest.


texts: Is it ok to say that the software version is "frozen"? Why?

texts: I often hear phrases like code freeze, version freeze but I have never heard of frozen being used in this context.


texts: Can “first” act as an noun in “the first that the victims knew”?

texts:
In a BBC News report from San José, Costa Rica, dated 7 May 2018 and titled “Why Costa Ricans are being paid to marry Chinese migrants”, they write:

  The first the victims of this particular scam know about it is when they find out to their shock that their civil status has changed from “single” to “married” without their knowledge or consent.

Shouldn’t that be written with the word time added?

  The first time the victims of this particular scam....

Or can first function as a noun to mean the first time?


texts: Noun for person who tells how not to do something, and then does it

texts:
Okay so I'm sure many people have seen this happen before and it tends to happen apparently intentionally, in more of a way to seem comical, but here is the example for what I am talking about:

  "You don't want to over-season the fish at all now..." -covers the
  entire bowl with seasoning- "Alright now we'll season the other side.
  Just remember to not season it too much now..." -pretty much uses an
  entire bottle of seasoning-

So the first word I thought for this would be a "hypocrite", but I don't think it would accurately describe the situation here. To me, a hypocrite is more of this:

  "Stop smacking while eating dude that's annoying." -smacks loudly
  while eating-

Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, but I was just wondering if there was another word (preferably a noun) that more accurately describes the first example.


texts:
We need to document a set of data processing rules. One of the rule is: "when the default style is changed, all items that have not yet been customized automatically receive these changes".

In a certain context, we need to use a phrase like: "changes to default style automatically propagate to un-customized items".

Is "un-customized" a valid word?

The antonyms dictionary we use lists "ready-made"; is "changes to default style automatically propagate to ready-made items" a valid phrase (it doesn't look like it is) ?.


texts: A cohort study: A is causing B __OR__ A is causing B: a cohort study

texts:
Most research titles are written as the second example. Would it be correct to use the first structure?

A population-wide cohort study: A is causing B

A is causing B: a population-wide cohort study


texts: Inferred verb? Is it ok to drop the second appearance of the same verb in a sentence?

texts:
I work in a scientific field and when my reports are reviewed I commonly have them kicked back asking to add a second "were" before "compared" to this kind of sentence:

The items were entered into the database and the results compared...

The items were entered into the database and the results were compared...

Is the second "were" necessary? I've been writing like this for a while and never thought twice about it, but when asked I can't explain why this works. I believe the issue is similar to this post: How to write past perfect forms of two verbs in one sentence

If so, can someone please explain in a little more detail? Thanks in advance!


texts: Equivalent of "former" and "latter" for more than 2 items

texts:
Former and latter are valid only when there are two choices.

If I have a list of more than two items, is there an elegant way to say the first one or the last one?


texts: Does "that's fair" indicate disagreement in a conversation?

texts: If I argued with my friends and he texted me, "I got you. Yeah, that's fair." Does he mean he actually disagrees with me?


texts: Describe where the end result is the measure and not the measure to get there

texts:
I am trying to get a word for an approach or characteristic where you have many subjective approaches or biased views but because they are all subjective, the most suitable one can only be measured  by the end result  and not some other measure of suitability.
i.e. out of the 3 subjective approaches the one will be shown to be more effective once you compare the objective results

Examples

  The school assignment is to write an essay.
  Sally has an incredible vocabulary and is sure she will get the best mark because of it.
  John has an very strong imagination. Sally tells John he can't possibly get a better mark than her because of her advantage.
  After receiving results John gets the top mark.

John has a [...] approach.

Other examples

  Two school football teams play against each other. The one team is favored because their players are  much bigger and athletic. However the other team ends up winning because they played more strategically.

and

  Researcher A, B,C gets a grant for 1 million USD dollars each to help prevent patients from dying from the HIV virus. Researcher A is an expert in research of preventing the virus from infecting people. Researcher B has the most research in treating patients symptoms once infected. Researcher C has the most research in stopping the virus from spreading in the human body. After 1 year Researcher B's research is found to save the most lives.

and

  Doctor A believes his 30 year of prior experience will help him diagnose the patient correctly. Doctor B believes his intuition will help him diagnose the patient accurately. Both disagreed on each others diagnosis.
  Doctor B was found to be correct. Doctor B is [...]

and

  The tortoise and the hare are in a race. The tortoise wins due to a [different] approach

This is not goal orientated as everyone was goal driven. Same argument for go-getter.

Not longshot as although the others might be favored,  each person believes their uniqueness to solve the approach is correct.

Not novel approach as it just indicates is is means different where I want to say different and proven correct

Not End result in mind as all had the end result in mind.


texts:
I was writing about a project I'll be starting during December.

What I want to communicate is the following.

1) During that month I will be conducting "preliminary experiments" (i  e., testing the set up, preparing preliminary data register and analysis, etc) and
if everything goes as I expect.

2) I'll be doing "more serious" research (i e., designing and conducting "the real experiments")

I need it to be relatively short so I can't explain in detail everything. I have written a very simple phrase but it doesn't sound right, there's something in the second part that sounds strange. Also, it seems that during December I will be fooling around instead of doing "serious" research while both parts are crucial.

  I will be starting experiments during December, hopefully more seriously during the beginning of 2016.


texts: Although (the) majority of (the) patients had surgery,

texts:
I have a paragraph about the proportion of patients treated surgically. One of the paragraph's sentences is as follows:

Although the majority of patients had surgery, 6% received non-operative management.

Although majority of the patients had surgery, 6% received non-operative management.

Although the majority of the patients had surgery, 6% received non-operative managament.

Which definite article use is correct in this case?


texts: Can I use the word "hacker" as an adjective?

texts:
Can I use the noun hacker as an adjective?

For example, can I write or say:

  It was a hacker trick.

so that it means this:

  It was a trick of a hacker.

And can I use

  It's hacker code.

so that it means this:

  The code has been created by a hacker.


texts: What is a person who smells things called?

texts:
I was authoring a letter and made a joke about body odor.

Regarding the visual sense:
"... the beauty is in the eye of beholder..."

Regarding the olfactional sense:
"... the fragrance is in the nostril of..."

Well, of what? Of besmeller?! That can't be right...

Also, I'm curious if my usage of olfactional is correct.


texts:
I came across a song performed by Daniel Kahn,
and I really liked his pronunciation. They say he comes from Detroit. Is this a typical accent for that region? Or is he doing something else?


texts: What is the difference between "Must" and "Must be"?

texts:
I saw the following sentences in an advertisement.

Graduation must be in computer science.
Graduation is must.

I want to know the meaning of Must and Must be and the difference between them.


texts: Word or phrase for the beauty in pain, tragedy, damage, etc?

texts:
I'm looking for either a single word or a very short (really, as short as possible) phrase that could be defined (literally or metaphorically) as:

"beauty that is possessed due to or despite the pain, suffering, darkness, brokenness, disturbing qualities, malformation, etc. belonging to the entity in question."

It does not necessarily need to reference any of those (traditionally) negative qualities explicitly; you can replace them with a blanket statement such as "a quality that is traditionally viewed as negative or in opposition to wellness."

The word/phrase could be in English or any other language. If it is in a language other than English, it will still be used in the context of English as a loan-word.

The word/phrase does not need to literally mean this; even if it refers to this concept only in metaphor I will accept it.

This word or phrase does not need to be in formal usage or be in a traditional dictionary. What I mean by this is that the word may be one that is found only in a particular literary or scholarly work(s), or is in common parlance. Therefore, slang is acceptable, as is a word that is only seen in a specialized academic community, or even a word made up by a well known and reputable writer. I don't want nonsense words you make up.

An example sentence illustrating the intended usage is "She [a horribly scarred young woman] possessed a profound and unsettling _____."

An adjectival form of this idea would also be acceptable, in which case an example sentence could be "The ______ scene filled the explorers with unexpected awe."

Note that the word or phrase need not obey the specific structure of those sentences, as they were supplied simply to illustrate the general direction of usage.


texts: I recently wrote "we had better find a way to do X" but a proofreader has corrected this to "we had better found a way to do X".  Which is correct and why?


texts: Single word for "is nothing until it becomes"

texts:
Example: Data is nothing until it becomes information, with context.

The above sentence is a bit wordy so I was hoping to find a single word to replace that phrase. I could shorten it to: Data becomes information, with context. But then it loses some meaning.


texts: Is using very less correct English? My friend suggests it should be very little. Are they both correct, or is there a difference?


texts: single word adjective for a great or large/expansive task

texts:
I'm trying to think of the word that means "a large task, almost more than is easily handled, but not unpleasant." The sentence that I am using it in is this:

  I know that the number of topics and information within each topic to be covered seems to be a/an _______________ task, we will work through them as we are able.

Arduous and Herculean don't seem quite right.  It's not insurmountable.


texts: 1st percentile, 2nd percentile... But how to say "2.5th" percentile?

texts:
It is necessary for me to write about the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of a data set. What is the correct way of writing this?

This post talks about "zeroth", "n-th" and even "epsilonth" as generalisations of the -th suffix, but I haven't found any guidelines for non-integers.

I feel that 2.5th percentile sounds better than 2.5-percentile. Do you agree?


texts:
For example, should I say:

  The target population was selected ...

OR

  The target population were selected ...

(please ignore passive voice issue)


texts: Best way to call an artist that is not famous

texts:
What is the best way to call an artist that is not famous?

Emergent artist
New artist
Any other


texts: A word to describe knowing something completely

texts:
We just can not think of a word to describe this situation where you understand something completely. There is nothing you do not know about it.

If anyone knows or has something close then that would be great.


texts: What does the word "from" mean in the sentences below?

texts:
1.It's down the street "from" the museum.
2.It's around the corner "from" the theater.
Can we say that it is almost an opposite for "across from" ?


texts: Is there a term for the use of an unnecessary or redundant adjective?

texts:
I know there is a term for the use of adjectives, and maybe adverbs, that are unnecessary or logically redundant.  Examples are:
-a free gift
-a cold snow


texts: "Here is my two cents" vs "Here are my two cents"?

texts:
Which of the following two phrases is correct, in the context of giving an opinion on a subject?

Here is my two cents on subject X
Here are my two cents on subject X

Most of what I found online was guess-work...

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic24834.html

  I think 'my two cents' is an abbreviation of "two cents' worth". So, as you said, "Here is my two cents" would be better.

And...

  It's worth noting that money is often perceived as a unit anyway, so you'll see "cents" with a singular verb frequently.


texts: What are the pros and cons of learning English from movies and radio?

texts: I dedicate one to two hours each day to learning English. I'm focusing on listening and speaking (and improving my accent, of course). I want to know what the pros and cons are of learning English from movies and television (usually U.S. series such as 24, Lost, Prison Break etc.) and radio (on stitcher.com and other online stations).


texts: Why is it "to have sex" instead of "to sex?"

texts: In English, there is no generally acceptable verb for someone to say the equivalent of "to sex." All our equivalents are either too vulgar ("to fuck", "to bang", "to smash") or too formal ("to copulate", "to reproduce") for use in everyday speech. The most general term, "to have sex," separates the subject from the act of sex in an obtrusive way which turns "sex" into an indirect object and the other person in a direct object in a way. I don't think many people register this separation of subject and direct object in the phrase "He had sex with her" but why is there no simple transitive verb of "to have sex" as in "He sexed her?" Does English's roots of German, French, or Latin have verbs along the lines of "to sex" that aren't considered vulgar?


texts:
Is there a single word (similar to Russian свой for those familiar with Russian) which I could put into this sentence?

  By tomorrow, one of us will see the money in __ account.

meaning that

  By tomorrow either you will see the money in your account or I will see the money in my account.


texts: Commas for parenthetical info when against technicality and ambiguity

texts:
I write the following sentence as follows: "The lady spent a few seconds gently patting the two chocobos at the coach, a popular species of avian bred throughout the country".

Where does one draw the line between technicality and overcoming the fear of ambiguity? That is to say, to be technical (as I understand it) would be to put the comma after "chocobos", and then close "a popular species...the country" with another comma before writing "at the coach". It is parenthetical information, as I understand it.

Yet, it seems clear that there ought not to be any ambiguity - (but not because we already know what a coach is) - as it appears that the subject of the extra information is "chocobos", and not "coach", which happens to just be where they are at.

In short, is this sentence legit (i.e., is it written without much cause for concern as far as format or grammar is concerned)?

Thanks to all who take the time to respond, and I apologise for my messy title.


texts: What is the origin of the idea that the word "able" must refer to a living being?

texts:
A 2014 Daily Mail article by Simon Heffer, "The Pedant’s Revolt", contains an interesting assortment of peeves about language (mostly about the meanings of words). I was familar with some of them, but I found the first incredibly surprising, and I've been wondering whether it represents a preexisting prescriptive position or is something that Heffer came up with himself.

  ABLE Only living beings are able. To say that ‘this key may be able to open the door’ is wrong. A man may be able to open the door using the key, or the key may unlock the door.

This certainly doesn't seem to describe any real fact about the English language. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says the word able comes from a French or Anglo-Norman word of various spellings and various meanings, including some that apply to inanimate objects:

  (of a person) able-bodied, muscular, powerful (second half of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), (of an inanimate object or fact) suitable, fit, appropriate (second half of the 13th cent.), (of a person) competent, expert (end of the 13th cent.), legally capable, entitled, or qualified (end of the 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman, frequently with reference to ability to inherit; this use is apparently not paralleled in continental French until later (1390 with reference to ability to sue, 1461 with reference to ability to inherit)), (of a ship) seaworthy (c1440 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), (of a person) intelligent, clever (1555)

Part b. of the OED definition of the English word says

  Since very late Middle English or early modern English, to be able (to) has been used (with all tenses of to be) as an alternative to or replacement for can and could (see can v.1 II.) in contexts relating to ability and possibility, and is now chiefly so used. In standard English since that period can has lacked an infinitive, present participle, past participle, and gerund; to be able (to) is used to replace this verb in compounds with other auxiliaries (especially supplying a future tense and perfect tenses) and in non-finite constructions.

The OED entry provides the following example from 1551 of "be able" being used with the subject "any Lawe":

  1551   T. Wilson Rule of Reason sig. Eiv   Neither can any Lawe be able violentlye to force the inward thought of man.

Regardless, peeves about the meanings of words are often not based on actual usage, so it seems quite possible that somebody came up with this "rule" before Heffer. Does anyone know of an earlier example of somebody insisting that the word able can only refer to "living beings"?


texts:
I'm trying to figure out if there is a better way to distinguish between being sleepy-tired, and being physically tired.

Scenario A: You didn't get much sleep last night. It's only 10am so you've not done much today, but you keep nodding off. You are tired
Scenario B: You've mowed the lawn, done a lot of heavy lifting, walked a lot, and now your muscles ache, you want to sit down. It's only lunchtime. You are physically tired, but wide awake. You are tired

I'm specifically asking about scenario B as you could use sleepy for Scenario A, which wouldn't get mixed up with physical tiredness.
I've looked at some synonyms such as exhausted and fatigued but I think these could also suggest some form of sleepiness.
I'm trying to find a one word or short way of saying "I'm tired, but not in the sleepy sense of the word" (*I'm physically tired, not sleepy tired)
I'm not asking for a way to say "It's bedtime, and although physically tired I'm still not sleepy"
The conversation scenario I'm trying to avoid:

A: sits down on the sofa, 8pm. "Boy, am I tired"
B: "well that's because you didn't have much sleep last night"
A: "No, I mean I'm physically tired, I'm actually not sleepy at all"

Is there a word A could initially use to avoid the sleep branch of the conversation? Does A have to resort to saying "Boy, I'm physically tired, but wide awake"?
Here's maybe a better way of what I'm driving at.

You didn't get much sleep during the night. You go to a long gym session at 9am and do more than you usually might, resulting in your muscles having a thorough workout. You have a coffee at 11am and then go home to your partner (who knows you didn't get much sleep) and flump on the sofa:

You are physically tired (you just want to sit down as your muscles are tired)
You've recovered from your immediate exertion (so you're not out of breath)
You are mentally awake (You're ready to sit down and do the crossword)
You don't feel sleepy at all (You could go to bed, but you wouldn't sleep. Why would you, it's the middle of the day and you've only just got up - you are not restless)

You want a short way to say "Phew, I'm tired!" but in a way that cannot be construed as being mentally tired or feeling the need for sleep. (and without having to qualify it with a longer sentence).


texts: Would it be correct to say "five 202ths"?

texts:
I am involved in the translation of a legal document according to which the buyer acquires 5 of 202 parking spaces in a garage.
The garage as a whole is considered a functional unit, according to condominium terminology, and each parking space represents an undivided interest in that functional unit.
Since there are 202 parking spaces, would it be possible to say that each one of them represents one 202th interest in the garage? Note should be taken of the fact that "202th" is not an ordinal number here (in which case the correct spelling would obviously be "202nd") but indicates a portion, as in "one hundredth".
The alternative I'm thinking of is saying that the buyer acquires 5 out of 202 undivided interests, but I wonder if there is in English the possibility of saying "five 202th undivided interests".


texts: "A system" is considered singular or plural?

texts:
Perhaps the highest-profile display of the technology’s potential came
  in 2016, when a system built by DeepMind, a London-based ai firm owned
  by Alphabet, Google’s corporate parent, beat one of the world’s best
  players at Go, an ancient Asian board game.

I am expecting the verb "beat" to be "beats" since "a system" is singular. Can anyone explain why it is "beat"?


texts: Relative clauses: integrated, restrictive, non-restrictive, supplementary

texts:
H. W. Fowler established a terminology (I do not know if it originates with him), where clauses that are related to another clause through a pronoun are called relative clauses; he further drew a distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses to explain his famous rule about when to apply that vs. which.

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language rejects this terminology in favour of another terminology:

Instead of restrictive relative clause, the CGEL prefers integrated relative clause;
Instead of non-restrictive relative clause, the CGEL (always?, usually?) prefers supplementary relative clause.

Why does the CGEL, reflecting the preference in Anglistics, follow this alternative terminology?


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

texts:
I am interested in the origin of this word, strictly in the political usage of the word (Reactionary = conservative, right-wing). The definition is simple enough:
Reactionary: Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.
This seems to be a designation of someone who is opposed to political revolution. Is this word more of an insult than a descriptive term?
"Oh they are just a reactionary... no original ideas, just reacting to the idea of progress."
What I am really interested in why the right-wing of politics are called 'Reactionaries'. Surely both sides of politics are reacting to social/political/religious structure/movements? To me, the word conservative is a better fit.


texts: Is "one" correctly used in that sentence?

texts:
I've used this sentence but it just sounds wrong a posteriori:

  "The missing data is the weekends' one."

I'm trying to say data is missing only on the weekends.

I know there are more elegant ways of saying that; but is it at least correct?


texts: How rude is it to ask someone if they are a nerd or not?

texts: I asked one of my new friends(a week), "On a scale of 1-10 how nerdy are you? Where do you fall?" She is from Chile and she said the question was very rude there. But I don't understand why. I only meant to ask whether she was a studious person or a more socializing person.


texts: Does "to be on the surface" mean to make something known to the public?

texts:
Can I use the expression "be on the surface" to mean that somebody finally makes himself known to the general public?

For example

  They have been ignored so far by the public, but they are now using the Sewol Ferry tragedy to finally be on the surface.


texts: Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers: What accent is Dickens portraying?

texts:
In Dickens' Pickwick Papers, there's a character "Sam Weller". Weller's dialogue is written somewhat phonetically, I presume, but I'm struggling to understand what accent Dickens is trying to portray. The main peculiarities of Weller's speech are using "v" where there should be a "w" and a "w" when there should be a "v". For example, he says "wery" instead of "very" and "avay" instead of "away". Weller is supposed to be from London, but this doesn't seem like any kind of London accent I've heard. Is this a particular archaic accent?

More importantly, what is Dickens telling us about Sam Weller by having him speak like this?


texts: Where does the phrase “neat but not gaudy” come from?

texts:
What is the origin of the phrase neat but not gaudy?

I’m thinking that it might possibly be from Samuel Wesley or Dorothy Sayers — or, just possibly, from Josephine Tey.


texts: Is it acceptable to use a colon in the following manner?

texts:
I am currently working on a book (I am in the final stages) and would love to know whether the following use of the colon is correct or not:

  Firstly, please take time to brainstorm all the negative thoughts, opinions, feelings, and beliefs you have about yourself below.
  Examples could include: "People feel uncomfortable around me." "I should be the life of the party." "I suck at conversation." Focus on identifying ...

Thank you!


texts:
Would it proper to use "at lesser cost" in the following phrase:

  Get better outcome at lesser cost


texts:
What is the idiom or proverb or phrase for this "hard packing but loose knot"?

For example, you took hard preparation for the exam, but, didn't attend it.


texts:
Consider the two sentences:

The number of the analyzed data sheets exceeds 1000.
The number of the data sheets analyzed exceeds 1000.

Which position of the past participle "analyzed" is correct?  Why?  If both are right, is there a difference in the meaning? (An aside: one can rewrite the sentence to "More than 1000 data sheets have been analyzed" or similar, but that's not the point here.)


texts: What's the difference between may and can in the context?

texts: I would be grateful if someone would explain the difference between "swimming can/may be dangerous".


texts: Describe someone who is erroneously biased in thinking their first try is correct

texts:
A student needs to write a paper in English

He had a brilliant moment of inspiration and wrote down his idea word-for-word from his thoughts onto paper

When he got his paper back he was shocked to find out he got an average mark. He falsely believed  he will get top marks.

He believed writing down his words verbatim, word-for-word from his thoughts, the writing  would be the most brilliant as it is the original version. However if only he reviewed it to improve it, he would have gotten a much better mark.

His teacher finds students often have this bias.

What word(s) would one use to describe him or his behavior where he was erroneously biased in thinking his first try is correct?


texts:
I saw somewhere this quote from Wodehouse's Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927):

  "Statistics show that the two classes of the community which least often marry are milkmen and fashionable photographers – milkmen because they see women too easily in the morning and fashionable photographers because their days are spent in an atmosphere of feminine loveliness so monotonous that they become surfeited and morose. I know of none of the world's workers whom I pity more sincerely than the fashionable photographer; and yet […] it is the ambition of every youngster who enters the profession some day to become one."

From context, "fashionable photographer" doesn't mean a well-dressed photographer, but probably what we would now call a "fashion photographer". Searching on Google Books found a lot of results for "fashionable photographer". Searching on Google Ngram Viewer showed that "fashionable photographer" used to be more popular until it was decisively overtaken by "fashion photographer" some time in the 1950s:

To focus on 1865–1965:

To modern ears (at least one pair of them), "fashionable photographer" sounds odd: it's not the photographer who is fashionable, after all. My question:

Why did the switch from "fashionable photographer" to "fashion photographer" happen? (Is this a special case of some more general pattern: are there other similar phrases in which "⟨adjective⟩ ⟨noun⟩" changed to "⟨noun adjunct⟩ ⟨noun⟩", say?)
Is there also a change in the meaning? Does "fashionable photographer" mean something different from what "fashionable photographer" does? (I guess the steep rise after 1960 in the above graph corresponds to a rise of the fashion industry, but I don't know anything about the history of the fashion industry… perhaps a "fashionable photographer" was something else.)


texts: What are these "THREE OPTION" phrases specifically called

texts:
Even though I came up with some pretty good categorizations, I'd still like to get the proper terminology!

What I came up with:
a) Conceptual Beliefs / Actions
b) Philosophical Choices / Options

What are these called?

1) Yes, No or Maybe
2) For, Against or Undecided
3) Guilty, Not Guilty or No Contest

Thank you for your time and consideration!


texts: Is “he is a proven commodity” a common phrase?

texts:
I find many unfamiliar phrases in readers' comments on the statements of political figures and articles on news sites these days. I can't tell if they are accepted usage. Comment posters could be native English speakers or non-native speakers. I cannot judge, and it is frustrating.

In The Washington Post’s “Comment of Today” (May 13), I came across the phrase, he is a proven commodity. The comment was in response to Chris Cillizza's "The most eventful week of the 2012 Republican primary race":

  Put the pieces together and Ron Paul
  has a very good chance of winning the
  Republican nomination. The GOP is
  suffering from an enthusiasm gap with
  the rest of their 2012 possibilities.
  No one excites the base like Ron Paul.
  And he is a proven commodity in terms
  of raising funds and knowing the ropes
  of running for president.

I understand “a proven commodity” is a metaphor, but can a person be called a commodity? Is the expression, he is a proven commodity normal American English that I can use to describe any of my friends in conversation with my peers over a drink?


texts: Making sense out of the big mess construction

texts:
Most grammarians are trying to analyze the big mess construction as a noun phrase, but it seems to me that the construction is actually headed by an adjective.

  Mary was good

Here, "good" is a predicative adjective.

  Mary was as good as Linda

"as...as" is an adverb of degree specifying how good she is. But there is still some ambiguity. She was as good at what?

  Mary was as good a cook as Linda

Now the whole phrase "as good a cook as Linda" becomes what is known as the "big mess construction". But, it's my strong belief that the adjective good is the head of the phrase and not the noun cook.

The mysterious part in bold that defies all grammatical explanation can only consist of a noun with an indefinite article, and it only accompanies adverbs of degree, such as "too", "so", "as" etc .

Is it possible that the phrase in bold (a cook) is a complement of 'as' and other adverbs of degree that clarifies what Mary was as good at being?


texts: Is there any adjectival form of "Audit"?

texts:
I just made the mistake of using "Auditory" in the context of auditing. For example:

"We need to include that information, for auditory purposes."

After I sent my e-mail, I was embarrassed to find out that "auditory" refers to hearing.


texts: Where does "on one's last legs" come from?

texts:
To be on one's last legs means to be worn out, tired, run down, and ready to die or otherwise cease working.  Some examples I've found are

Grandfather is on his last legs.  He'll be on his way to Heaven soon.
I just ran a mile to tell you this; I can't walk up the steps.  I'm on my last legs.
My car is on its last legs. I doubt it will get me down the street to the used car dealer.

I've searched a bit on the interwebs, and while definitions abound, I can find no reference to the origin of the phrase.  Why "last legs"?  What happened to the first ones?  What has interchangeable legs anyhow?


texts: What literary device is being used here?

texts:
The beginning of prehistoric wars is a disputed issue between anthropologists and historians.

Source: http://ask.yahoo.com/20070404.html

I was reading that article and I noticed that sentence and it made me laugh for a moment. Is that a specific literary device being used there? Or is it just coincidence that it sounds weird and cool at the same time? It's like the sentence has meaning on two levels; the reals wars fought and the ones the historians are having over the real wars. I hope you guys understand what I'm saying.


texts:
If something positive is "too much", it becomes negative. For example, too much security could be perceived as being trapped.

Is there a term for this relation? In other words, if a word with a similar meaning is called a synonym, and a word with the opposite meaning is called an antonym, then a word with a negative extreme relation is called a ___?

Is there any kind of thesaurus to look these up?


texts: Is the phrase "refuse to accept" redundant?

texts: The word "refuse" is an antonym of the word "accept";  does this make the phrase "refuse to accept" redundant and/or linguistically incorrect?


texts: What is a word for a person being "crossways"?

texts: In my native language Swedish we say that a person is "tvär" if he is diffcult to agree with. It literally means "blocker" i.e. tvär would mean "på tvären" (on the crossway) that means that the person is very difficult or impossible to agree with.


texts: a good job (of / in / at) doing something

texts:
Are the following sentences correct? If so, which is the most common?

  1) You did a good job raising your children.
  2) You did a good job of raising your children.
  3) You did a good job in raising your children.
  4) You did a good job at raising your children.


texts: What is de Difference between "At the beginning" and "At the outset"

texts:
I'm reading a book, and the book uses "At the outset" instead "At the beginning".

I don't understand the difference between this two words, ¿When I need to use At the outset? ¿When I need to use At the beginning?

¿Or can I use both whenever I want?


texts: Pronunciation of "I'm going to" - Part 2

texts:
This question is a further question regarding my previous thread.(Pronunciation of "I'm going to")
Thank you for everyone who answered this question.

I read that saying "I muh-nuh" (eg. I'muh-nuh go to the store.) is very common and normal, especially on the east coast of the US. Some people said that I probably couldn't catch the "g" sound when they were actually saying "I'm gonna", but I am pretty sure people just completely drop the "g" sound when they say it.

Is this occurrence common in other parts of the US too, or is it really just a regional thing? How about in Canada, Australia, Britain, etc?

Thank you again, and I am looking forward to reading your answers.


texts: "When an helicopter flies over your head and you're supposed to be in the middle of the sea its not real"

texts:
An actor in this video says "When a helicopter flies over your head, and you're supposed to be in the middle of the sea, it's not real".

What does that mean?


texts: What is a story that uses immoral aspects to give a moral value in the end called?

texts:
Is there a specific or related word for when a story illustrates the doing of bad and unlawful things to reveal a moral value beneath it?
For example- a story about a person committing suicide and showing that if anyone had talked to the person, they wouldn't have committed suicide. Or a person with a mental disorder who didn't receive any help from others and was driven insane. I would appreciate any words to describe such a story or an event, thanks!


texts:
I came aross the word bombasity here: http://craigmod.com/journal/digital_physical/

  I would argue, however, that for Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the book simply formalized much of what they already knew. Their work benches were covered in schematics, file cabinets filled with correspondence between farmers and governments and architects and textile manufacturers and engineers. In other words — to them the magnitude and grandiose nature of their work was present all around their home, their work space. It manifest physically in those files and papers and cabinets. For them, a monster book like this didn’t illuminate the enormity of their undertaking — they were aware of The Umbrellas’ bombasity every time they opened their studio door.

But don't know what it means. I searched on Google and only found people using it but no explanations, even here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bombasity

Can somebody give some explanation about it?


texts: Two people, same last name, both have master's degrees

texts:
I am finishing my Master of Healthcare Administration and my husband is a Master Plumber.  I would like to refer to us correctly in an email as "The Masters Ourlastname" but I'm not sure if it is Masters or Masters' or just Master's.  Can someone please tell me what is correct?
Thank you!


texts: Is "Unneeded" as standard as "Unnecessary"?

texts:
The word "Unneeded" is a lot rarer than "Unnecessary", according to Google ngrams. The word "Unneeded" has also been used less in older times than current times, which would be consistent with it being a non-standard word.

oxforddictionaries.com and Wiktionary have definitions for "Unneeded", and don't describe it as non-standard. But I'm not certain that it is standard English.

Are people likely to regard "Unneeded" as non-standard, or as a newspeak style neologism based on combining "un" with "needed" by someone who doesn't know how to spell "Unnecessary"?


texts: What is the name for punctuation marks such as commas and periods that separate things like clauses or sentences?

texts:
When I'm editing people's writing, I recently started writing the comment "put an article here" rather than "put a 'the' or 'a' here".

Similarly, right now I have to put, "you need a comma or period here" ... is there one word that can encompass both 'comma' and 'period'? I don't want to put something so general like "you need a punctuation mark here"


texts: If 101 can be called "one naught one", then can 110 be called "one one naught"?

texts: I have heard lots of people say "one naught one" but I have never heard "one one naught". Is it valid or not? I have no idea; please shed some light on this.


texts: When did "-tile" and "-sile" (in missile and volatile) become "-tl" (or "tahyl")?

texts:
The dictionary states as follows:

[vol-uh-tl, -til or, esp. British, -tahyl]

Especially British? Hmm.

Don't kill me: I've never heard the following lyrics actually performed; I've only read them; they're from one of the (presumably many) English translations of  the German original of the chorus in The Czardas Princess by Emmerich Kalman (who was Hungarian, but that's neither here nor there, I suppose):

  How can the truth be learned
  Where Woman is concerned?
  You call us full of guile,
  Capricious, volatile.
  Oh, why was Woman born?
  To drive us mad, mad, mad, mad,
  Mad with
  Her sweetness,
  Her devilry and scorn.

"Guile" obviously rhymes with "volatile" here, from which one could safely assume that the translation is ... uh ... especially ... British.

My question is where and when did the shift happen? Did the Yankees begin to slur the vowel, or did the Brits resolve not to elide it anymore - and when?


texts: Rephrasing a sentence containing the word "chance"

texts:
Is it possible to rephrase the first sentence below in the form of the second one?

There is no chance of her being alive.
There is no chance of getting her alive.


texts: What is the expression to inform that I am having few questions?

texts: What would be a nicer way to express "I am having few questions about entering records"?


texts: the meaning of : "they threw me off the float!”

texts:
I'm translating a text from English but I didn't understand the meaning of this sentence:

  One day, Fay came in and caught Laurel sitting up asleep herself, in her spectacles. “Putting your eyes out, too? I told him if he hadn’t spent so many years of his life poring over dusty old books, his eyes would have more strength saved up for now,” Fay told her. She sidled closer to the bed. “About ready to get up, hon?” she cried. “Listen, they’re holding parades out yonder right now. Look what they threw me off the float!”
  The Optimist's Daughter


texts: "I just noticed it" vs "I barely noticed it"

texts:
Are "I just noticed it" and "I barely noticed it" the same?

Let's say somebody tells me something about something/somebody and I didn't know about it until the person told me and the person asks, "Did you know?" And I reply, "No, I barely notice it." Am I meaning "No, I just noticed it"? If so, comment about it please. I would also like an answer about another word, phrase or expression to say "just now/a little moment before now" as when someone says, "this just came out today/yesterday/this week/last week/etc." it's worth to say that I already know about "right now" and I know I can say "I just noticed it right now" but I would like to know if there is another word, phrase or expression. To express this whether is common, formal or legal. Just to extend my knowledge.


texts: Is not to mention correctly used in this context?

texts: As an active market participant for the past few years, I am amazed by how Algorithmic Trading has redefined the way trading is done and by the increasing number of asset managers that are adopting this technique. Not to mention the outstanding returns and ability to consistently outperform more traditional investment vehicles.


texts: is "Lighting the spark for XYZ" a meaningful phrase in english?

texts: I am trying to translate or rather come up with an English expression for the German "den Funken überspringen lassen" for a title of an academic paper.  My best solution so far is "Lighting the spark for big data in economics" where I try to convey that "spark" (a programming tool) can be helpful for big data analysis in economics and at the same time have a word game in the title.


texts: Vast amount of vocabulary in English books: what is the average adult native speaker's vocabulary?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Are there 20,000 English words in the average adult's vocabulary?

English is not my native language, but I use it on a daily basis. I started reading English literature about two years ago. Mostly I read science fiction and fantasy, but also read other books. Once in a while (several times per chapter) I come across words I need to check in a dictionary. That's all good, I keep learning more. But what I'm concerned with is that I bought a dictionary of 55000 English words, and by my experience I encounter words about once per chapter that are not in this dictionary. And that doesn't count slang or words with mixed endings. Just the words in their basic forms as nouns or adjectives or verbs and so forth.

What I want to know is whether native English speakers have vocabularies of more than 55000 words or do they struggle as I do? I don't think they have such problems, because when I read books written in my native language, I don't.


texts:
I plan to explore this question from various statistical perspectives, including Bayesian theory and probability measurement."

Is this sentence right? Bayesian theory and probability measurement are all sub-fields of statistics. Can they be considered as "perspectives"?


texts: Multiple comparatives of different types: how to choose?

texts:
I have an eight-month-old daughter. Her experiments in mobility led me to contemplate phrases like

  the dirtier and messier, the better.

What happens if one (but not both) of the adjectives before the comma is replaced with a word that forms a comparative with "more" rather than the suffix -er? For example, replace "messy" with "dangerous." Neither of the following sound quite satisfactory to my ear:

  the dirtier and more dangerous, the better
  the more dirty and dangerous, the better

Is one of these actually correct? Is there some other solution that isn't coming to mind?


texts: Use of "That" as a single word in a sentence

texts:
I've heard this kind of phrase recently.

  When your shoelaces come undone and you trip. That.

I'm confused about the use of That. Any comments?


texts: Is there a word meaning unexpected pleasure?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  A word for something you didn’t know you’d like

I thought delight might be it, but the various dictionaries I checked make no mention of the sense of surprise or unexpectedness, defining delight as simply heightened or extreme pleasure.

To clarify, I'm referring to the pleasure arising from some unexpected thing, not encountering pleasure contrary to expectations.

For example: you book into a cheap hotel and have low expectations for a good experience (dirty linen, no room service, noise, etc) ... but then you discover that your favorite band is doing a gig there.

Or: you book into an expensive hotel, and figure there will be the usual roll call of luxuries perfectly executed to make your stay a pleasure ... but then you discover that your favorite band is doing a gig there.

So, a different sense from: "Here, have a bite of this foul smelling fruit", or the unexpected outcome of combining strawberries and balsamic vinegar, or strawberries combined with peas.


texts: Why isn't "connoisseur" spelled "connaisseur"?

texts:
From what I gathered on the Web, "connoisseur" is spelled that way because it is derived from the Old French verb "connoître" (to know) which has been spelled "connaître" for close to two centuries. Thus, the spelling I would expect as a native French speaker would be "connaisseur". Is there a historical reason why in the last two centuries the correction in French has not been accepted by the English speaking community?

Bonus question: "connaisseur" would most probably be understood in the context of a conversation with a native speaker but I have personally never heard or read anyone using it and it sounds odd. Why would it be used in English in the first place? Is it for the same kind of false sense of culture it gives to the speaker that drives English speaking people to include French words in their conversations?


texts: Should one use quotation marks around single letters in text?

texts:
It's my brother's first year studying English and the book they use at school has sentences like:

A is for Animal
B is for Beast
C is for Continent
D is for Den

and so on.
Shouldn't we use " " (or ' ') when we refer to a single letter inside a sentence? For example:

The letter "A" is the first letter in the alphabet.

or

The letter 'A' is the first letter in the alphabet.

Are there any cases when we should simply write an "A" alone?


texts:
I recently had a conversation about the Spanish word "ahora", in which my conversant claimed that "ahora" is always an adverb, and never a noun.

This lead me to investigate the part of speech of similar words, both in Spanish and English (my native language).  According to dictionary.com, "now" can be a noun, as in:

  noun

  10.
  the present time or moment:
  "Up to now no one has volunteered."

What makes "now" a noun in this context?  In the Spanish equivalent of the example ("Hasta ahora..."), "ahora" is considered an adverb by the dictionaries I checked with.

The gist of the question: How can I know when now (or any word, for that matter--especially one which is commonly an adverb) is a noun? What test can be applied?

In the example quoted above ("Up to now...") it is not at all obvious to me why 'now' should be a noun while with, say "Until tomorrow", 'tomorrow' is an adverb. They seem like the same grammatical construct to me, so I would (apparently quite naively) expect the same part of speech to follow "Up to" or "Until."


texts: How are diminutives formed in recent English words?

texts:
A large variety of suffixes were used to form diminutives in English. The Wikipedia page on diminutives shows these:

* -k/-ock/-uck: balk, bollock, bullock, buttock, fetlock, folk, hark, hillock, jerk, mark, mattock (OE mattuc), milk, mullock, pillock, smirk, snack, spark, stalk, talk, whelk, work, yolk
* -n/-en/-on (accusative or feminine): burden, chicken, even, heaven (OE heofon), kitten, maiden, morn, oven, steven, vixen, weapon (OE wæpen)
* -le (defrequentative -l): beetle, boodle, chortle, doodle (shares root with dude, P doudo, dolt, dull, dote, dotterel), fizzle, giggle, kibble, little, mickle, noodle, oodle, puddle, riddle, sparkle
* -ish (disparative): boyish, fiftyish, girlish, largish, mannish, noonish, reddish, smallish, tallish, twelveish, womanish
* -s (degenitive): Becks, Betts, Wills
* -sie/-sies/-sy (babytalk assimilative or from patrici- of Patsy): bitsy, footsie (1930), halfsies, onesies, popsy (1860), teensy-weensy, tootsie (1854), twosies, Betsy, Patsy, Robsy
* -o (American devocative, later Commonwealth): bucko, daddio, garbo, kiddo, smoko, wacko, Jacko, Ricko,
* -er/-ers/-ster (agentive, intensive, hýpocoristic, also elided hrotic -a): bonkers (1948), preggers (1940), starkers (1905), Becker[s], Lizzers, Hankster, Patster
* -a (Geordie assimilative -er): Gazza, Macca
* -z (geordie degenitive -s): Bez, Chaz, Gaz

That same page also contains a list of suffixes of diminutive loanwords, such as:

* -ling (Norse defrequentative-patrinominative): darling, duckling, fingerling, gosling, underling

The suffix -ling, for example, was used to form the following words:

darling = dear + ling
sterling = star + ling (from the small star stamped on the coin)
shilling = shield + ling (?)

Most of the words shown above are old words that have been used for centuries. Are there any more recent English words (let's say, from the past few decades) that have been formed with diminutive suffixes? If yes, which words and suffixes are those?


texts:
How do you define someone that does (not on purpose) quite the opposite of the general trend?

For example:

  My week schedule is quite packed with events except Friday evening, while it's usually the opposite we hear about.

I thought of unconventional and peripheral, which I got are antonyms for mainstream, but I am wondering if there is a better adjective for my situation.


texts: What is a common way to address someone using 'call' without the overtones of 'call by phone?'

texts:
Hi! It's Tom, the boy who sits behind you. You don’t know me because I’ve
  never called you or poked your back.

'called you' sounds as if Tom is talking about calling the other person by phone.

What's a common way of phrasing this statement, meaning "to get her/his attention" without the 'call by phone' overtones?


texts: What's the difference between a milestone and an accomplishment?

texts:
While adding an entry to my SO Developer Story, I came across a required field asking whether my entry was a project, milestone, or accomplishment.

I'm a bit confused about the difference between milestone, and accomplishment.

For instance, let's say I wanted to add Eagle Scout to my developer story. Would that be categorized as a milestone or an achievement?

To make things more confusing, the "Category" section only appears when adding a Milestone to my Developer Story. Wouldn't that mean I'm adding a milestone? Or does that make an accomplishment a type of milestone?


texts: Does "odds-on favourite" mean more than 50% chance?

texts:
My understanding is that "odds-on" and the phrase "odds-on favourite" do not have the exact same meaning.

Odds-on: More than likely to happen, so more than 50% probability.
Odds-on favourite: "a person, team, horse, etc that is regarded as the most likely to win a competition". In this case, I don't believe it necessarily has to be more than 50% probability; just more probable than the other options.

Please confirm if "odds-on favourite" needs to mean more than 50% likely or not..


texts: Is this sentence correct or comprehensible? "They actually had more soldiers than was shown on TV"

texts:
I would like to know if the following sentence is correct:

They actually had more soldiers than was shown on TV.

Here I use "was" because I think the full sentence should be "They actually had more soldiers than (it) was shown on TV (that they had).

I know it might not be a sentence that a native speaker would say, but I would like to know if it's grammatically correct with this interpretation.

Looking forward to your answers.


texts:
Is the correct term, "well done to the English on their performance or performances."?

I believe "performance" to be the correct choice.


texts: Over the past/last decade or during the past/last decade

texts: Which is the correct usage: over the past/last decade or during the past/last decade?


texts:
This question was in a test so please choose one of the answers given in the question.

The coach said that they _________ to the gym every day next week to get in shape for the tournament game.

1) should go      2) will go     3) will be going

According to the answer key, the answer is "should go" but I thought "will be going" was the correct answer. Why is my answer wrong and why is "should go" correct? Also, if my anwer was actually correct, why is "will go" wrong? What's the difference between "will go" and "will be going" here? What difference do these two make in the meaning?

(Note: the question is not part of a longer passage. It was an individual grammer question put in the test just like this.)

Thank you, this one's really getting on my nerves!


texts: Why is the letter J so common in names of people who go by their initials?

texts:
I've met a number of people who use their initials as a name.  Almost all of the ones I've met have a "J" as one of the initials.  I've asked a few friends, and so far, anecdotally, it seems that this observation holds true.

"J" is of course a common initial, but not common enough, I think, to explain this.

My question is in two parts: Does the observation hold true for you? That is, of the people you know who use their initials as their name, do the overwhelming majority have a "J" as one of the initials?  And: can you explain why this might be?


texts: Does "I am eating vegan cheese in my underpants" really imply that the vegan cheese is inside my underpants?

texts:
I am having a debate with someone about possible interpretations of a sentence and we have come to a stalemate. The sentence is as follows:

  "I'm at home eating vegan cheese in my underpants and singing Bushes
  of Love."

The other party argues that my sentence technically says that I am eating vegan cheese which is inside my underpants, when the intended meaning was that I am eating vegan cheese while wearing underpants.

My argument is that his interpretation of the sentence makes no sense, but I can't quite find an actual rule to refer to. I could see it making more sense if I had an article in front of vegan cheese, like "I'm at home eating the vegan cheese in my underpants and singing Bushes of Love".

But as it is without an article if I did intend to say that the vegan cheese was in my underpants, the way I said it would sound very wrong. It seems to me that without an article in front of vegan cheese it was used as a mass noun, uncountable and therefore interpreting it as being a countable chunk of vegan cheese that could be in anything in any subsequent part of the sentence seems wrong.

His argument is that the problem is in the ordering - that while with some common sense my actual meaning might be clear, the sentence was grammatically incorrect and I technically said that the vegan cheese was in my underpants because I should have said "I am in my underpants eating vegan cheese".

Is there a rule I can refer to when it comes to accurate ways to interpret this sentence? Which one of us is correct? Could the vegan cheese really be in my underpants?

Research I have done:

My attempts to find a concrete rule that might be relevant to this scenario led me to the following resources. To me none of these resources suggested that my sentence was technically incorrect. However, because I still was not sure what specific rule I could reference for him or if I was missing a specific rule proving me wrong our debate continued. This is why I decided to ask the question here.

Cambridge Dictionary on adverb positioning in sentences: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adverbs-and-adverb-phrases-position
Grammar Quick and Dirty Tips on when to use articles in front of nouns, and mass nouns: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/when-to-use-articles-before-nouns
Linguapress on word order and sentence structure in English: http://linguapress.com/grammar/word-order.htm
Transparent Language on word order in Russian (Russian is my first language and the other party suggested in passing that what he considered my mistake might be related to different word order conventions in non-English languages): http://blogs.transparent.com/russian/word-order-and-logical-emphasis/


texts: How can "nerve" (n) both mean "courage" but also "nervousness"?

texts:
I was looking at the definitions of "nerve" given in Lexico nee ODO, and I got two definitions of it that are quite the opposite of each other:

    nerve
    noun

  ...
  one's steadiness and courage in a demanding situation.  "an amazing journey which tested her nerves to the full"

  ...

  feelings of nervousness.  "his first-night nerves soon disappeared"
  ...

This pair of definitions and their respective examples above completely oppose each other, methinks.

How does something like this happen? Unless I have misinterpreted these definitions, how can a word have two definitions that make opposing claims to each other?

Thanks :)


texts:
Does anyone have a definitive origin for the phrase/idiom "Put/stick a pin in it/that" used to mean let's delay, come back to something later?

I searched the archive but didn't see this asked or answered (if I missed it please point me to the correct entry).

Urban Dictionary (sorry) offers a WWII origin of putting the pin back in a grenade so it doesn't explode.

I can easily picture this coming from the tailoring trade (as so many idioms did) where you pin fabric in position before sewing it down.

Multiple sources mention Jane Austen's use of pins to mark edits in her manuscript but I don't know if this was a wide enough practice to coin a phrase.

EDIT/ADDITION:

Wikipedia offers this on the history of the drawing pin or push pin (with some great detail about their effect on woodwork):

  The drawing pin was invented in name and as a mass-produced item in what is now the United States in the mid/late 1750s. It was first mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1759. It was said that the use of the newly invented drawing pin to attach notices to school house doors was making significant contribution to the whittling away of their gothic doors. Modern drawing pins were also found as standard in architects’ drawing boxes in the late 18th century.

  Edwin Moore patented the "push-pin" in the US in 1900 and founded the Moore Push-Pin Company. Moore described them as a pin with a handle. Later, in 1903, in Lychen, German clockmaker Johann Kirsten invented flat-headed pins for use with drawings.

Given this, I would say an occurrence of the phrase pre-1750 makes an origin in the sewing trades more likely? There is another occurrence in the wikipedia entry on (standard/straight) pins mentioning their use in marking or pinning together pages of a book so maybe this was a common enough practice to coin the phrase.

EDIT:
A usage from 1821 (in a collected volume of columns/correspondence from 1835)

  Selections from Cobbett's Political Works: Being a Complete ...
  William Cobbett, Anne Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett - 1835
  Found inside - Page 87

  ... at the same time, made grand military preparations, not leaving out the cannons. What law they had for these things a day may come, perhaps, for inquiring in a lawful way. At present, we will " stick a pin there." Fasten so much up in your and ...

with quotation marks in the original texts (which suggests to me an early idiomatic use). The same gentleman used the phrase again in 1826:

  Rural rides
  William Cobbett - 1830

  The sales of sheep, at this one fair (including Appleshaw), must have amounted, this year, to a hundred and twenty or thirty thousand pounds less than last year 1 Stick a pin there, master "PROSPERITY ROBINSON," and turn back to it again ...

with further elaboration of "turn[ing] back to it again" which supports the pin used to mark a place in a book explanation. These occurrences turned up by searching the phrase "stick a pin" (bet 1700-1850) in googlebooks.


texts: Word for sharing or to encourage sharing

texts:
Is there any other word for sharing? or to encourage sharing?

Thanks in advance.

Edit:

I need to write something to encourage sharing information. (Let's share our experiences - something like this). I want to use some different words than usual ones. Please help.


texts:
This is from a half-remembered class about -ing forms.
Consider:

Category A

I'm knowing that.
I'm needing it.
I'm wanting this.
I'm hating you.

as against

Category B

I'm going there.
I'm seeing this.
I'm calling him.

My professor called the Category A sentences incorrect, unlike Category B. He said verbs like know, need, want and hate cannot be used like this in the present continuous. They should only be used in the present simple (I know this and so on). I'm half-sure he had a term for what these verbs were called.
Can anyone confirm whether he was right? (Why? Or why not?) And does anyone know the term to describe these verbs?
The term depends on the word's meaning, I guess, and has nothing to do with its function in the sentence. That's why I've phrased them all as transitive verbs with one object.
Apologies if this is a duplicate. I tried to dig, but seeing as I can't recall the term, I wasn't successful.
PS - I don't want the answer to focus on the word love. He put love in category A and called McDonald's tagline (I'm loving it) incorrect. Although he admitted that the I'm loving form is more prevalent than it used to be and considered acceptable among native speakers. Personally, I'm loving you sounds odd to me. (Not as add as I'm hating you, though. I guess the McD tagline has popularised the construct, even if it didn't originate it, and love is in a grey area now.)


texts:
I think not, but look at this Wikipedia link about parental leave in different countries, scroll down to the large table and look under Romania. I don't think this is a real word, I tried doing an online dictionary search and all that was returned was Urban Dictionary. So this says to me: "I'm not a real word!"

Is it?


texts: Is it syntactically correct to write "This and the following pages"?

texts: ... or is there a better alternative to writing something like "This and the following pages constitute a summary of topic X."?


texts: "Not much I can hand to you this very moment"

texts:
What's the meaning of this sentence?

  Not much I can hand to you this very moment.


texts:
Am I using this short phrase correctly?

  Alibi bin Baz-ar and his Beetle Train from the mysterious East had arrived and the good folks of The Forest Glade were at once, both delighted and amazed…


texts: Word that means to speak about nothing important

texts:
What word means to speak about nothing important? Basically, I want something the opposite of ranting.
I know the word bable, but it does not fit into the context I want.

Babble:

  talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way.

I want a word with a more positive and less rude connotation.

Chatter also won't work for me because it is too informal.

Chatter

  talk rapidly or incessantly about trivial matters.

Definitions taken from the google dictionary extension.


texts:
What alternatives are there to the expression "this last point"? I'll give an example of a sentence that I wrote recently, referring to the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice:

  The dialog and narration is written
  with a fluency and accuracy that
  allows Jane Austen to make remarkably
  fine points. This last point is of
  particular interest to me, as I often
  find myself unable to convey the exact
  meaning that I would wish.


texts: Do syllables only contain one vowel? Also Some questions on word stress

texts:
For this word:
○ recommend
○/ˌrekəˈmend/

1) /rekə/ is the first syllable. Does it contain two vowels?
   ■ e is a vowel
   ■ ə is a vowel

I thought syllables can only contain one vowel?

2) the [ ']symbol before /rekə/ means that /rekə/ is stressed. So why is the "o" in "reco" reduced to a schwa? Do stressed vowels get reduced? I thought only unstressed vowels got reduced.

3) Do words only have one stressed syllable or can they have two stressed syllables?


texts:
I found this expression in a book.

"This is a count of the number of times SomeDB had to
follow an index pointer to the actual document on disk."

It sounds weird to me but I am a non-native speaker.

Is this correct or incorrect or correct but weird?
Could it be said in some better way?

To me, as it stands it sounds equivalent to

"This is a count of the count of times"
or
"This is a number of the number of times"
which are definitely weird.


texts: Is there a verb for making something more "exoteric"?

texts:
Does anyone here know of a suitable verb for making something "exoteric"? I am trying to find a word that adequately encapsulates "making an idea more accessible to the broader community." I like the adjective "exoteric" for this, but am wondering if there is a verb that can be used instead.
(Note, I use "make accessible" quite a bit in this sort of situation, which is why I am looking for a succinct verb that I can use instead.)


texts: Comma before "because" in this sentence?

texts:
According to http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/when-to-use-a-comma-before-because , the comma can easily change the meaning of a sentence that contains "because." A perfect example is, "He didn't run away, because he was afraid," versus, "He didn't run away because he was afraid." I am usually very good at figuring out how to use a comma before "because" so that there is no confusion.

Which sentence is correct? I am trying to explain why someone said specific comments.

1. "The comments about the power outage were said, because there was a power outage last year."

2. "The comments about the power outage were said because there was a power outage last year."


texts: Where does the expression, "and how," come from? How can we reconcile the literal meaning with the idiomatic one?


texts: Who came up with the phrase thunder rolling and how

texts: People say thunder rolls but why is it that and who came up with the phrase. I came to the thought as i was sitting through a thunderstorm a while back and wanted to know the truth behind it.


texts: The eye of the tiger, what does it mean?

texts:
I recently heard something like "I've found the eye of the tiger". What exactly does this expression mean?

According to the context, I think it means feeling of confidence or internal power and strength.


texts:
I often watch american series and they all swear like:

"fuck", or "don't fucking do this", "what the fuck!"

on the softer side:
"Jesus Christ!", "Jeez".

But I was wondering is, what are the British equivalent of those?
What is often said and what is not?

I saw some "bloody hell" and "fuck", but to what extend are they used?

Thanks.


texts: idiomatic phrases for the process of translating

texts:
I am looking for idiomatic phrases to speak or write about the process of translating into/from a foreign language. I would like to find phrases that are a good fit for neutral style of communication.

  A customer requested a translation [made or done or carried out] by experts with a degree in software engineering.

or

  He deals with [does, carries out or makes] translations in the field of computer science.

or

  He was employed to make translations into French within the framework of the project of software customization.

or

  He is currently providing a translation into French within the scope of work for software customization.


texts: Someone or something small yet capable of having big influence?

texts: What is a word or phrase that means a person or thing which is quite small yet capable of having big influence and impact on society?


texts: Basically what't the difference between these two forms in all regards? What do I use? From my native language I've got this habit to always go gerund.


texts: What is correct? If Bob was a girl (he / she) would run

texts: The gender of the subject is masculine but the situation is that the subject is feminine. What should the pronoun be?


texts:
I work like a dog day in and day out.
day-in and day-out?
day in, and day out?
, day in and day out?
Please advise.


texts: What is the name of a written legacy of personal wisdom?

texts:
I am collecting the wisdom of elders, publishing in books their insights and stories, focused on the theme "What does your life stand for?"
I wonder if there is a name for such books. Or if we can invent one?
Thanks for your help.


texts: Does 'game' have a meaning related to farming?

texts:
Most of the land in Namibia belongs to the whites.
  To Afrikaners who are descendants of European colonists.
  They raise cattle and game.

'They raise cattle' I can understand, but I don't know how to define the meaning of the word 'game' in this context.

Does that mean some kind of business related to farming?


texts:
What does the expression to give a buck about mean?

I could not find the definition of that expression in my dictionaries. I think it shows a lack of interest about something. Am I wrong?


texts:
I read this sentence:

  In the Arctic tundra, temperatures are below freezing for nine months out of the year.

Why didn't the writer use "during the year"?
What is the difference between "during the year" and "out of the year"?


texts: Reference to a Standard / Act / Regulation in writing

texts:
I want to refer to a point in a standard, for example:

  8.3.1.2 If offices, general ablution or mess facilities are situated in the same building as the pesticides store, ensure that the store is hermetically separated.

How would I refer to this point in a standard when writing?

Which of the two should I write:

  In accordance to point 8.3.1.2 of ...
  In accordance to section 8.3.1.2 of ...


texts: Difference between 'gain optimization' and 'gains optimization'

texts:
What is the difference between gain optimization and gains optimization in a financial context?

I want to know in particular if one of those terms is better English, or if they have different meanings.