texts: Indicative vs. subjunctive – was vs. were – “If a menu bar of personal commands was/were context-aware, then a “zoom-in” button would only appear if.”

texts:
If a menu bar of personal commands was/were context-aware, then a
  “zoom-in” button would only appear if the current window or
  application is something that you deem worthy of requiring a “zoom-in”
  button, like a map or photo application.

At first, I thought it could be:

  “If a menu bar of personal commands were context-aware”.

I desire a context-sensitive menu bar in the newer Chrome OS operating system, so I thought that this was dealing with hypotheticals and wishful thinking (subjunctive mood?).

I also saw examples of “were” being used in alternate paths.

I went back to thinking of,

  “If a menu bar of personal commands was context-aware”

because the characteristic of the menu bar has not been decided yet.

I read about the example of,

  “I’m not rich”. “If I were rich”.

--

  “The bar is not context-sensitive.” “If the bar were context-sensitive”.

Actually, the menu bar is not not-context-sensitive”.

The menu bar is nothing.

It hasn’t been created yet.

It in fact could be context-sensitive.

Thanks for any help.


texts: "a" versus "an" before an acronym that begins with the letter "U"

texts:
I have an unusual situation related to the well-worn topic of when to use a/an before an acronym. We all know that the SOUND is what dictates which to use. So, for example, this is correct: "If an NOAC has been discontinued in the setting of acute UGI bleeding ... "

However, here is where I'm stumped. My acronym starts with the letter "U". A vowel right? But it's a vowel that sounds like a "Y" -- which either IS or ISN'T a vowel sound, depending on whom you ask. And this just sounds totally wrong to me: "Ten percent of rapid rectal bleeding has an UGI source." I desperately want to make it "a UGI source." If I'm not wrong, why am I not wrong? I will need to defend my decision to the higher ups!


texts: Is the expression "to float someone's boat" possible outside of "Whatever floats your boat"?

texts:
According to the Urban Dictionary, the expression "whatever floats your boat" means

  [...] whatever "soothes your soul" or whatever "works best" Aka- Whatever you feel like doing.

Is it possible to use "float someone's boat" outside of that specific expression?
I'm thinking of conversations between co-workers or acquaintances, where the goal of the asker is to find out more about the other person, especially what drives them personally, but without sounding like having romantic interest.

(Bad) example:

  So Peter, what is your driving force in life? What floats your boat?

Would it be used by native speakers? Within which relationships (close friends, acquaintances, colleagues) would it be considered polite? What would be a good alternative expression for this kind of query?


texts:
Sometimes I want to say because I owe you, I want to pay my owe with money.
Can I say "pay my owe" and is it a correct collocation?


texts: "'To'/'on' the contrary" in these sentences: is the difference very slight?

texts:
I was interested in the following sentences which appeared, respectively, in a news article titled “Can’t Park? Blame a Condo" and in a news article titled "Senator Simmons on the Negro", both in The New York Times.

  1) “In the old days you had to provide parking,” Mr. Greco said. “Now it
  is to the contrary, and what we are seeing is a slow evaporation of
  the parking spaces.”

  2) The spirit of Senator Simmons's article is not very humane or broad;
  it is, on the contrary rather narrow and harsh.

Oxford Dictionary of English has entries for both "to the contrary" and "on the contrary":

  on the contrary used to intensify a denial of what as just been implied or stated by suggesting that the opposite is the case.

  to the contrary with the opposite meaning or implication.

Reading what the vocabulary says, it seems that both journalists use the phrases in a wrong way inverting "to" with "on" and "on" with "to", respectively; but the difference between the two fragments is very slight, so I'm not able to definitively understand if I'm right.

Furthermore, the usage of the two fragments could be become interchangeable nowadays; but I'm not sure on this circumstance.

Can someone clarify if the fragments "to the contrary" and "on the contrary" are being correctly used in both cases?


texts: Is this a correct statement - "I spoke to his wife on yesterday"


texts: Words or phrases that describe a person who is blind to the consequences of their actions

texts: I'm trying to find either a word or a phrase that describes a person who who is blind to the negative consequences of their actions even though the consequences should be obvious to them.


texts: Is "1940's" and "1950's" correct in the USA?

texts:
Snippet from the book "STYLING vs. SAFETY The American Automobile Industry and the Development of Automotive Safety, 1900-1966" by Joel W. Eastman:

  and its continual improvement by progressive and innova- tive
  manufacturers. The industry also pointed to stat- istics which
  indicated that automobiles rarely caused accidents as support for the
  assumptions that it was not normal for one to be involved in a crash
  and that even a perfect motor vehicle could not overcome defects in
  drivers and highways.

  By the late 1940's and early 1950's, however, there came to be a
  growing awareness within the industry that the small but increasing
  demand for design for crash protection by members of the medical
  profession and oth- ers was significant enough so that it would be
  wise to keep abreast of developments in the area. One by one, the
  major manufacturers either officially or unofficial- ly assigned the
  responsibility to an individual or set up an automotive safety
  department. Although the number of engineers involved was
  insignificant compared to the thousands of specialists working on
  automobile design

Is this a valid American "style"? I know you can shorten "1950s" to "'50s", but "50's"? That's like, "50 is" or "the 50 dollar bill's serial number"... surely it can't be right? I'm aware that it's "common", but this is... a book?


texts: Why is there nothing between those two words?

texts:
None of them, not a single one of them, tried to do it.

Why is there nothing between "none of them" and "not a single one of them"? They are simply connected by a comma and I don't know how that is possible. Please help.


texts: “bio“ VS “autobiography“ for a text field where users fill up their life stories (or histories)

texts:
The Oxford English Dictionary states that bio is an informal form of biography
and

biography
An account of someone’s life written by someone else.

So... Would it be more accurate to use the word autobiography than the word bio for a text field where users themselves fill up their life stories/ histories ?
Using autobiography looks pretty odd though..


texts: My uncle's widow remarried, Is she still my aunt?

texts: I had an uncle (my father's brother) who I never met because he died before I was born. He has 2 kids though, my first cousins. His widow has since re-married and had 2 more children. Is she still my aunt? I know that in theory, she would have been my aunt had he lived and they stayed married. But since I was never alive at the same time as my uncle, and since she's remarried, is she still and aunt, and is her husband an uncle? I know colloquially "aunt" and "uncle" can be used regardless of blood or marriage relationship, my question pertained more to the technicality. It just seems weird that my cousins' mother isn't my aunt, but I'm just not sure. Thanks!


texts: Word that describes the action of discussing an ongoing assignment with the person executing it

texts:
Say you have a person or student you've given an assignment to, and you want to have a talk with them while they are still working on the assignment, to discover their status and how they're doing in terms of the assignment.

Is there a word that describes this talk?

CLARIFICATION - I'm looking for a noun - how to describe such an act.


texts: Are pronominal adjectives and determiners just different terms to describe the same thing? If not, how do they differ?

texts: I have seen words like "every" and "any", etc. classified both as determiners and pronominal adjectives. Are these just different classifications of the same thing? Or does the latter have to be able to stand by itself like a pronoun? Or are determiners a subclass of a pronominal adjective?


texts: How to correctly write a range of currency?

texts:
Currency is usually written with the type prefixed, e.g. $52.

However, what is the correct way to write a currency range? For example, the inclusive range of 'between 14 and 90 dollars' could be written as:

$14-90
$14-$90
14-90$


texts:
While writing an email on behalf of 2 other people.
Should I write.. Savin, Steve and Myself

Or

Myself, Savin and Steve.. ?

I remember reading somewhere it is always, first person, second and third.. My doubt is with the order and not in the usaage of 'Myself' or 'Me'
Thanks.


texts: Word to describe the fear of unknown future

texts:
Is there any word to describe the fear of unknown future? Like when you cannot anticipate your future, you don't know what will happen or what can happen, not near or immediate future, but some future far away.

Like what will happen five years from now? You can't control it so you're fearful.


texts:
Are there any differences between a culprit and a perpetrator?

In what cases would perpetrator be preferred to culprit?

The only difference I can think of is that culprit is a broader term and can refer to something as well as someone. As seen in the following example, the culprit is the H3H2.

  The main culprit for this harsh flu season is the predominant strain, H3N2.

And perpetrator is always referring to a someone who has committed a wrongdoing.


texts:
I wanted to simply say congratulations to my friend for his university graduation. But I was kind of stuck for choosing the correct terms.

Congratulations on your graduation

or

Congratulations for your graduation

or what?


texts:
Why is "the" put before the words Internet and kitchen when they're used in general sense? For instance,

Women should stay in the kitchen.
The Internet is man's greatest creation.


texts: "I hold doors open just to see people do that little run" - do vs doing

texts:
What would be the correct form and why? Both could be used, but I think the do version is colloquial. I am interested in the reason though
I hold doors open just to see people do that little run or I hold doors open just to see people doing that little run?


texts: What is the correct syntax for a plural possessive of a word already ending in s?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?

Before you vote to close as a duplicate, note that these two questions deal with similar issues to this, but none of them address all three criteria of this question:

The singular already ends with an s.
I am dealing with multiple of the thing.
I want the possessive of all of them in general.

The singular is class, and the plural is classes. The singular possessive is class's (as addressed here).

What is the plural possessive? Is it classes's, or classes'?


texts: I wonder if the word "public" is plural or singular. Does anybody know?


texts:
I was watching Lost (again) yesterday and someone said:

" - Well, then. I guess I won't have to convince you after all."

" - I'm not going to kill -spoiler-, Ben. You are."

My question is: I was expecting the end of the sentence not with a "You are", but with "You will". Why they say "You are"? Is "You will" incorrect?

Thanks!


texts: After this "as", are there any words omitted?

texts:
“He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to
  share… not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to
  die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his
  enemies.” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

I’ve been told three ways of seeing as:

After ‘as’, ‘he shows to’ is omitted,
‘to’ is omitted,
nothing is omitted.

And now I’m very confused about how to read the as. Is ‘as’ a conjunction or a preposition; is there any omission after it or not?


texts: Why can we say 'an American' but not 'a British'?

texts:
I am confused with the use of an indefinite article in front of British or Chinese.
To my understanding, we can place an indefinite article in front of any “countable noun”.
So, we can say a cup and an orange.

But when it comes to nationalities, it is very confusing. For example, we can say an American or a German. But we cannot say a British or a Chinese.

I looked them up in a dictionary as at first I thought British and Chinese are adjectives in the above statement and that is why we cannot place an article in front of it.

However, the dictionary mentions that they are nouns.  Does that mean they are uncountable nouns?


texts: What is the opposite of "to make a bed"?

texts: Is it "to turn down a bed"? Like when you wake up you make your bed, what do you do before you go to bed?


texts: What is the word for this military term, more specific than "envoy"?

texts:
"Envoy" apparently means messenger or representative, but the military term I want needs to be more specific.

I'm thinking of a group, or just one person, who goes out before battle, meets the enemy, and asks for surrender or other terms. This person or group is supposed to be unarmed.

I could have sword such a specific term existed, and it was on the tip of my tongue when I blurted out entourage and envoy, but they weren't what I wanted. It might be a hyphenated thing like "peace-envoy" or something.

Is there a word for what I'm thinking of? Or does "Envoy" specifically mean what I want it to in a military context?


texts: Robin sharma's following rivals that of Dalai Lama's meaning?

texts:
I came across below statement in one of the book

  Robin sharma's following rivals that of Dalai Lama's

Does it means the same as >Robin sharma's following rivals of Dalai Lama's.

My understanding of above statement is that Robin sharma is trying to convince folks who were not convinced by Dalai Lama. Is that correct ?


texts:
What is the word to describe bringing up your pet?

Raise sounds odd.
Breed sounds weird.
Rear seems to be more for farm animals.


texts: Can the verb 'last' ever be ditransitive?

texts:
(1) That car should last you for ten years.
(2) That car should last you ten years.

I think these two mean the same thing.
In (1), the verb 'last' is clearly monotransitive.
How about the verb 'last' in (2)?
Is it monotransitive or ditransitive?
EDIT
This question is clearly different from the earlier question. Not only is the verb involved different, but the construction following the verb is different (e.g, unlike in the earlier question, there's the optional "for" following the verb).
Moreover, none of the four answers to the earlier question even solve its own problem. The highest scoring answer has only two votes when the question itself has as many as six votes. So, I don't know how any of the four answers that don't even solve its own problem can possibly be said to solve the problem in my question that has a clearly distinct problem.
Now, I don't know what Edwin Ashworth means by "John Lawler's analysis". If by that Edwin means John's comments to one answer there, John did mention something about "commercial transaction verb", which does not include the verb 'last' in any way.
Finally, Edwin says in his comment, "On some analyses, it's debatable whether 'you' should be considered a DO." I don't think that saying that it's debatable is answering any question.


texts: Why does the term Petri Dishes appear so regularly in political discourse nowadays?

texts: On three occasions on Twitter and other social media platforms, the term "Petri Dishes" appears in a non-scientific context. Is this just a recent fad? It appears to be in the lexicon of many of our more prolific commentators and journalists.


texts:
I read the following sentence on the Internet:

  One of the biggest problems facing our brave space explorers as we extend our reach into the Solar System involves not the physical body but the mind.

I know that the negation is formed by an auxiliary verb + not. I'm confused because my English teacher told me that this is right

If this is right, can anyone then explain me why?


texts: Style of grammar in which one does not refer directly to people?

texts:
There is first person, second person and third person grammar, but what is the term for the type of grammar used when one should refrain from directly referring from specific people (you, them, me, I, she, her, he, his, etc) at all?

Similar to academic research where an author might use:

  It may be seen

Rather than:

  You will see

Or on SO documentation one may write:

  Type the following in a terminal

Rather than:

  Type the following in your terminal

Or at a last resort, or as I have done in this question, one may use:

  One may use

Rather than:

  You may use


texts:
I have a question about "put sth at sth".

  An alternative way of looking at the pause’s significance was to say that there had been a slowdown but not a big one. Most records, including one of the best known (kept by Britain’s Meteorological Office), do not include measurements from the Arctic, which has been warming faster than anywhere else in the world. Using satellite data to fill in the missing Arctic numbers, Kevin Cowtan of the University of York, in Britain, and Robert Way of the University of Ottawa, in Canada, put the overall rate of global warming at 0.12°C a decade between 1998 and 2012—not far from the 1990s rate. A study by NASA puts the “Arctic effect” over the same period somewhat lower, at 0.07°C a decade, but that is still not negligible.

On the last sentence, my teacher said it means "Nasa estimates the overall rate of global warming at  0.07°C considering the Arctic effect".
 I don't understand it since put an object at something means the subject calculates the object at something, and
on the last sentence, it says "put the arctic effect at 0.07C."
Then why does it mean the average global temperature is 0.07, not the arctic effect is 0.07?
Please help me!


texts:
We are working on a technical manual and we'd like to have a word that is opposite to the word "Not".

Generally, the accepted way to address this is to omit the word itself. In this case however, it would be extremely useful to have a clear placeholder word to indicate the absence of "Not".

We've tried Isn't but that presents issues with conjugation. We've also tried replacing the word "Not" entirely but it doesn't work either.


texts:
Is there a nice mnemonic for the spelling of the word

  parallel

I just can't remember how many "l" there are and where.


texts: Idiom or phrase to denote unfair use of someone who is nice

texts: I am looking for an idiom or a phrase to denote the situation where someone is unfairly taken advantage of (Ex: Gets a lot of work dumped on his lap on a Friday evening like Harold in Harold and Kumar series) because that someone is nice and does not say no. In my mother tongue there is a usage for this; when translated verbatim it sounds like this "keep on digging where it is wet" - is there something similar in English?


texts: What is the verb for knowing that I exist?

texts:
English is not my first language, therefore my vocabulary isn't so fabulous.

I am describing the later stages of Alzheimer disease, and I am including some of the main key points.

For this part also, I am stuck. The phrase I am working on goes like so:

  They lose the ability to memorize. To understand. To [verb for awareness of own existence]

I am mainly looking for just one verb that fits this requirement - in other words, one verb that can change: 'the ability to know that they exist' as this one sounds too tacky.


texts:
Which one of the followings are correct:

Everybody don't want to do it
Everybody doesn't want to do it.
Somebody don't believe you.
Somebody doesn't believe you.


texts: What's the grammatical structure for "there is nothing a guy can do that even comes close"?

texts:
I got a sentence when watching a dialogue:

  There is nothing a guy can do that even comes close.

In my opinion, "nothing" has an attributive clause: "a guy can do"; and in this atributive clause, "nothing" comes as object so that the object was absence. However, "that even comes close" confused me, as it is also likely to be an object clause. Could anyone give me some clue about the clause "that even come close"?


texts: It might be defined different/differently?

texts:
In the following example, realtype stands for a computer data type defined by a computer.  The data type might be different on different computers; ie the definition of realtype is machine-dependent.

  If my [computer] code is executed on another system, realtype might be defined { different / differently / something else }.

Which of the alternative endings should I choose?
Please say why, in plain English.  I prefer an answer with simple rules that I can remember and easily apply.

I tried to understand an earlier question, to no avail.


texts:
I found an interesting line in "Blue Jeans" - Lana Del Rey. "That love is mean, and love hurts". And in this case, the word 'mean' means 'evil' according to the song's translation. Is it right interpretation or the origin meaning has been lost? And if it is true, could you please give me explicit explanation, when 'mean' uses to describe 'evil'.
Thank you!


texts: How to call the outcome of a cooking recipe, in quantitative terms

texts:
Talking about cooking recipes, how do you call "the amount of it that the recipe produces", the recipe outcome in quantitative terms?

I'm looking for the more professional term, the one used by professional cooks.

I think it's "this recipe yields 12 servings" or "... yields 4 Kg."
On the other hand, some recipes appear saying "... for 12 servings."

Note: cross-posted in Seasoned Advice, the cooks' place.


texts: Word for doing something only because it provokes a reaction from others

texts:
Some people act in ways that provoke surprised or shocked reactions from others, mainly because they enjoy getting those reactions and not because of any inherent desire to perform the action itself. For example, I suspect that this is a primary motivating factor behind the recent Brony phenomenon -- the My Little Pony show itself would probably not attract hords of adult male fans, were it not for  the incredulous reactions which the fandom elicits. Is there a word to describe this sort of behavior?

("Provocative" seems off -- it refers to the fact that a reaction is elicited, but not that this is the motivation behind the behavior.)


texts: Why does Distal of "yon" got no Source, Goal, Time, Manner, Reason?

texts: I know yon is old-fashioned and bygone. But why blanks in red rectangle? Why it had no Pro-adverb for Source, Goal, Time, Manner, Reason?


texts:
Is it possible to use infinitive and start statement with it to express conditional statement?

For example:
To go out with you today, I need to finish my job.

If it isn't correct way, could you suggest the best way to express such statements?


texts: Can you "do a goal" or do you have to "meet a goal?"

texts: If I am asking a client what they will be doing to meet a fitness goal, i.e. riding a bike to be more active (the goal is to be more active). Can I say, "how will you do your goal?" in a goal setting worksheet?


texts: What is the word that describes a person trying to sell stuff persistently?

texts:
I am trying to remember the word to describe a person trying to sell stuff persistently. I can't seem to figure it out.

-

It can be a verb, noun or adjective. Anything around "Selling stuff persistently".


texts:
Have I written a blogpost or a blog post?

I've seen both forms used but am not sure which is the "correct" one, if there's any.


texts: Word for something which is directly related to something else

texts:
Suppose I am planning an event.  I have a list of things like:

Get napkins from Bob
Meet with rental hall supervisor
Buy donuts from Donut-a-thon
Bake vegan cookies

From this list I can extrapolate a list of related items and their relation type like:

Bob / Person
Hall Supervisor / Person
donuts / Food
vegan cookies / Food
rental hall / Place
Donut-a-thon / Place

The list is fairly diverse and each of these items is related directly to the event in it's own unique way.  They are things linked to another thing.  What would you call these?  I'm looking for a single word, not a phrase.

"Relatives" and "Associates" are perfect when it comes to describing humans who are related and associated.  But what about non-human things which are related or associated?

I'm basically looking for a synonym to "Related Thing". e.g.,

The napkins are related to the event therefore they are a _____ of the event
The chalk is related to the chalkboard therefore the chalk is a _____ of the chalkboard


texts: Should an acronym that is ending a sentence have a period?

texts:
As an example, I have written this sentence: "People are trying to stop them from doing this in other countries, such as the U.N."
Should this have a period at the end?


texts: IBM used the words "Toxic combinations of duties" in an advert. Does that dilute the current/popular meaning?

texts:
This IBM advertisement uses the phrase "toxic combinations" of duties to sell a security product.  As someone who has 20 years of experience in social services and IT Security, this usage is off-putting and I can't articulate why.

Can someone help me parse why this this usage doesn't seem appropriate, or... explain how I can justify its usage here


texts: What does "premium" mean in "ten reasons to go premium"?

texts:
I have a requirement to translate a sentence to Farsi. It's a game that says:

  Go premium to receive some more options...

I don't know what is the exact meaning of premium. Any details about the grammar and meaning would be appreciated.


texts:
I found the phrase “... the horse which ran was not the horse nor of the age which he was represented to be at the time of entry ...” in a sentence of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York 9 Executive (E) - Chapter 1, Subchapter A : State Racing Board Thoroughbred Rules, 4039.19. [→]

Is which wrong in the phrase above, or is it the exact word as the horse is a brute animal?

To be clear, which is grammatical : "... the horse which ran ..." or "... the horse who¹ ran ..."?

¹ See the following nGram for "cat who" (cat: no brute), "dog who" (dog: no brute), "horse who" (horse: brute) and "bull who" (bull: brute).


texts: Is the word order correct in my sentence?

texts:
Could you please tell me if the word order in this sentence is correct or not?

Olga sat in a comfortable armchair cross-legged, enjoying her deception the same way she had been on too many occasions before.


texts: Was just reading a thread concerning the verbs "go" and "come" among others.  The sentence I'm using is "You can go play."  Wondering how to diagram the "go."  Initially I wanted to use "go play" as the intransitive verb but now I'm thinking there should really be an "and" between "go" and "play."  Any thoughts on diagramming this sentence?


texts: Someone who does not readily give praise or credit to others

texts:
I am looking for a word or words to describe someone who does not give praise or credit to others too readily.

To expand on what I'm looking for, imagine a Martial Arts Master teaching his Student a specific move. The Student gets the very basic concept of the move right but it does not satisfy his Master. The Master will refuse to praise his Students efforts and insists he practices more.

The student practises the move for days with his Master without any praise from his Master until one day he executes the move to his master sanctification. Only then does the Master give praise, and even then the praise is restrained.

Back to reality. I could say the master is very tough and unforgiving with his teaching practices, but the words tough and unforgiving require context for them to have any real meaning. So the word has to be understood on it's own.

Another way to look at it is in terms of facebook Likes. There are people who will like everything their friends post even if it's very insignificant, for example, posting a picture of their cat asleep. On the other hand there are others who would not click like or comment because a picture of cat sleeping is not something they would waste precocious praise on.

I hope I have given you guys any idea of what I am looking for and that a word exist in the English language. If it doesn't then who do I have to speak to to the invent one


texts:
A friend of mine and I were debating the usage of "arouse" and "rouse" in a specific sentence. I do understand that arouse and rouse are nearly same in meaning; still would like to know more properly.
Which of the following sentences makes more sense?

The launch of the app would be very rousing.

The launch of the app would be very arousing.


texts: Antonym of a musical or creative "influence"

texts:
If I were composing music or some other creative media, you might say that my work is "influenced" by this or that person, or that this or that person is an "influence".  If I wanted to express that my work is also in direct opposition to another artists' work or style, is there a word that describes this?  A sort of "anti-influence", if you will.

Thank you in advance!


texts:
Can anyone tell me which of the following making sense? more used or has correct grammar?

From your mobile device, you can now watch and get alerts of what's going on at home.

You can now watch and get alerts of what's going on at home from your mobile device.


texts: "Deprivation" and "privation" seem to have the same meaning: the denial of material essentials or comforts. Isn't the prefix "de-" redundant? Is there a difference, either in literal usage or connotation, between these two words?


texts: How do you describe someone who is into incest?

texts:
pedophile - one who is into pre-pubescent children

_____phile - one who is into incest?

Is there a single word that fits into "He's a ______" to describe someone who is into incest?

A hyphenated word is fine.


texts: Can "me, too" be used to reply to a negative statement?

texts:
A: I can't understand why my parents keep me from buying fast food.
  B: Me, too. It's delicious.

Does B's answer sound natural?

In Korea, we usually teach that we should use 'me, neither' in a negative sentence, 'me, too' in a positive sentence. But I am not sure if this is always true.

I think that 'me, too' is a valid response in this particular case, but one of my students said that 'me, too' is grammatically incorrect, so it is unnatural.

Who is right?


texts: Does the phrase "on the night of the first day" include two prepositional phrases?

texts:
I'm not sure but I believe that the phrase:

"on the night of the first day" consists of two separate prepositional phrases.

the first one [on the night of the first day]
the second [of the first day]

Is it correct to have a prepositional phrase embedded in another prepositional phrase?


texts:
There are several words for types of words. For example, a "synonym" is a word for words with similar meanings, "demonym" is the word for a word describing a resident of an area, and "noun" is the word for a word for a thing.

Just out of curiosity, is there a word for these words?


texts:
Whenever I type powerfulest in a word document or on here it’s always flagged as a grammar error.
I immediately consulted google and found some entries in low end “dictionaries”, but came across this reddit post:
"Powerfulest" isn't a word, and words are not real words until Merriam-Webster or OED recognizes them.
So, in your opinion what’s the verdict on this one?


texts:
I want to describe: a job-position that is given to someone as a way to appease the person, but the position holds no real function.

Context:

  He was, due to his importance to the secret project, offered an honorary ____ with disproportionally lucrative payment.

The job is given by the authority to the person as a way to basically bribe him with undeserved salary, because he won't be given any real task. The emphasis here is payment, and not power, so "figurehead" would be inappropriate.


texts: Which one is correct? earth treasures , or earth's treasures

texts:
I want to know which one is correct?

We illuminate earth treasures.
or
we illuminate earth's treasures.


texts: Can we use "whisky" to describe a squirrel going up a tree?

texts:
I am confused that the term "whisky" is used in the poem The Squirrel to describe a squirrel going up a tree (though 'whisky' denotes a drink). According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "whisky" denotes:

  NOUN

  B2 a strong, pale brown alcoholic drink, originally from Scotland and Ireland, made from grain such as barley, maize, or rye

But confusingly, this word (whisky) is used in the following poem:

  The Squirrel (Anonymous)

  Whisky, frisky,
  Hippity hop;
  Up he goes
  To the tree top!

  Whirly, twirly,
  Round and round,
  Down he scampers
  To the ground.

  Furly, curly
  What a tail!
  Tall as a feather
  Broad as a sail!

  Where's his supper?
  In the shell,
  Snappity, crackity,
  Out it fell.

Please pardon me, if I am mistaking the poem.


texts: Singular or plural following a list of singular items

texts:
Here's the sentence:

  I know what if, him, his, and will means/mean.


texts: Question about specific sentence from book:

texts:
I'm currently reading a book called 'Quit' by Susan Cain, when I read the following passage:

  A former UN peacekeeper, he once was ambushed in Somalia, yet I don't think he felt as scared then as I do now.

To me this sentence sounds really odd, I think it should be either:

  A former UN peacekeeper once was ambushed

or

  As former UN peacekeeper, he once was ambushed.

However a friend of mine argues that it is correct which is why I came to ask this question here.


texts: What are the differences between "to write" and "to be writing"?

texts:
"I answered the phone in my apartment and heard the sloping drawl of one of my students, Travis. "Miss Diana," he said, "Could you come on down the stairs a minute?"
It was early May on the Great Plains. The University of Nebraska had just let out for the summer, and there was an aroma of pasture and cow everywhere, even —when the wind was right — at the center of the city. I didn't want to be in Nebraska. I was 26 years old, and I wanted to be writing novels, not grading papers on detasseling corn."

These sentences have been transcribed from the following link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2004/07/11/the-goddess-of-flowers/f0ca69bf-fb03-47e2-bd6a-460073fbdf52/
If I write I wanted to write novels instead of I wanted to be writing novels, what differences will arise?


texts: I want to know usage of infinitive as adverb

texts:
for example.

she lived to be ninety

what does that sentence mean?

Is it meaning of "she lived in order to be ninety" or "she lived and just became ninety"?

I have learned it as she lived and just became ninety. but I do not understand why.

infinitive used as adverb has the intention, but I have learned that is "result" so she lived and finally she became ninety years old. that is what I have learned. could you explain why it has meaning of result?


texts: How did 'ply' evolve into these 4 different definitions?

texts:
ply = {with object}
  1. Work steadily with (a tool)

  2. {no object, with adverbial of direction} (Of a vessel or vehicle)
  travel regularly over a route, typically for commercial purposes

  3. (ply someone with) Provide someone with (food or drink) in a continuous or insistent way

  3.1. Direct (numerous questions) at someone:

  [Etymonline:]
      "work with, use," late 14c., shortened form of applien "join to, apply" (see apply). The core of this is Latin plicare "to lay, fold, twist,"
   from PIE root plek- "to plait, twist" ...

I wish to dig deeper than the definition, which I already understand and so ask NOT about. I heed the Etymological Fallacy. What are some right ways of interpreting this etymology (to naturalise or rationalize it), so that it feels reasonable and intuitive?

I omitted the rest of Etymonline that concerned archaic linguistic variants. OED also inundated me.
How does "to lay, fold, twist" evolve into the above 4 definitions?  How do they relate  to each other?  I'd guess that ply is a cognate of the French « plier », but this doesn't help,
because « plier » is much narrower and means only 'to bend or to fold'.


texts: What is the question tag for sentences whose subjects are "none...is" and "each...is"?

texts:
I know that  indefinite pronouns like none and each take singular verbs, but what about their question tags?

None of the boys has passed the test, ________?

Each of the girls was given a prize, _______?

What are the question tags for these two sentences? Should the question tag’s verb be in the singular like the subject or plural because we’re talking about all of them?
What about that question tag’s pronoun? Would gender come into consideration?


texts:
Could you please tell me how I could replace "more or less" to make it more formal in the following sentence:

"Those behaviours are more or less dangerous to them"

I've been looking for a correct sentence for a while, but it seems that my brain has blown a fuse. Thank you!


texts: A hypernym for 'insects', 'worms' and the like

texts:
From Oxford:
insect:

any small creature with six legs and a body divided into three parts. Insects usually also have wings. Ants, bees and flies are all insects
Insect is often used to refer to other small creatures, for example spiders, although this is not correct scientific language.

worm:

a long thin creature with no bones or legs, that lives in soil

long thin creatures that live inside the bodies of humans or animals and can cause illness

the young form of an insect when it looks like a short worm

I find both these definitions oddly restrictive. Insects have 6 legs and worms (in the primary sense) have none. The other senses of worm are also specific. There are many small creatures who do not fall into these categories. Centipedes definity have legs, and a lot more than six. Is there a common (not too scientific) word to refer to all small creatures?

A bug doesn't work, as is defined as

chiefly North American A small insect:
a thick green scum which crawls with bugs, centipedes, and worse

Insect, not creature, not worm. Also note the exclusion of centipedes from the umbrella of bugs. In fact, Oxford defines centipedes exclusively in scientific terms.

A predatory myriapod invertebrate with a flattened elongated body composed of many segments. Most segments bear a single pair of legs, the front pair being modified as poison fangs.

Although Oxford here lists an informal sense of insect:

informal Any small invertebrate animal such as a spider or tick.

It curiously drops this definition in the advanced learners' version. Moreover, it's reluctant to use the term in its own definition of spider:

An eight-legged predatory arachnid with an unsegmented body consisting of a fused head and thorax and a rounded abdomen. Spiders have fangs which inject poison into their prey, and most kinds spin webs in which to capture insects.

Questions:

Is there any word, preferably not too informal, which would include all small creatures like insects, worms, spiders and centipedes; without having to resort to biological jargon?

Also, how right/wrong is it to use insect or bug for this purpose?


texts: What is a word for one who is depended on by another?

texts:
What word can fill in the blanks in the following pair of analogous sentences?

If B is necessary to A, then A depends on B and A is dependent.
If B is necessary to A, then B __________ A and B is _________.

Is there a word, the opposite of "dependent", meaning "is depended on"?

Edit: 'requisite' fits the second blank:

If B is necessary to A, then B __________ A and B is requisite.

I don't know a form of 'requisite' that can fill the first.


texts: On a peculiar use of the preposition/adverb "out"

texts:
It can be placed before the stem of many a word to produce verbs of a very distinctive kind! For example:

outdate, outgrow, outlay, outlive, outmatch, outnumber, outrun, outsmart, outsource, outstrip, outweight, outwit,...

Is there another preposition/adverb in the English language that when used as a prefix originates such a noticeable amount of new verbs? Is there a generic term that can be used to refer to preposition/adverbs of this persuasion?

Thanks a lot for your patience and continued support!


texts:
While writing a sentence , I used all of my books  , I got stuck with the usage of "of".

Which of the two shall I write:

  all of my books

vs

  all my books


texts: "He denied having killed him" vs "He denied he had killed him"

texts:
I'm trying to understand the perfect aspect of the verbs and I am not sure whether both are correct:

  He denied having killed him

  He denied he had killed him.

If not, what is the problem?

And one additional question, is deny to correct? I have seen it often on the Internet - He denied to ever be there. I have read that deny to is incorrect.


texts: Is there a word to describe the act of discussing a problem and avoiding solving it?

texts:
I would like to pin it to my company's noticeboard.

I'll give an example scenario... at work today a colleague encountered a problem, and solved it quickly, but needed their manager to speak with a different team's manager to help avoid the problem in the future. However, rather than my colleague's manager quickly speaking with the appropriate team manager, he had a 30+ minute discussion with a different manager about the problem, which yielded no useful results.

I'd love a word or phrase, something to "brand" this type of scenario, so that I can politely and humorously warn people about the dangers of wasting time by unnecessarily chewing over simple problems that could be solved easily.

I thought about words like 'fusspot' (worrier, stickler, an anal person) but it's more the act that I want to describe. So I thought about 'time-wasting' but that's far too general. Thanks for any suggestions!


texts: Not sure "will be" is used in this sentence correctly

texts:
WordPress 5.3 was released just a few hours ago. It will be the last
major WordPress release of 2019.

I copied the above two sentences from one of the most popular blogs.
What I want to know is, is above sentence is grammatically correct or not?
I feel like it should be,

WordPress 5.3 was released just a few hours ago. It was(or is) the last
major WordPress release of 2019.

because it already happened.

I think it as following sentences.

WordPress 5.3 will be released tomorrow. It will be the last
major WordPress release of 2019.
WordPress 5.3 was released just a few hours ago. It was the last
major WordPress release of 2019.


texts: What do you call someone who leads a visitor from the office reception to the office premises

texts:
What is the name of the person who takes a visitor (guest, client, etc.) from the reception area to the inside of the office premises?

Many times when we will go to office, the office receptionist call to an employee to let the visitor inside the facility.

For example:

  The photocopier repairman is here.
  We need a ______ to take him to the photocopier.


texts: What is a word or phrase for something that, though you wouldn't have reasonably believed it to be real, actually turns out to be true?

texts:
As an example:

Me: "Did you hear about the congresswoman who believes in Jewish space lasers?"
You: What are you even talking abo...oh my goodness; are you serious?!"


texts: Do you use 'who' or 'that' when referring to people

texts:
There were 10 people who went to the store, vs. There were 10 people that went to the store.
 Can we not consider reversing the subject and verb to ask a question and thus aid us in clarifying the answer? Wouldn't we ask "Who went to the store?" and not "That went to the store?"


texts: "Nobody ever joined" vs "Nobody joined at all"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Usage of “ever” in a negative statement

Yesterday I read a discussion here and I still cannot figure it out. What is the difference between the following:

  Nobody ever joined

and

  Nobody joined at all

I assume both express that nobody joined, not a single person but I still tend to use "ever" only with present perfect and cannot feel the difference here.


texts:
I don't know, but I think that you can use these verbs optionally, because according to my dictionary, "out" is in brackets. I don't know if there is a slight difference between these 2 verbs.

[intransitive, transitive] to have difficulty breathing or speaking
gasp (for something) He came to the surface of the water gasping for air.
gasp (something) (out) She managed to gasp out her name.

Couldn't be "She managed to gasp for her name"?


texts: Why does "information" not have a plural form?

texts: Why doesn't the word information take an "S" in English even if the meaning is "plural"?


texts: Is there a word for "air can pass through it"?

texts:
If light can pass through an object, or if you can see through it, it is transparent.

Is there a similar word for "air can pass through", or you can breathe through an object? This adjective would be used to describe a screen door, or certain types of fabric.


texts: Formal word/phrase for "in one big move"

texts:
I'm working with the sentence:

  The company raised over $1 billion, __________ placing it in the top
  band.

I initially considered "in one fell swoop" but this seems to be a stretch, typically the idiom is used to describe doing multiple things at once. Moreover, it's too casual for my application.

What formal choices might work here? (can change conjugations of my existing words around if necessary)


texts: Is "a-blink" an adjectival form of "blink" in old days?

texts:
Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean of victory and devastation.  And presently his eyes were rewarded: out through that doorway came a long, low, yellow-and-brown beast, with eyes a-blink at the waning daylight, and dark wet stains around the fur of jaws and throat.

I can't find this "a-blink" in the dictionary, so I presume this word is no longer in use. Is it an adjectival form of "blink"? And could it be replaced by blinking these days?


texts: Is "human-made" an appropriate, non-gendered alternative to "man-made"?

texts:
Surprisingly, this word returns very few "meaningful" results on Google (like texts, blog posts, articles, etc) using it. It seems to be a new word. Yet, the OED gives no hits.

Is this an appropriate non-gendered alternative to man-made? For instance,

  Poverty is a human-made phenomenon.

Since it still contains the word "man", some might say it is not. Yet, to my understanding, human has a much broad meaning than just a male person.


texts: Chewing corn for gummy parrots? (Meaning? Origin? )

texts:
What does this saying mean and it's origin?

I heard it on Coronation Street a few years back - spoken by the late Blanche at Peter's Aa meeting.

Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e54gzq5Xr0Y

She says it around 1.10


texts: Is "communicate through writing" correct?

texts: If they communicate primarily through writing on social networks, teenagers can lose the feeling of real friendship.


texts: Formatting and ellipses when quoting parts of a list

texts:
When quoting a list not in its entirety, but only the points 2–5 of 10, how do I set out the quote? Do I add "..." at the beginning and end of the quote as shown below?

  ...

  2. At all material times, [the Subject Member] was a member of the Union.

  3. [The Subject Member] regularly worked out, including weight training.

  4. During the relevant period, on two separate occasions several months apart,he did not attend the meeting.

  5. It is the not common for this person to miss work.

  ...


texts: What is the meaning of "as the appreciation" here?

texts:
As the appreciation of justice and the desire to act to further it,
  conscience is based on a rational appreciation of the well-orderedness
  of a benign God's plan for the world.
  Thomas Acquina on the Passion by Robert Miner

Conscience can appreciate or generate the appreciation of justice, and can generate the desire to promote it, but it is different from them both. So to use the conjunction word “as”, for me, is to reduce conscience to things it generates. Therefore I think the sentence is written loosely. Do you have a better explanation which will do more justice to the author than my version?


texts: What's the word for 'online-extrovert-offline-introvert'?

texts: What is the exact word (not necessarily a single noun) to use for a person who seems to be introvert when in real-life, but is very much extroverted and free when they talk to you online?


texts:
I have tried researching this topic on grammarly and on this website ("Was" or "were" in subjunctive clauses), but still am unsure.

Which is correct?

His gaze turned up, as if there were an imaginary light bulb there.

Or

His gaze turned up, as if there was an imaginary light bulb there.

I say “were” because I think this is subjunctive, but my friend says it’s “was.”

Thanks


texts: Why do people say "It was a busy four days"?

texts:
It was a busy four days

Is the sentence correct? Why "it", and why "a busy"?


texts: Why isn't it appropriate to use an exclamation point in an essay? And how can I get around that?

texts: I am currently writing a research essay for my English twelve class, and we are not allowed any exclaimation points whatsoever. But this one sentence is something I feel absolutely requires it! HELP: How was it not the same way when our parents were kids? Because while the population of stranger-danger between now and the eighties may be the same, but media accentuates that number, sensationalizing cases, transforming the stranger-danger issue into a ferocious epidemic. Even as children, our parents had free reign over the entirety of the cities or towns in which they lived. We can't even go next door anymore!


texts: "Will" vs "is going to" for predictions, what is considered an evidence?

texts:
So I know we use is going to for predictions with evidence, and will for predictions without evidence, but I've read some examples that made me very confused about what evidence actually means.

Take a look at these examples:

  George is very clever. He [will / is going to] pass the exam.
  The earth is very crowded. People [will / are going to) live on the moon.
  The country's energy supply [will / is going to] increase after discovering a new natural gas field.


texts:
What does "plenary intervention" mean, for example in the following sentence?
The country chose to provide a record of its plenary intervention on the agenda item for the informational annex to the report.


texts: Sounded like an exclamation, in a movie. It was used when some family members meet each other after a long while.


texts: Looking for a word to describe a person who is all talk and no action

texts:
With all that's going on with EA and Star Wars Battlefront II right now, I've been trying to think of a word... For the last decade gamers have been complaining about lack of originality and microtransactions and day 1 DLC, and yet they still buy these games anyway. There's a picture of a Steam group for boycotting Modern Warfare, and almost everyone in the group is actively playing Modern Warfare.

So what what would be a good word to describe these people who complain about games with day 1 DLC, and then they buy the game and the DLC the day it comes out? People who say they want to boycott a game, and then immediately buy it and can't put it down? People who are all talk and no action.

I was thinking of the word hypocrite, that's close but I don't think that is quite what I'm looking for.


texts: A word for the property of scaling distance between two endpoints?

texts:
Scalability is defined as the capacity to be changed in size or scale.

In Computer Science, the term is often used in a context such as scalable networks, scalable algorithms, etc.
However, I want to use a word metaphorically similar to scalability, given the following situation.

  A system which is capable of providing real-time data over the network
  where the distance between the sensor providing the data and the
  receiver can be increased if required without noticeable effect on the
  rate of transfer in given ideal conditions.

Is there already a word for the above?
Can I term it as space scalability?
Would space scalability be correct to use in an academic context?


texts: Correct use of the present participle of verb "to pacifiy"?

texts:
I wonder if this expression can be correctly formulated and completed
using the present participle pacifying of the verb to pacifiy
as an adjective at least, instead of pacifist.

He/she is a pacifying person.

This is what pacifying tends to do:

  tending to calm the emotions and relieve stress.


texts: In how many inflectional forms can a verb be written English?

texts:
I want to know the number of inflectional forms of a verb.

I came to know from one of my colleagues that a verb has 13 inflectional forms ('conjugations,' that's what he named it). Is it true?


texts: Should "is...." be always considered as question sentence?

texts:
Should this always be considered as a question? or there is exception?

  In figure A: is the frame bigger then in the figure B.


texts: Stupid question #1 "would have" or "would"

texts:
I have this sentence: "Sometimes you can find friendship where you would have never thought you would have"

Why is the last part of the sentence "you would have" and not just "you would". Please guys help me out..

I got this from non-native speaker, and i got curious because it sounds weird to me.


texts: Can "advise" be used with the definition of "advice"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “Advise” vs “advice”

I've seen twice in in 30 minutes how someone had said that they wanted advise on [...] subject, or how they needed advise on [...].

Is this correct?


texts:
Trump recently tweeted:

  ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?

How do you parse the sentence in bold? "We have taken... but Israel for that..." seem to be contradictory. Or perhaps there's a 'would' missing before the first have?


texts: How does 'to partake of' mean 'be characterized by'?

texts:
Please help me dig deeper than the definition below, which I already understand and so ask NOT about. I heed the Etymological Fallacy. But what are some right ways of interpreting the etymology, to make the definition feel reasonable and intuitive?

  3. partake of [Oxford Dictionaries] = Be characterized by (a quality)

How does (the particle) of  cause partake of to diverge in meaning, from 'partake in' ?

I don't quote Etymonline, because it http://www.thesaurus.com/#discusses only the different 'partake in', about which I'm NOT asking here.


texts:
Texting is a word for sending a text message via the Short Message Service (SMS) and available in cell phone services now, distinguished from email.

But I would like to know how strictly you use those words. When you are asked to text a message, should it mean strictly texting via SMS? When you say to someone "text a message", do you expect only texting via SMS or either way--texting or emailing?


texts: How to explain that a place has alternative names?

texts:
I am trying to explain to someone that Sao Paulo´s airport can be referred to in different ways. I believe my text is incorrect but I do not know how to fix it. Is the following phrase correct?

"You may find it by the name of GRU airport, Sao Paulo International Airport  or Guarulhos airport."


texts: A word for a person or group of people that are always in search of something or someone. Kind of like a fanatic

texts: I'm trying to find a word to describe the act of always to be on the outlook for a specific object or idea. My character is really compulsive when it comes to symmetry. He is always trying to find the perfect symmetrical correspondent for what he needs... Does anyone have any ideas?


texts: English equivalent of "Always looking out the window"

texts:
In spanish there is ventanear and its derived terms, meaning to look out the window, in a busybody/nosey way. (It could also mean to peep into windows, in some places, but that's not important). It is literally derived from ventana (window).

Is there an English equivalent word or phrase? It brings to mind Gladys Kravitz from the show Bewitched. I know busybody is partly close, but it doesn't require peeking or watching from afar.


texts: What does “Mitt Romney pretends to be a Nascar, cheesy-grits guy” mean?

texts:
In New York Times (March 17) article titled, “Is Elvis a Mormon?” Maureen Dowd criticizes Mitt Romney as his manner being so “inauthentic.” She says:

  “You can’t find him anywhere. Is he the guy he was on Wednesday or the guy he was on Thursday?”

and then,

  “Mitt works overtime pretending he’s a Nascar, cheesy-grits guy and masking his pride in his bank account and faith.”

To me, Nascar is the abbreviation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Does this mean he enjoys car racing as a racing driver?

As for cheesy –grits, www.mrfoodcom defines it as “a recipe for classic down-home cheese grits is chock-full of sharp Cheddar cheese.”

What does Mitt Romney pretends to be a Nascar, cheesy-grits guy? What do “a Nascar” and “Cheesy-grits” symbolize? Is Dowd trying to say Romney wants to be seen by voters, just as a commonplace person and a docile husband, not a plutocratic politician?


texts:
Police cars or ambulances have lights on their roof, which are on when the sirens are on. What are these lights called? Is it something like signal lights or alarm lights?

I am looking for an official term/word.

Example sentence:

  ……………… create an interesting atmosphere at night.


texts: What word best describes a line of posts connected by a retractable belt?

texts: I was at a building that I've never been to before, and someone directed me to follow the samtons to the other side. I am hard-of-hearing, so I wasn't able to fully hear how they pronounced it, but I got a pretty good idea of what it sounded like. It was something like samtons or hamptons. They are usually placed on both sides to force people to walk in a narrow line, sort of like a one-way maze.


texts: In the Dickensian era, was a capital letter preserved through apostrophe contractions?

texts:
Assume that a certain word is capitalised, for example "Microsoft."
Say (for whatever reason, perhaps slang) you were going to shorten that certain word, using an apostrophe.
Today, I'd say we would write: 'soft
(So for example: "I've worked at 'soft for years...")
We would not keep the capitalisation through the contraction.  (So, I'd say, we would not write "I've worked at 'Soft for years...")
Question: what happened in 1850?
(Of course, the overall study of changes in capitalisation is a big topic; hopefully there's an expert here.)

Still very little information on this, other than one (great) example found by Stoney. Anyone??


texts: What is the right way to express a work relationship

texts:
I want to convey the idea that the actor worked in Quentin Tarantino's films in his early days --> early days of the actor, not Tarantino.
Which version is correct?

He worked in three other films by Quentin Tarantino in his early days. --> This may read like I am talking about Tarantino's early days, not the actor's.
He worked in three other films by Quentin Tarantino, in his early days. --> Does using the  comma after Tarantino clarify that I am talking about the actor's early days, not QT's?

I understand I can solve this confusion by writing it like this: "In his early days, he worked in three other films by Quentin Tarantino." But, I want to know if there's a grammatical solution in the initial versions of the statements.
thanks


texts: Verbs for powdered milk, hot chocolate powder, and tea?

texts:
What are the verbs for mixing milk with hot water, chocolate powder with hot water, or tea with hot water?
Such as:

  I am preparing my powdered milk?
  I am making my hot chocolate?
  I am pouring hot water with my tea?

It has bothered me for a long time. However, it is a typical question, which can not be solved by dictionaries.

Thank you very much!


texts: What is “Who are ya?” and whence it came?

texts:
“Who are ya?” seems a popular chant or taunt with English football fans, both on and off the stands. Is it a fair assessment that it means to diminish the opposition as unknown and insignificant?

What are the guidelines to its usage? I understand why it is being chanted when the opposition is announced before the match, but I’ve also heard it being used when someone on the opposing team stumbles, or makes egregious error, or otherwise fails conspicuously. Is there specific reason for this, or it was somehow adopted just because it is neat chant? Can it be used against officials? Can it be used against unpopular management (e.g. if the coach or club president present at the game is announced) or players (that had angered the supporters’ community) of own club?

Where did it come from? Is it used by football fans only, widely used across different sports, or it varies? Was this used somewhere outside of football/sport context? Is there any date to its origination or when it started to be used profusely?


texts: Whom or Who in this sentence: These men, all of WHOM or WHO were well-known, well-respected statesmen, were viewed by their peers

texts:
Here's the full sentence: "These men, all of who were well-known, well-respected statesmen, were viewed by their peers and common people alike as great thinkers in their day.

I just can't really see where it would fall into: subject? predicate? object? What would it be?


texts: Is it correct to insert a comma between two occurrences of the same word in different contexts?

texts:
I have the following sentence:

  There are two two-dimensional shapes.

The double occurrence of the word "two" (one to indicate the amount of shapes and another to indicate the amount of dimensions) seems confusing to my eyes. Is it correct to insert a comma to separate the double occurrence?

  There are two, two-dimensional shapes.

I haven't been able to find this usage rule for commas anywhere, but I could have been looking in the wrong places.


texts: Fairly self-explanatory question: can the word “peace” be pluralised? For those that are interested, the reason I ask is because a coworker just scored 60 points against me with "peaces". Triple letter, and triple word score!


texts: What is the word for when something is currently unavailable?

texts:
I think it starts with L (also maybe latin origin)
For example I'm waiting to get a package but I'm not even sure package has been even sent. So package is in L... (maybe not best example, I'm not even sure true meaning of word)


texts: What is the Holocaust, or what was the Holocaust?

texts: I am writing a piece of history coursework about the Holocaust.  One of the section titles is What is the Holocaust, or What was the Holocaust?  Could somebody please confirm which of these two is grammatically correct?  Much appreciated...


texts: What is the single word that means ''how the body feels as it moves"

texts: I posted an earlier query seeking a single word that means how it feels in the mouth to form a word. It appears there is no such word yet, and so I am broadening my search. I am now therefore seeking that single word that references the sensory quality of the sensation of movement of ones body. Incorporating such things as the pleasure of stretching a muscle, the displeasure of moving awkwardly, the sensation when a body is flowing in dance.


texts: An easy way to differentiate between Compendium, Encyclopaedia, and Almanac?

texts:
Are there any tips/tricks for easily differentiating between Compendium, Encyclopaedia, and Almanac?
To give you an idea—the question goes like this: Which reference would you use to find the following information?
Some examples (and my guessed answers):

When Queen Elizabeth II was born.
(My Guess: Almanac, as in calendar)
How long the US Civil War lasted.
(My Guess: Encyclopaedia)
How long a kangaroo lives.
(My Guess: Encyclopaedia)
Who won the Football World Cup last time.
(My Guess: Compendium, as in collection of statistics)
Who invented the zero.
(My Guess: Encyclopaedia)
Who discovered Radium.
(My Guess: Encyclopaedia)

It's very confusing as to which reference each piece of information (above) falls into. For example, it's easy to presume that the information about "Who invented the zero" could be present in an encyclopaedia or a compendium on the discovery of numbers.
So, is there a good way to differentiate between the three?
PS: I am not after a real-world answer, which these days would pretty much always be Wikipedia, an encyclopaedia. :)


texts:
In five years he will come back.
  After five years he will come back.

As a non-native speaker, these two sentences are grammatically right for me.  But semantically speaking, I think there is a slight difference. Could anyone explain the difference to me?


texts: Word for a person who wants to impose his rules everywhere or advise

texts:
My colleague has always something to advise, whatever you eat or play and he sometimes tries to dig out information from you and again advise on it. I just hate to get any feedback from him: if what I am eating is good or bad or how many people I am inviting on my daughter's birthday (none of his matter)!

I am looking for a word for that type of person.


texts:
Consider the following:

  I'll probably stay at home.

  I'll probably stay home.

Is the second sentence still grammatically correct? Is there any difference at all?


texts:
"The toy train is made of plastic."

Or

  "The toy train is made from plastic."

Which one is correct? Why?


texts: The position of time (e.g. year) in a sentence

texts:
When I was writing a diary, I suddenly came up with this question.
1. I met a schoolmate on Google. She was a graduate of ABC College in 2000.
2. I met a schoolmate on Google. She was a 2000 graduate of ABC College.

I am not sure which of the above sentences is the best.
Could you help me please?
Thank you.

Kitty


texts: Word for someone who is driven by morality

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe someone who is very driven by morality, constantly trying to do what they believe is morally right.

This word would be used in a sentence like "I really admire her; she truly
is a (...) person."


texts: Is it better to use "deliver" or "deliver in"?

texts:
This machine sorts letters into "delivery point sequence," or the
  order that postal carriers will deliver them along their routes.

Is it better to say:

(1) This machine sorts letters into "delivery point sequence," or the order that postal carriers will deliver them along their routes.
or
(2) This machine sorts letters into "delivery point sequence," the order that postal carriers will deliver them in along their routes.

The preposition "in" seems necessary to me, and I'm very interested in reading any responses here to my question.  (The sample sentence is from a USPS TV YouTube video.)


texts: Why is "any ancient civilization" supposedly wrong in this sentence?

texts:
All Middle East people believed in life after death, but the Egyptians of ages past carried this idea further than any ancient civilization.

One of the four highlighted phrases is supposed to be grammatically wrong. The solution is any ancient civilization. Can you please explain to me why. I am not able to find it out.


texts: Is it “You said it, not me” or “You said it, not I”

texts:
Is it

  “You said it, not me.”

or

  “You said it, not I.”

Common usage dictates that it should be “not me,” yet I cannot see the reason. If one were to turn it into a question, surely it would be:

  Who said it?

The answer to which would be:

  I said it. (Instead of: Me said it.)


texts: Use/non-use of articles before Adjective + Abstract noun

texts:
I have confusion regarding use/non-use of articles before adjective + abstract noun. Eg. competent handling, prolonged tread life, enhanced durability

Providing COMPETENT HANDLING and PROLONGED TREAD LIFE, this tyre is developed to perform well in wet as well as dry roads.

Or

Providing A COMPETENT HANDLING and A PROLONGED TREAD LIFE, this tyre is developed to perform well in wet as well as dry roads.

Please tell me the general rule in such circumstances.


texts:
In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (book 1 of "The Fellowship of the Ring", chapter 7, "In the House of Tom Bombadil", specifically) the character Tom Bombadil sings many of his lines (much of which is nonsensical), eg.

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! \
Ring a dong! hop along! fa lal the willow! \
Tom Bom, Jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

or, an example which contains actual words:

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow; \
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.

Tom's prose lines also follow the same meter and mode as the verse, eg.

  'Here's my Goldberry clothed all in silver-green with flowers in her girdle! Is the table laden? I see yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread, and butter; milk, cheese, and green herbs and ripe berries gathered. Is that enough for us? Is the supper ready?'

Or later:

  'That is right!' said the old man. 'Now is the time for resting. Some things are ill to hear when the world's in shadow. Sleep till the morning-light, rest on the pillow! Heed no nighlty noise! Fear no grey willow!'

The placement of punctuation and the stresses force you to read the prose lines almost as if they too were verse, but it's not a mode which I recongize.

The only thing which I can find that has a similar meter is Cædmon's Hymn, and old english poem which Tolkien most certainly would have read, given his academic background. It has a famous Latin translation by Bede that follows a similar syllabic structure and meter to Bombadill's rhyming:

Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni caelestis,
potentiam creatoris, et consilium illius
facta Patris gloriae: quomodo ille,
cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit;
qui primo filiis hominum
caelum pro culmine tecti
dehinc terram custos humani generis
creavit.
omnipotens

What is this mode or style called, and what are its defining characteristics?


texts:
The article of New Yorker (November 21) begins with the following sentence under the title “Obama Goes Big on Immigration”:

  For a two-term President whom his critics used to call “the
  speechifier,” Barack Obama has given surprisingly few memorable
  speeches, and none for quite a while. Sometimes his speechwriters
  over-egg it, and his language seems a bit stilted. -- Thursday night’s
  much-anticipated address on immigration -- was an extended statement
  rather than a full-blown speech, and it was much better for it. It was
  direct and to the point and it was relatively short—about fifteen
  minutes.
  http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/obama-goes-big-on-immigration?

What does “go big” mean? Did the President make a spectacular speech? What is the single alternative word for it?

Oxford Dictionaries carries ‘Go (come) over big” as an idiom, but not “go big,” nor Cambridge Dictionaries Online shows “go big.”

Google Ngram shows that the usage of “go big” peaked in mid 1930s (0.0000020019 in 1935) and has been dwindling down to 0.0000010228% in 2000.


texts: Use of 'female' and 'male' (in science fiction)

texts:
Often in science fiction when someone refers to a male or female member of some other species, they use terms like "the klingon female". This also happens between members of that species, so if a Klingon was to refer to a female of their own species, they would refer to her as a "klingon female". For me as a native German speaker, this sounds rather weird as in German this kind of wording would only be used when referring to animals (e.g. female dog) and it sounds rather derogatory. When referring to humans, in German you would always use the equivalent words for "woman" or "man". I have also (rarely) seen that usage in English language non-science fiction movies used on humans.

So my question is, in English is the use of "female" or "male" to describe a person of either the same or an equal species derogatory or not? Are there any connotations to that that I don't get? Is this usage fine among humans (in the real world)?


texts: What does "extend your house" mean? Is it correct to say "expand your house"?

texts:
"You can add value to your house by extending or renovating it."
I came across this phrase in Oxford dictionary. But I cannot really understand why the word "extend" is used here. Could you please explain what it means. Can we use the word expand here? Will there be any difference in meaning?

And another question:
The company plans to extend its operations into Europe.
The company plans to expand its market presence in Europe.
What's the difference between these two phrases? Can we interchange the verbs extend and expand in these phrases?


texts: Is it popular to omit "as" while using "consider this one that one"?

texts:
I found an interesting quote in this post.

  I believe if we love something and have fun, we tend to self teach and
  learn at a rapid rate. I also consider confusion a starting state for
  learning. It opens us to new patterns emerging. - Author: Todd Rice

Is it necessary to insert an "as" into "consider confusion a starting state" which produces "consider confusion as a starting state"?

... or thanks to @TrevorD's comment, insert "to be" into "consider confusion a starting state" which produces "consider confusion to be a starting state"?

The key is to insert something, in case someone has unclear pronunciation, low voice.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  A number of questions “has been” or “have been” asked?

Which one of these sentences is correct?

  The number of students are increasing.

or

  The number of students is increasing.

Initially I thought the first option wass correct, but later in the solution section of a book, the answer shown is that the sentence is with "is" not "are" is correct.

Am I correct, or is the book correct?


texts:
What does the word "foil" mean in the following quote from the New York Times?

  Some Republican strategists say Mr. Trump might be missing an opportunity to be seen standing up to anti-Trump sentiment.
  “You’d be well served to come to California and speak to his base back in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania,” said Rob Stutzman, a California Republican strategist who works out of Sacramento.
  “This is a president that loves foils,” Mr. Stutzman said. “California would be a great foil for him.”


texts: What term is used to describe a team chartered to solve a problem?

texts:
I am struggling to recall a term that defines a team of people that is organized around a charter to solve a problem.

It's a term I've run across recently and I'm unable to recall it.  I'm hoping that others may be able to share suggestions.


texts:
Is there any idiom or expression for this:
To make a conversation and talk about many different and irrelevant subjects, keep changing the topics frequently and so.
Thanks


texts: How would you rephrase this to be in passive voice?

texts:
We gave the teacher a few gifts and a card.

This confuses me because I can see the teacher receiving the action of being given something, but also the gifts and card receiving the action of being given away

This is how I presume it might be:

  A few gifts and a card were given to the teacher by us.


texts: What is a synonym for "controversial" with a more neutral connotation?

texts:
When things are described as "controversial," it's usually done with a negative connotation, as in "a controversial new law that many feel restricts their freedom." It seems people tend to describe something as "controversial" only if they personally disagree with it.

I am looking for a word that has the same meaning of "causing equally strong opposing views" without that negative connotation. The only synonyms I have found so far are "contentious" and "argumentative," which both have the same negative connotation of someone deliberately trying to provoke an argument.


texts: Word for a someone who likes food or likes to eat.

texts: Not necessarily greedy but someone who can't say no to food or easily attracted to food. Not to excess, not selfish either. In someway like a curious child who keeps eyeing your food or a child who would snatch food like it is his/her own.


texts:
I'm attempting to describe the process of changing the sign of a variable (in a math/programming context), but I'm not able to come up with a singular word for that process, even though it seems like there should be one.  I presume I could use "negate," but that already has meanings in regards to logic, where you can turn an argument p into not p, and in regular English, where it means "to nullify" and "to cause negative results" - both of which, though particularly the first definition, are not completely accurate in regards to the actual process.

Succinctly, is there a single word (as opposed to a phrase) that means "to change the sign of"?


texts:
The "imperial we" is when the Queen of England uses the word "we" in situations that a speaker/writer would normally use the word "I".

From Merriam Webster, second definition of we: "used by sovereigns —used by writers to keep an impersonal character".

Here is the wikipedia page on it also if anyone's curious.

What is the etymology of this practice?  Which queen of England first started using it and why?  I have had difficulty finding any source on this.

Edit: someone has linked to this as a possible duplicate; however it has no additional information on the etymology that I have already linked to (which is the wiki on the royal we).

All the wiki page says is that "William Longchamp is credited with its introduction to England in the late 12th century, following the practice of the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs."

So William Longchamp isn't really the origin of the concept, but the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs is.  Does anyone know anything more?


texts:
The agency developed a modus operandi for such situations.

Is "modus operandi" italicised in such a sentence as this?


texts: What is one word for phone number, email address, skype?

texts:
On a web site I have contact details section. This section can contain phone number, email address, personal site, etc. And I have button to add new item for contact details.

What is more correct form for 'Add ...'?


texts: What does misplaced apprehension entail?

texts: For listeners, you need not to fear all such apprehensions are misplaced—there will be no indifference in the national grid?


texts:
Whilst teaching phonics today, we encountered the word 'through' and I was asked 'What is it called when four letters make one sound'?  It's a fair question and I haven't a clue!

None of the phonic support sites seem to have the answer either.

Obviously not a digraph or trigraph....... a 'quadgraph' perhaps?!

Help!


texts:
I’m making a comic in which I’m recreating these posters, but with aliens, instead of rats.

Now, my first thought was xenocide, but that pretty much just means “genocide of an alien species” ever since Orson Scott Card's book where I think he created the word.

But rodenticide has -i- as a connector, not just -cide so could xenoicide or alienicide show what I’m trying to say?

My question is, which one of these words (or maybe ones I haven’t thought of) most appropriately conveys "alien poison" in one word?

Thanks for the help, guys.


texts: Does the change of "y" to "ies" in plural form of words have a phonological explanation?

texts:
I've been looking for phonological rules or explanation for the change that occurs in -ies ending plural form but all I found was : When we have a vowel before "y" we add "s", such as "boys".
When we have a consonant before "y" it becomes "ies", such as "bunnies"


texts: "No, I don't" or "No, I do not" in responding English questions

texts:
Consider:

  A:  Do you like ice cream?
  B:  No, I don't.

Usually in a grammar book when you answer someone's question with negation, you'll use a shortened answer like "I don't". I know you can answer with a fuller response like "No, I don't like ice cream" but why should it be, "No, I don't" rather than, "No, I do not"?

This has been puzzling me for years. I think both answers are acceptable to me. I just want to know if there are any syntactical rules behind this.


texts: Whimsical: "Lost the rag". Origins and just what is "the rag" anyway?

texts:
Just a whimsical question...

When one says that they have "lost the rag" - it usually means they've gotten impatient or lost their temper. But what does the 'rag' refer to and how did the phrase originate?


texts: What is the difference between an item of clothing and a piece of clothing? Can I say "three pieces of clothing" or "three items of clothing"? Are they used identically?


texts: Notable English grammar rules changes in modern grammar books

texts:
Modern English grammar books like English Grammar In Use, first published in 1985, for example, has four editions till now, I am wondering if there are any notable worthy examples of changes in modern English grammar rules that differ in these editions.

Note that this question is not about random examples on top of your head, its about documented changes in grammar rules in editions of grammar books authorities, like Cambridge, Oxford, Longman, etc. so that your examples given are quotable in references.

A quick possible example I can think of is the use of stative verbs in progressive tense, like I am loving it. Well accepted nowadays it may be, but if it wasn't yet documented in one of these grammar books editions, I can't accept that as an answer to this question. Another quick example may be the shift from I/They shall to I/They will, but again, need to be documented.

This question can be easily answered if you can provide a link to one of these grammar books authorities (not any highschool textbooks), which lists out the differences/updates in their editions. But so far I tried couldn't find any.

Feel free to provide just the name of the books and their editions that you knew contain such grammar rules differences and I can go look it up myself.

Differences between different publishers (e.g. Cambridge vs Oxford) is also acceptable.

Meaning, spelling differences are excluded. Same audience, no British vs America. And only modern English, no old English comparison please.


texts: What does the use of a double em dash signifiy?

texts:
When watching The Man who Laughs (1928), at 40:14 the line, also pictured below, "Hey — — we saw her first!" appears.

What does the use of a double em-dash signify here?


texts: "Call" as a noun that is not for naming or ringing up

texts:
Although I now know the meaning of "call" in these examples:

You need to make a judgement call
Not this time sorry, though it was a close call
What do we do now? Your call

— they were quite confusing initially. How come that a word the primary purpose of which is to denote naming / asking to come / ringing up happened to also have the meanings in the examples above? What is the (hi)story of these meanings of the word "call"?


texts:
Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was
  still alive and well behind the locked door. (Harry Potter)

Do you call the that-clause as an adverbial clause, or a noun clause in apposition with the previous noun? If you call it an adverbial one, what would you say it modifies?


texts: Additive as in additive manufacturing, i.e. in 3D printing for example. How can traditional processing methods, like a lathe for example, be described? I believe I have seen ablative being used in this context, but I can't find it being used like that on the net. Is subtractive the right choice?


texts:
The pronoun 'you' can be used both as a singular and a plural pronoun. However, it is never paired with 'is' and always with 'are'.

Why is it that 'you' is considered plural?

My guess would be that it has something to do with its etymology: perhaps it was derived from a plural form which is why it remains so to this day. However, if anyone has any further clarification that would be greatly helpful.


texts:
Firstly I am not English native speaker so when speaking we might speak English but the sentence structure in daily use might be different, but since I got a message from my family this morning I have a question.

The message is

  "I brought food my mother bought me yesterday as today's breakfast."

I know you can use 2 different past tense (not in the same kind) but the one I gave you might not fall on this category.

So I have another question. If the above sentence is wrong. Can you help me make it right.


texts:
What's the proper response to this

  Linda: "Let's meet outside the library."
  Lucy: "____"

A. Is 6.30 all right?

B. Yes, let's do it

C. How about meeting again?

D. I'd like to go to the library

A and B both sound fine to me but which one is correct? :D


texts:
I frequently see the abbreviation "No" to mean "Number" (or "Nos" to mean "Numbers") instead of the much more common meaning of the word (a negative statement or denial).  Sources cited here say it's the correct abbreviation, but don't really explain why it got that way or why it remains true today.

This seems odd because of
(a) the strong negative association with that choice of abbreviation, especially when letters are used instead of a direct symbol,
(b) the availability of other abbreviations like "Num." or "Nr." or "#", and
(c) the fact that the English word "Number" doesn't have an o in it (the abbreviation makes more sense in Spanish, for example, as short for "Numero," but even there it's reportedly not used without superscripts due to confusion with "no" as a negative word).

Why does English use "No." as an abbreviation for "Number?"


texts: Why did only English undergo the Great Vowel Shift, making pronunciation stray so far from spelling?

texts:
Lots of people have wondered why English seems to be one of very few languages with such irregular spelling, far from its pronunciation. The answers include the Norman invasion, and the Great Vowel Shift.

Ok, cool. But why did all those other languages not have the same thing happen to them?

German, Spanish, Italian, all Slavic languages, etc. They don't have a silent 'e', they don't have the day/date poke/soak treat/tree vowel dualities, etc. They still ascribe vowels the same sounds they ascribed them many centuries ago.

Is it because England had more trade contact and colonies? Or because they're on an isolated island? Or why?


texts: Is there a word for when you grab somebody, spin them around, and throw them?

texts:
I've seen a move like this in games like Tekken and Yakuza, typically by characters with unrefined fighting mastery. Below are links showcasing the move in question in both Tekken 7 and Yakuza Kiwami 2, respectively.

Tekken

Yakuza

I'm curious as to whether or not there is an official or a colloquial term for this kind of barroom-brawl-style fighting move. Thank you in advance!


texts: Is it more common for the noun "research" to be stressed on the first or second syllable among educated native speakers of American English?

texts:
Which of the two common pronunciations of the noun research is more common among educated native American English speakers?

/rɪ ˈsɝt͡ʃ/ with the stress on the second syllable
/ˈriː sɚt͡ʃ/ with the stress on the first syllable


texts: while as a time linker or as a contrast linker?

texts:
Consider this quote:

  When these cells switch on, it triggers a loss of consciousness. After SWS, REM sleep begins. This mode is bizarre: a dreamer’s brain becomes highly active while the body’s muscles are paralysed, and breathing and heart rate become erratic. The purpose of REM sleep remains a biological mystery...

source: http://www.chemwatch.net/186247/what-happens-in-the-brain-during-sleep

In the sentence "a dreamer's brain becomes highly active while the body's muscles are paralyzed", do you think the word "while" indicates contrast here, or is it used a s time linker, meaning "when"?


texts: Usage of the word "truancy" in a workplace context

texts:
I recently made this personal discovery of the word truancy. It means:

  the action of staying away from school without good reason

I am wondering if there's a parallel to this word for workplace or professional settings.

All I can think of is absenteeism, but it doesn't capture the essence of truancy.


texts: If you say you want something to occur with a "small amount of ease", what are you actually saying? I understand that the intention of this phrase is typically that you want something to be done easily; but, does it literally mean that something should be hard?


texts:
What is the best way to punctuate interrupted dialogue? I have seen it done like this, but I am not sure if it is correct.

"In my opinion the best w--"

"Nobody is interested in your opinion," Fred cut in.

I think that this is called an em dash and that some softwares will put the two hyphens together to make a single, long em dash.

If this is the proper way to signify interrupted speech, is it OK if the software does not join the hyphens into a single em dash. Are two hyphens OK?


texts: Is there a generic word in English that means "through time"?

texts:
I know "temporal" means "to do with time", but I'm looking specifically for a term that means "spanning time" or "over time". Not necessarily all time, as "eternal" would mean, nor do I want to necessarily imply anything about the span of time (e.g. being long or short).

Upon reflection, I guess "temporally" is actually the closest word to use. I was just hoping for a word that meant literally "spans time". I guess the implication of using the word "temporally", because it deals with time, also often implies over the course of time.

However to illustrate the difference, I could use the term "temporal locality" to mean things that are close together in time (a term we use in Computer Science). In this case, "temporal" refers specifically to the concept of time, not the concept of something spanning it (it generally refers to two points in time that are close together, and points in time do not "span" time).

Update: Here's a much better example, though it's specific to programming: let's suppose we deal with the concept of locking an object. We might say that an object is "temporally locked" which means that it is locked with respect to a certain time; but we might also want to say that it is locked through time. I'd like to be able to say the latter with an adverb such as "it is locked _____". Since temporally locked already means something else, we need a distinction.

I honestly don't know if such a word exists, and it's more out of curiosity than anything, but thanks to all the folks who have contributed ideas. :)

Update 2: I've thought of another way to formulate my request. Think of it perhaps as the opposite of a specific point in time. In other words, a word that means "not restricted to a particular point in time". I think perhaps that's a better example than my lock example above.

I like the word chronological for this reason, but chronological also implies the concept of order and specifically progression through time, which isn't really part of this concept. Indefinite also works, to a degree, but as the term doesn't involve time itself, it would have to be temporally indefinite. This is very close, but again, a single word would be awesome.


texts: Do I replicate an experiment n times or n-1 times for a total of n experiments

texts:
I have an simulation I want to run a total of n times. (I defined the parameters of the simulation myself, so it's not something from someone else I am trying to duplicate.)

Do I then say that I replicated the experiment n times, or n–1 times?
How many replications are there?

If I can only speak of the n–1 replications, then how do I elegantly refer to all the simulation runs?


texts: Hypernym for "today", "upcoming", and "past"?

texts:
I am creating an app where people can look for yard sales in their area. They will be able to look for sales going on today, coming up in the near future, and sales that are past.

Here is an example sentence, used when the user does not select a ____ by which to filter:

  "You must select at least one ____."

As you can see, Time, or Date seem a little awkward in that sentence.


texts:
In order to  address traffic jam and reduce carbon footprint
In order to  address traffic jam and to reduce carbon footprint

Which one is correct?


texts: Easy trick to remember difference between beside  besides

texts:
I really struggle with these two. I never seem to be able to remember when to use the right one. All my english teachers so far told me the difference but still I'm not able to remember the difference.

Does anyone have a trick how to remember when to use the right one?


texts: Why is 'X notwithstanding' more correct than 'notwithstanding X'?

texts:
Bryan Garner. Garner's Modern American Usage (3 ed; 2009). p 575.
This excellent answer by user 'Sven Yargs' introduced me to it.

notwithstanding is a FORMAL WORD, used in the sense "despite," "in spite of," or "although." E.g., "Notwithstanding an outpouring of editorial opinion on either side of this issue, there are no easy answers." [Citation omitted.]
The question that literalists ask [about notwithstanding] is, What doesn't withstand what else? Is the outpouring of opinion "not withstanding" (i.e., subordinated to) the lack of easy answers, or is the lack of easy answers "not withstanding" (subordinated to) the outpouring of editorial opinion? Because the former is the correct reading, some believe that notwithstanding should be sent to the end of the phrase in which it appears: The family's objection to the marriage notwithstanding, as opposed to Notwithstanding the family's objection to the marriage.
But the literalist argument is very much in vain, as the OED attests with a 14th-century example of notwithstanding as a sentence starter. This usage has been constant since from the 1300s to the present day. In fact, the construction with notwithstanding following the noun first appeared more than a century later, and has never been as frequent. ...

Thanks to users 'ScotM` and the aforesaid 'Sven Yargs', I now understand that:

Notwithstanding X, Y. ⇔ X canNOT withstand Y ⇔ Y happens, despite X. ⇔ X is subordinated to Y.

But I don't understand the sentence in grey above. Please see the titled question.


texts:
One definition of sport is:

  an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Is there a word for:

  an activity involving mental exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

AKA (e-sport), but not all mental exertion/skill based activities are done on a computer or game platform. Would competition be the best word use (I feel like this word can apply to either physical or mental events though)?


texts: Looking for word/expression/idiom that describes "difficult to describe driving directions"

texts:
On lives in a part of town which has new roads most cab drivers don't know. In effect, one needs to direct the driver to the part of town, instead of just saying "take me to street X that intersects w/ street Y"

Question: I want say that "I am stuck to hard-to-describe directions, while you're NOT."

My thinking is, "while  I am stuck to less amenable directions"


texts:
I was wondering, how would you best describe the sound a zip fastener makes when it's opened or closed slowly?
You know, that "r-r-r-r-r" kind of sound?

I thought about growling, but that feels too violent a choice.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “… things like this.” vs. “… things like that.”

I have two sentences for both this and that.

This is what bothers me: we have no time to consider late applications.
The letter was unopened; that in itself casts doubt on the inspector's theory.

Does it mean that this must always be used before its referent, while that always after its referent? Any idea is appreciated.


texts:
What's the meaning of troop on in this comment?

  Troop on, brotato. Get well soon.

The comment was made in response to someone who's suddenly gotten really sick and has to stay in the hospital. Is this some kind of slang?


texts:
Usually when introducing oneself, one would say something like My name is..., I am...,  I'm called..., Everyone calls me... or My friends call me.... etc.
A student recently handed me a written self introduction that contained the phrase I am called __________ by everyone and to my native mind there is something that just feels off about that. However a sentence like I'm called __________ by my friends, while not too different sounds a lot better to me.
Can someone please elucidate if I am called __________ by everyone is grammatical or not and explain why, or why not?


texts: Which word should replace 'so-called' here?

texts:
In another post's answer, somebody used the phrase

  The company sends out the documents on the so-called 'Despatch Date'

and disliked my suggestions of 'defined' or 'term of art' in place of so-called, since he thought so-called could mean known as as well as the usual meaning of 'called so by some, but not by me'.
I have two queries arising out of this:

How many people agree with the original poster, i.e. think the above phrase needs no amendment for so-called to mean "known as" or "defined by the company"?

And (assuming it does need to be changed), what is the single word that should replace so-called to mean known as?  I know there is one, but it's driving me mad not being able to recall it.