texts: "With" used to introduce a clause. What is the name of this construction?

texts:
Would anyone happen to know the name of the following grammatical construction that I've italicized below (the clause beginning with "with")? My searches have been unsuccessful.

This process mirrors what happened elsewhere in the world, with our species establishing its rule over the Earth within a relatively short time in evolutionary terms.

In the sentence, the preposition "with" is introducing a clause. However, I haven't been able to find information on "with" being used in this manner.

Also, if anyone has time and is interested, would they be willing to paraphrase the sentence above? I would like to see how others interpret it.

Thanks for your time...


texts: What's the English version of the German "oder?"

texts:
In German, you often add the question word oder after a statement (", oder?") to ask whether the statement's correct. What is the equivalent of oder in English?

I always begin sentences with this scheme and then don't know how to finish them. Must I change my question structure for such questions?

I know that you can ask whether a statement's correct by asking a negative like this:

  You were in school last week, weren't you?

With this, you also have to restructure your sentence in most cases

How about this?:

  You were in school last week, right?

Is this structure used often or is this just a bad solution to the problem?


texts: Small person who takes on a powerful task or job

texts:
What is an English term for a small person who takes on a powerful task or job to feel bigger?

When I say "small", I'm not referring to physical size, but to pettiness and feelings of powerlessness.


texts:
I can find references to each in many online dictionaries, but few will reference both of them. So the question remains:

What is with the difference in spelling between "Locator" and "Locater"? Is one proper and the other a popular misspelling, or is there a nuanced difference between the two words? (Or, even more interestingly, both)


texts: English proverb for when a solution comes too late

texts:
In Flemish we have a saying "Vijgen na pasen". Translated: "figs after Easter".
It means a solution comes too late to be of any use.

What is the English equivalent for this?

Some googling gives me "Closing the barn door when the cow has bolted", but the explanation seems to point more towards the wrong solution for a problem.


texts: Single word, or phrase of two or three words, for "regular customer"?

texts:
Is there an English single term for a regular customer who, because of always buying from the same seller, acquires a discount from the seller and might also treat their relationship as that of being a friend?
In our language (Filipino), the seller calls a regular customer [a] "suki".
Patron sounds like a supporter of a cause, and habitué doesn't have the connotation of friendship. Is there a more suitable term for it in English?


texts:
Is there any rule that describes the cases when one can use a river's name as an adjective and when it should be with the -ian suffix?

There is the so-called Danubian corridor, but it's the Danube Delta
There is the Autonomous Dniestrian Territory, but it's the Dniester Canyon.
There is the Middle Dnieprian dialect, but it's the Dnieper Upland.


texts: What is the word for the study of witches and witchcraft?

texts: Is there an academic or scientific word to describe social or humanities studies focusing on witches and witchcraft? I expect it to be some something-o-logy? Compare with cryptozoology.


texts:
People say that Indica Indians of Peru were the first people to grow potatoes as a crop.

As I understand it, the passive tense is:

  It's said that potatoes were first grown as a crop by the Indica Indians in Peru.

But why in this sentence we say 'were' - past simple, whereas in the following sentence:

  The prince is believed to have been assassinated in his bedroom.

we use, 'have been' instead of 'was' assassinated.


texts:
I was wondering where the term, "mate," is most popular? When I think of the term, "mate," I think of Australia and England, but I was wondering if anyone else has some input on this.

Mate here is defined as meaning anybody. I do not mean the verb nor do I mean it as a spouse. Example in a sentence: "Hey, mate, can you give me a hand with this?"

Thank you all in advance.


texts: Is there a word for taking a spouse's name?

texts:
I'm looking for a verb that describes adopting a name specifically when a spouse takes their partner's surname. I feel like there should be a word for it.

  When they married, Kate ____, but after the divorce, she retook her maiden name.

I've tried looking for this word on Onelook, Google, and Wikipedia without any luck. In the case that it doesn't exist, can anyone think of a neologism or portmanteau that could equate the meaning of adopting or taking a spouse's name?


texts: Verb to describe water "hitting" an object from a relatively high place?

texts:
Example:

  A pan being hit by a continuous flux of tap water.

I think hit is too strong for this sentence? Is there a better verb to use?


texts: Connoisseur could be used for any knowledge?

texts:
According to wikipedia, a connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connoisseur

Is there a connoisseur of English (language)?
Does the person really not attend a formal education for achieving it? only by experience of his/her english?


texts: ”voice controlled” versus ”voice activated”

texts: While researching a computer game, I came across the terms “voice controlled” and “voice activated”. What is the difference between them?


texts: Is this sentence from Andrew Carnegie ambiguous?

texts:
This is Carnegie's defense of competition:

  It is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department.

What is the function of the prepositional phrase "in every department" here?

It modifies "the fittest". (the fittest in every department)
It modifies the verb "insures". (to insure X in every department)


texts:
At the time of this writing, Chinese stocks are up since the bear market bottom in 2005.
How come it's not "stocks have been up"? I thought we should stick with the perfect tense with the word "since".


texts: "Which embodiments the embodiments refer to IS / ARE unclear"

texts:
I'm working on a translation with a few variations of this sentence:

Which part the underlined "drawings" refer to is unclear.

However, this has tripped me up:

Which embodiments the underlined "preferred embodiments" refer to (is/are) unclear.

The original language is conveniently structured such that it unambiguously reads "(The uncertain situation of) which embodiments the underlined "preferred embodiments" refer to is unclear.  But is the English syntax the same? Or should "be" agree with "embodiments"?


texts: When I read some events map, I found loops used wildly. But some equipment watches like Timex used laps. What's the difference, how can I use them correctly? Please also give some sample if possible.


texts: What does "can be said to do / to be" something mean?

texts:
The various modern revolutions in physics, in psychology, in politics, even in literary style, have not escaped his intelligent notice, but they can scarcely be said to have influenced him deeply.

(Source)

Could you please explain the following?

They can scarcely be said to have influenced him deeply.

Or, I can not understand such a structure like the following:

In contrast, prices set by a central planner are necessarily arbitrary, since there is no standard against which they can be said to be correct or incorrect. d'oh!


texts: Which is correct, "politics is out of scope" or  "politics are out of scope?"


texts: How can I understand : "I consider my plan to study"

texts:
How can I understand this? : "I consider my plan to study"

I am considering some plan to keep(or start) my studying.
I think my plan is to study.

Which one is closer to original meaning?


texts:
In an english subtitle of a movie, i met a following sentence:
"if you have criticism of our management, we'll all ears, but please air those concerns through the appropriate channels".
What does the phrase "Through the appropriate channels" means? Is this expression formal?
After searching, i found the use of the phrase https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/channel :
"Complaints should be made through the proper/usual channels". Is the meaning of the two phrases same?


texts: What is the connotation or meaning of "exclusive thinking"?

texts:
How should I interpret the expression "exclusive thinking"?

The expression "exclusive thinking" is one I've seen in criticism against some views or opinions that are called "exclusive thinking".

Is "exclusive thinking" like a "cognitive bias" or a bias, does it depend or context, has a certain connotation depending on the speaker as it seems it is refered to both as negative and positive depending on context.

This expression has also been translated literally to my native locale (.se "exklusivt tänkande") where it is basically solely used to criticise views and opinons that are referred to as "exclusive thinking".

Does it mean to take something out and focus only on that thing and everything else is irrelevant? If so, then isn't it the same as a "selection bias"?

Update

The closest wording I can remember (inexact) that preserves the larger meaning of what was said is close to

  Religious fundamentalism is exclusive thinking and exclusive thinking should be avoided.


texts:
In the article about Dismaland there is a paragraph saying:

  Inside the walls of a derelict seaside swimming resort in
  Weston-super-Mare, UK, mysterious construction over the last
  month—including a dingy looking Disney-like castle and a gargantuan
  rainbow-colored pinwheel tangled in plastic—suggested something big
  was afoot. Suspicion and anticipation surrounding the unusual activity
  attributed to fabled artist and provocateur Banksy has reached a Willy
  Wonka-esque fervor. Well, if Banksy’s your bag, continue
  fervoring. If not, there’s more than a few reasons to continue
  reading.

I don't really get the meaning. Does it refer to people buying souvenirs there and stocking them in their bags? I'd be glad for any help.


texts:
What's a more positive way of saying that someone is "rebellious" or doesn't like to conform to rules or conventions? Synonyms like "defiant" and "recalcitrant" seem too negative.

I want to complete the sentence:

  "Like any ______ teenager nowadays, I dislike following imposed rules, and I want to follow my own path."


texts: I'm having a hard time to decide between the correct form. Is it "help us decide" or "help us to decide"? Please also state the reason for your answer. Thank you very much!


texts: Phrase for poetically skipping a word because it's been previously said

texts:
A professor of mine once used a phrase or term for skipping a word of a poetic statement that has already been said. His example was that "a stitch in time saves nine" should really be "a stitch in time saves nine stitches", but since you already know the subject of the sentence, it can just be skipped over.
Does anyone know a phrase to describe that?


texts: What is the correct punctuation to use before the details of an item in a bulleted list?

texts:
The examples I found use single words or phrases. I can't find the answer for my case, but that could be because I don't know what you would call this introductory part of a bulleted list or what keywords to use. If I want to provide more details or definitions after an item, do I use a colon, a period, or just add the details in a new paragraph? Also, what is the bolded item called before its details or definition (if it even has a name)?

E.g. (I've seen this done before, but I don't think that is the correct use of a period)

To stay in compliance, consider the following:

Local-level laws. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
State-level laws. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Federal-level laws. Lorem ipsum...

or

To stay in compliance, consider the following:

Local-level laws: (details)
State-level laws: (details)
Federal-level laws: (details)

or

To stay in compliance, consider the following:

Local-level laws—(details)
State-level laws—(details)
Federal-level laws—(details)

or

To stay in compliance, consider the following:

Local-level laws

(details)
State-level laws

(details)
Federal-level laws

(details)


texts: How does the to infinitive work with adjectives like "wrong" and "wise"?

texts:
You were wrong to pick that car
I was wise to go home that day.

I can't quite explain how the to-infinitive modifies the adjectives here. It's similar to sentences like "It's nice to see you" and "It's good to eat your vegetables" but "it" is an expletive pronoun while "you" and "I" are not, so I have a feeling how it modifies the adjective gives a different meaning. Would you reword the two sentences on the top like this:

You picked that car, and you were wrong.
I went home that day, and I was wise.

If so, I don't see how that rewording relates to the way the to-infinitives modify adjectives in sentences like "This car is easy to drive" or "I was anxious to go home."


texts: Word choice: "accept", "sign", something else?

texts:
I had sent an express mail to my friend several days ago, which contained some documents. After checking online, I can see the express mail has been delivered. Now I'd like to write an email to my friend to ask her about it.

When referring to the delivery, should I ask her if she "accepted the documents", "signed the documents", or something else?

In Chinese, we usually say something like "Have you signed and accepted the express mail?" But I'm not sure what the proper way is to say it in English.


texts:
What's the difference between a picture and an image?

I think this is the missing question as these have already been asked:

Picture/Photo

Image/Glyph

Photo/Image


texts: Has "was" been left out before shown because of parallelism?

texts:
If this work could be discovered, it might, he thought, in all probability be restored. Some of the country people were therefore seized, and, inquiry being made of them, the line of the canal was pointed out, and the place shown at which it had been derived from the Nahr-Malcha.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16167/16167-h/16167-h.htm


texts: Mixing British English and American English

texts:
I'm a non-native English speaker and as such, I was taught one variety of English In school--in my case, American.

However, I've also been extensively in contact with British English, and now I prefer some spellings, like -re instead of -er in theatre, ou instead of o in colour, or manoeuvre instead of maneuver (I also have conciously changed my pronunciations of certain syllables, but that's different).

What would you think if you found someone who used American structure, but certain British spellings consistently (not at the beginning of an essay center and later on theatre)?

Edit: If it isn't too odd, is it excessively pretentious?

Thanks in advance for your time.


texts: What does 'underwriting' mean in this context?

texts:
In the following excerpt, how should I interpret underwriting, is the word synonymous with justifying? If so why is that word used outside of am insurance context?

Given to mystical preoccupations, this android proposed the group escape attempt, underwriting it ideologically with a pretentious fiction as to the sacredness of so-called android “life.”


texts: Definite article in the headlines containing ‘of’

texts:
I’d like to know if we should keep an initial 'THE' in the titles of scientific papers, articles or finale papers of students, if they contain 'of'?

For instance:

  The concept of truth in the work by Dostoyevsky.

Should we keep the initial 'the' or leave it out like we do in newspapers titles? Or we should keep it because of OF?

Thanks in advance.


texts: What is the proper/formal names for these rooms?

texts:
Question 1:
We just moved into a new house with a very unique layout. I'm wondering how to describe some of the rooms using formal definitions.

The main floor has an open-air space that is pretty versatile — it could be a living room, or it could be a dining room, we haven't decided ourselves yet — and extends upwards two floors.

The term atrium seems to fit as there are windows that go up one whole side of the area, but I wasn't sure if that term was traditionally reserved for non-residential uses.

Great room also seems to apply, though it's not necessarily a vaulted ceiling and therefore doesn't fit Wikipedia's definition.

What is the difference between an atrium and a great room, or is there another word that would describe this room more formally?

Question 2:
The upper level of our house contains three separate areas — a landing/den, a wide space used as a bedroom in the past, and another space that is currently my office. These upper rooms are bordered by a half-wall on the sides that face the great room/atrium/whatever.

This area seems too big/complex to be considered simply a loft. Is there another term to describe it?


texts: Would 'Google' be a synecdoche or a metonymy of the internet and technology?

texts: I want to write an opening for my essay, but I'm not sure which term to use: metonymy or synecdoche. I have a feeling that it is a synecdoche because Google is a part of the Internet, but I would like confirmation.


texts: Mr jack asked African countries to withdraw support to India in all international platforms

texts:
Can't it be 'withdraw support from india' ?

Why is 'to' used in given part of sentence 'withdraw support to india' ?

"Mr jack asked African countries to 'withdraw support to India'."
 Explain diffrence between 'to & from' specific to this sentence.


texts: What is a word that describes something that (potentially) never existed?

texts:
Is there a word that has a similar meaning to (potentially) "never-existent"?

For example:

  "John claimed that the potentially never-existent journal was 'lost'."


texts:
Is it wrong to use "The Albatross is now on the sky"?

Is it like we should always say "The Albatross is now in the sky"?

I would like to get an explanation for this. Thanks.


texts: Which does English “l” and “r” sound come under, an allophone or different phonemes?

texts:
I was very much embarrassed when I was pointed out by ELU Senpai that I made a great mistake by misspelling ‘Mod election’ as ‘Mod erection’ during ELU chat.

We Japanese often make a silly mistake of mixing ‘l’ and ‘r’ characters and sound in writing and speaking, as we don’t have ‘r’ sound. We pronounce Lace and Race with the same sound “lehsu -レース.”

I understand Chinese have distinction of l and r sound. Particularly Beijin locals are well-known for frequent use of r sound, which is known for the word, "R化－R-lization" in speaking.

I’ve read that English l and r sound come under allophone (or phoneme.)

Kenyusha’s Readers English Japanese Dictionary provides definitions of both ‘allophone” and “phoneme,” but both in scanty two lines. It reads as if both ‘allophone” and “phoneme” are akin, which I’m doubtful of vaguely.

What is the difference of ‘allophone” from “phoneme,” and to which of them do English ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds come under?

Addendum:

Also We do not have θ and ð sound AndrewC has referred to in his comment. We cannot tell the difference between θ and ð, and pronounce both with s sound, e.g. “think” and “sink,” “thick” and “sick” in the same way.

Until post WW II, most Japanese couldn’t pronounce v sound, though there was the letter ‘ヴ’ to express a 'foreign' v sound (only) in writing. We pronounce “Best” and “Vest” in the same B sound. But because of the influx of American culture and spread of English language, most Japanese come to distinguish b and v in speaking. We also pronounce “cofee” as “koh-hee.”


texts: Word or phrase referring to an author's most famous/noteworthy works

texts: I remember that the most famous/noteworthy works of literary merit are termed the canon,but is there a particular word or phrase that means the most famous/noteworthy works of a particular author?  Could I use "canon" here too?


texts: How to determine the right meaning of 'no not I' ? (1762, UK)

texts:
Source: The original Miller of Dee from Bickerstaffe's "Love in a village" (1762)

  There dwelt a miller, hale and bold, beside the river Dee;
    He danced and sang from morn till night, no lark so blithe as he;
    And this the burden of his song forever used to be: -
    "I care for nobody, no not I, if nobody cares for me.

1. I was reading https://english.stackexchange.com/a/96966/50720 when I lighted upon this, so why  are the problems concerning the accusative (me) vs nominative case (I) here?

How do you determine/deduce what the last line means?

2. I care for nobody, I really do care for nobody, if nobody cares for me.

3. I care for nobody, no not even for myself, if nobody cares for me.


texts: How is the word 'but' used in the famous quote 'What is life but a series of inspired follies?'

texts:
The full quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw:

  What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find
  them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day.

I understand that the word 'but' could be used as 'only' or 'merely'. However, neither usage seems to fit the above quote. For example "What is life only a series of inspired follies?" doesn't seem grammatically correct. I think this is because it is posed as a question rather than a statement - 'Life is only a series of inspired follies' - here 'only' can be replaced with 'but' to give 'Life is but a series of inspired follies'.

Is there another usage of the word 'but' that I'm missing?


texts: Need a word for "situation where something was ignored"

texts:
I need a word for "situations where something was ignored"

Examples:

This was one of the worst ____ of democracy in history

His many ____ of basic hygiene led to his sickness

I was thinking "negligences" but that's not a real word. Something like that.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Are there any words I can use to disambiguate “biweekly”?

Is there a term two designate a frequency of "every two weeks", like "weekly" for "every week".


texts: Can progressive tense be used for the progress of developing habits?

texts:
I have a question about what expressions are more accurate when trying to describe the development of habits in progress.
For example:
1. I am now getting used to getting up at 7:30 am.
2. I get used to getting up at 7:30 am.
3. I get up at 7:30 am.
I think the first one should be correct but we usually use 'get used to' to describe some habits that have already been formed. Can it be used in the progressive tense? Or there is another expression that is more accurate? Thanks!


texts:
I am not sure what difference, if any, exists between the following two phrases:

bias the report in Peter's favor.
bias Peter in favor of the report.

I'd appreciate your help.


texts: Which word would be best when talking about collecting seafood in the ocean?

texts:
I usually use the word "collect" to say taking seafood from the water.
Could I use the word "harvest" to say that?

E.g.

  "Harvesting seafood under the water is difficult."

Are there any other, better options?
Perhaps "picking up" would fit.


texts:
I apologize if this question may seem trivial, but I'm quite perplexed as to what qualifies as an onomatopoeia. Does it simply include written sounds, or does it also include the description of sounds? Here is a quote for reference:
"From somewhere near by came scuffling, kicking sounds, sounds of shoes and flesh scraping dirt and roots."


texts: a comma between day of week and day of month

texts: Should I use a comma writing a date in the format of day of week and day of month only? The month is known from the context, so the date is, for example, "Thursday, 7"


texts:
Why possibly and not possible? What is the adverb "possibly" modifying in this sentence?

  Setting a cut-off date, possibly sometime in the first half of 2018, would aim to protect plants vulnerable to dicamba.


texts: the queen fed her enemies to her dragons

texts:
In matters of government, we often say that a ruler did something when he/she actually ordered a bunch of other people to do something.  For example, we might say, "The queen fed her enemies to her dragons," when in reality she ordered someone to order other people to physically carry her enemies to her dragons.  We can see the same sort of phenomenon in more mundane matters too.  A newly published author might say, "I published a book," when the reality is that a company processed some paperwork and a factory physically produced copies of the book.

Is there a special term to describe these scenarios, in which a single actor is assigned sole credit for a complex action?  Something like metonym, but not exactly, since I'm interested in how we speak of the actor doing something that she couldn't literally do on her own.


texts: Which is correct, me and Robyn are going to the bar, or Robyn and I are going to the bar?


texts: Can I say “on the credit side” in place of “on the positive side” or “on good part”?

texts:
I saw the phrase, “on the debit side” and “on good part” as a contrast in the following sentence of New York Time’s (December 17) article titled “Life Goes On, and ON,” that deals with the opportunities and problems of longevity society:

“Is this (extended longevity) a good thing or a bad thing? On the debit side, there’s the ... debit. The old-age safety net is already frayed. According to some estimates, Social Security benefits will run out by 2037; Medicare insurance is guaranteed only through 2024. These projected shortfalls are in part the unintended consequence of the American health fetish. ---
So what’s the good part? Time spent with an elderly parent can offer an opportunity for the resolution of “unfinished business,” a chance to indulge in last-act candor. ... I hear a lot about late-in-life bonding between parent and child."

Obviously “on the debit side” is used in the sense of “on the negative side,” and “good part” for “on the positive side.”
Can I use “credit side,” the antonym of “debit side” instead of “on the positive side / on the good part” in the above sentence? I mean, can I rephrase the last line as “So what’s the credit side? Time spent with an elderly parent can offer an opportunity...”?  Or is the word, “credit side” only applicable to bookkeeping?


texts: What's the phrase that is used with 'honest' to indicate sarcasm that I am being monitored

texts:
What's it that is used with 'honest' to indicate sarcasm that I am being monitored.

.


texts: Possessives ("his", "her") versus definite article ("the")

texts:
"He led her by the hand."

"I hit him in the jaw."

"She closed her eyes."

In the first two examples one doesn't say "her hand" and in the second one doesn't say "his jaw".  But in the third one says "her eyes" and not "the eyes".

Is there a rule governing the choice between "the" and the possessive forms?


texts: How did the Latin language affect the English language

texts:
As far as I know, Anglo-Saxons and Jutes moved to the British Isle after sometime the Roman Empire collapsed. Therefore, there weren't much cultural exchanges between Anglo-Saxons and the Romans who lived in modern day England.
When we look up the word liberty in Lexico, which is run by Oxford University, the dictionary says the word originates "Late Middle English from Old French liberte, from Latin libertas, from liber ‘free’."
Everything is ok so far and I assume most of Latin words that are used in modern English were derived from old French, which was based on Latin languages itself.
However, when I read the page called " Foreign language influences in English" , I see a pie chart that separates the influence of French language and Latin language, which confuses me.
Are there any "pure" French words which are not influenced by Latin or
are there that many Latin words in English that infused into English directly?


texts: why do some people call green peppers mangoes?

texts: I have heard people from Lima, Ohio refer to green peppers as mangoes.  How did that come about?


texts: Is it true that people are unfamiliar with abbreviations like "i.e." and "e.g." and therefore it is best to avoid using them?

texts:
Is it true that people are generally unfamiliar with abbreviations like "i.e." and "e.g." and therefore it is best to avoid using them in technical writing?

  Avoid abbreviations such as “i.e.” and “e.g.” (Many people don’t know what they mean.)

I saw this advice at https://www.dartlang.org/articles/doc-comment-guidelines/.


texts:
Recently, I've been listening to the song 'Time and Time Again" by Chronic Future (link for those who wish to listen).

Around line 6 of verse 3, the lyric is

  You dig yourself so deep you resist just to resist

I don't know if I'm just having a bout of deja vu, but I'm fairly sure that there is an idiom that refers to the concept of 'resisting just to resist', but I'm not sure if it really does exist or not. If it does exist and someone knows what it is, I request that you tell me, please. Or if it doesn't exist, let me know about that as well. Thanks!


texts: Somebody who is kind, yet hard, but fair

texts:
A person who speaks kindly. Sometimes she might be hard, but fair.

What is an adjective to describe such person?


texts: What words does English have more? Romance or Germanic?

texts: What words does English have more? Romance or Germanic ?


texts: The word for someone who lectures that "there's a wrong way and a right way"

texts:
I'm looking for a word for a person who lectures others, on a trivial topic, telling them that "there's a right way and a wrong way" to do things.

A couple of words come to mind: "rigid", "finicky". But those don't adequately capture how trivial the person's lecturing is.


texts: teacher in English: teacher, instructor, professor, mentor, guru

texts:
I have translated teacher into English. There is: teacher, instructor, professor, mentor, guru.

Hypothesis: teacher is a hypernym; instructor is for driving lessons, climbing, running; professor is a university one; mentor offers private classes only in certain fields; and guru is a term outside of schools for an expert in something.

I am studying the difference between them.

Which one of them is a high school teacher?
How about art school teacher?
How about instructor in car driving?
Is one of them a hypernym?

Note: I prefer the American English.


texts:
Would someone please explain and elucidate these two meanings? Why do they diverge and mismatch? A decree sounds much more prescriptive and resolute than an arbitrary order.

  A formal authorization or proposition; a decree:
  1.1. An arbitrary order.

I've heard of 'fiat currency' and apprehend this, but in the main, how would I determine from the context which of these diverging definitions applies?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?
To hyphenate or not?

Which one is correct?

The normal vector we mean is the inward-pointing normal.
The normal vector we mean is the inward pointing normal.


texts:
I'm revising a text containing these two sentences:

  a) Students’ sex was coded by using their first names.

  b) Students’
  birthday was self-reported in the survey.

I'm sure the correct version should have "students' birthdays" because the rule in English is to use the plural for the possessed objects, even if the possessors only have one each.

But if I apply this logic to sentence a) about sex, I get
"students' sexes" ...
which seems ridiculous. Why? They are both potentially plural, yet each student has only one sex, and one birthday.

I wonder if the parameter "sex" has only a superficial resemblance to the parameter "birthday". Have you any ideas? Many thanks.


texts: Is it "when he's massaging me" or "while he's massaging me" : which one is correct?

texts: In this sentence: "when he's massaging me, I'm wondering about you."  Is the "when" correct or instead of "when" should I use "while"? Or are both correct for the context?


texts: Word for people who change their opinions easily?

texts: I'm wondering if there is a specific word describing this trait. For example if I tend to think that 'If I pass this exam I am a genius, if I fail I am an utter imbecile'?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "throw (someone) for a loop"?

texts:
I was just saying this today and I realized I have no idea where it comes from. What is the origin of "throw (someone) for a loop"?

Some Google searches show that I've been using it correctly and that it generally means to astonish or confuse someone. I've heard it used in this context: "Wow I wasn't expecting that, it threw me for a loop!"


texts: Buy / Bought - are these two words allomorphs (of the "past tense" morpheme), or do they represent the phenomenon of suppletion, or perhaps both? Help!


texts:
I want to express this idea but have never gotten to a point where I feel it's natural.

It would be better for us if I took it instead of him
It would be better for us if I took it than him taking it
It would be better for us if I took it than he took it?

Any suggestion? THank you


texts: Does the word Effortless imply a negative or a positive comment?

texts: I watched a TV show where a group of dancers were performing a number. After that, the host interviewed one of the audience and he was told that the Group A's performance was effortless and gave a low rating to that group.  However one of judges questioned the audience why did he gave a low score if the performance was effortless.


texts:
Could you explain the meaning of the expression "off the clock"?

Do I need to use hyphens as in "off-the-clock"?

I have seen some explanations on the Internet, but none of them seem to be reliable.


texts: What is the collective noun for "clouds"?

texts: I've been looking at various forums with people proposing suggestions, but is there a consensus on what the collective noun is for "clouds"?


texts: Word for redesigning historic items inspired by modern items

texts:
I know of the word Anachronism, which is for an item to be present in a different time period.

I have just watch Robin Hood (2018). In this film the writers/producers have taken inspiration from some modern items for the design of their weapons and clothing.

For example:

The Sheriff's men use crossbows that are short, black, have a 'magazine' of bolts on the top and are fast firing with auto reload. The aesthetic is very close to an FN P90 sub machine gun.
Whilst some lords are dressed in what I would call the "classic Henry the 8th" look, Robin and the Sheriff appear to wear clothes closer to a 3 piece suit.
In the beginning of the film the squad of English archers use tactics that wouldn't go amiss in a modern day Close Quarters Combat and use Bows closer to full Rifles/Carbines and the overall battle feels like it has been shot to replicate a set piece out of a COD game.

All these changes are clearly inspired by modern items/practices but are not full blown Anachronisms as they are not the actual item.

Is there a word for writers/directors re-designing historic things by taking inspiration from modern items?

Edit:
Here is an image that I have managed to grab from a trailer. I will try and get some more tonight.

Whilst the weapon from point 1 is shown, all black with a short stock and top loading magazine, you can also see the guards armour has similar look and feel to modern body armour design.


texts: A Word for Sharing an Unpleasant Experience

texts:
Is there a word for that moment when you experience something unpleasant and feel obliged to share the experience with others?

For example, you taste something horrible and try to encourage others to try it so they can see just how disgusting it is. Or maybe look at something horrible and find yourself encouraging others to look, too.

I guess it's a more specific form of schadenfreude; but does it have its own word?


texts:
..., for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner, as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance.

(My question) What does 'engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance' mean?

Here my ideas.


texts:
The government-issued passport is not up to international standards.

Or

  The passports issued by the government were not up to international standards .

Which sentence is appropriate to use?


texts: The meaning of ‘find’ and ‘break’ in sporting contexts

texts:
The words ‘find’ and ‘break’ appear in the following football (soccer) context, in a manner that does not seem to correspond to any dictionary definitions I can find:

  “Off the post! Another brilliant Chelsea break as Willian finds Hazard who then helps it on to Alonso, his cross is perfect but Giroud's strike crashes against the post! So close.”

(Taken from Chelsea FC’s Twitter feed)

The primary dictionary definition of find is to discover, which doesn’t seem fit in a football context:

  Discover or perceive by chance or unexpectedly

And that of break is to destroy:

  Separate into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain.

So I am unclear of what these words mean in a sporting context.

P.S.

I’d also be interested to know what is meant by “Off the post!”.


texts: Is there a specific term for "conditions treated as though there are OR operators between them"?

texts:
I'm writing a program that generates playlists from a large pool of mp3 files. The program can keep track of total playing time, number of tracks and total size of the files, and can be given upper limits on each of the three.

What I want to make clear in the documentation is that even though any combination of the three limits may be specified, the program will quit after any one of them is reached. Effectively, it treats them as though they were specified with the boolean "OR" operator. Is there a programming term to describe this? My uneducated guess would be to use "the conditions are treated disjunctively" i.e. the logical operation of disjunction is performed on them, but I don't know if this is accepted (or, for that matter, existing) terminology.


texts: How do you say "people, who unfortunately weren't fully exterminated" in English?

texts:
Imagine, there is a social group, which I think is so evil they have to be banished or exterminated.

For example:

  Freedom Party of Austria represents not fully exterminated Nazi scum and their sympathizers

The word I'm looking for should emphasize that I want the Nazis to be exterminated, and - sadly - many of them were not.

How do I say this in English?

In Russian we have the adjective недобитый (when someone was beaten, but not strong enough and/or was injured, but not killed). I'm looking for something similar in English.


texts:
ODO's definition for bottle includes the following:

  2 [mass noun] British informal the courage or confidence needed to do something difficult or dangerous:
  I lost my bottle completely and ran

  bottle out
  British informal lose one’s nerve and decide not to do something:
  the Minister has bottled out of real reforms

Where does this use of the word bottle come from? Both the examples in the ODO definition are negative in connotation; are there positive ones too? Can someone have the bottle to do something?


texts: I'm trying to explain how you react when someone cuddles you and it freaks you out to the point of feeling suffocated, like panicky?


texts: 'polymorphic' is to "many changes" as ??? is to "many behaviors"?

texts:
In an OOP context, "polymorphic" is an imprecise description of class method overrides. The form (or shape) of the method is exactly the same as the base; the only thing that changes is the behaviour of the override by enhancing or (shudder) replacing the base behaviour
I've tried translating "many behaviours" back and forth, but the swamp of technical explanations of how polymorphism works hides any chance of finding some linguistic information
I need a Greek or English linguist to figure out the Anglicized Greek-root compound form as an example, not to try and replace the term in usage
Please advise


texts:
An example would be "It flew over everyone's heads", or "It flew over everyone's head".

What would be correct in this case and why?


texts: Word for website menu button for "miscellaneous" items

texts:
Context: I'm proofing a translation for a website that includes layered menu buttons. The site has many of the typical main menu buttons you see on commercial websites: About Us, Products, and so on. The original text has
"Etc." for one menu button, with the layer under it including "Site Map," "Privacy Policy," "Legal Notices," "Terms and Conditions," and "Affiliates."

"Etc." doesn't really seem suitable here, as it gives no real indication of what is contained under that menu. I looked around online at various websites and did some Google image searches, but couldn't find any similar/relevant name for such menu items. It seems most of the items under this menu tend to show up at the bottom of the page on most websites (particularly "Site Map" and "Privacy Policy"); alas, as it's a translation, I don't get to make the call on how this information is presented, so it stays jammed under a menu button.

I assume it will look something like this on the site:

  About Us | Products | PR Center | Customer Service | ???

Since I'm tagging this under word choice, I'm obliged to offer a selection of words. Here are the ones I've come up with:

Miscellaneous
Etc.
Other
More
Additional Information
References
Resources
Other Resources
Additional Resources

but I welcome any suitable alternatives I'm not thinking of.


texts: Name of languages that don't use English characters?

texts:
I'm trying to name a question of mine:

I'm translating English to Hindi, what's it called when the translations are with English characters?

And instead of naming it: I'm translating English to Hindi, what's it called when the translations are with English characters?

I can name it something like: I'm translating English to Hindi, what's it called when Non-English Character'd translations are with English characters?

Catch my drift?


texts: Does English have a version of "pouring water on a goose"?

texts:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verkan

Det där har lika mycket verkan som att hälla vatten på en gås.
That has as much effect as pouring water on a goose.

It means that something is futile or pointless; the goose doesn't care (almost at all) about having water poured over it; it just trickles off its water-resistant plumage.
Does this Swedish (?) saying have a version in English? Is it literally "pouring water on a goose"?
(In general, I find it highly frustrating to try to find English versions of such "sayings". In many cases, they don't seem to exist at all, or if they do, it's impossible to find by searching and you have to ask.)


texts: Is "A Moveable Feast" more than home catering?

texts:
I read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast before I knew the term describing moveable feast days on the calender. Comparing Hemingway's famous quote about Paris:

  "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

with what happens in the liturgical calender, I can't see what he's talking about.

So, a feast date is chosen because of where it falls in relation to some other annually changing dates; thus it "moves" every year. How is Paris like one of these feast dates, in the way Hemingway describes it? I understand him to mean that you may leave Paris, but Paris never leaves you. But that doesn't mean it stays the same. You don't stay the same. And other places stay with you too. Easter stays the same--same celebration for the same reason, no matter what you do.

Phrase finder traces its figurative usage back to 1882, before Hemingway, to a newspaper from Bismarck, North Dakota:

  The most sublime creation of modern times is the ideal woman of the average man. She is a migratory bird, a sort of movable feast as it were.

But that doesn't have much bearing on holidays that occur on different days from year to year either. The ideal woman is different for every man, and this quote makes her sound fleeting, out of reach. True, the piece hedges with "as it were", but it seems that they are using the expression somewhat idiomatically--the "as it were" suggests that.

From 2000, a book called Spirituality, Healing and Medicine: Return to Silence states:

  "Indeed, maybe the reason that we fail to categorize health is just that we do not wish to locate it, it is a moveable feast."

This idiomatic usage of the term suggests that health is hard to codify or pin down, which, again, doesn't relate with a religious holiday that is classifiable, though it moves.

A radio broadcaster was talking about a Christmas party here in Barcelona that would be at the beach this year. It was on a hotel roof last year. He called it "a moveable feast". He's right; it is a moveable feast, but not by any relationship to the idiomatic use of the term. I'm italicizing idiomatic because, I can't grasp the sense of the idiom, though it exists. In fact, the free dictionary defines it and then discounts its figurative usage.

  Lit. a religious holiday that is on a different date from year to year. Easter is the best known movable feast.
  Fig. a meal that is served in motion or with different portions of the meal served at different locations. (Jocular or a complete misunderstanding of {1} but in wide use.) We enjoyed a real movable feast on the train from Washington to Miami.

This definition seems to be the least like the other usages, but googling "a moveable feast catering" shows that people around the anglophone world are jocularly using the term this way.

My question isn't to do with understanding Hemingway's use of the expression, but what the expression "A Moveable Feast" means at all. Is it right to call it an expression or phrase or idiom? Or did Hemingway just hoodwink us into using some clever bit of liturgical jargon whenever we wanted to say something is constantly changing? If not, if it describes something, what does it describe?


texts: Difference between 'resultingly' and 'as a result'

texts: Dictionaries tell me that they are the same, but I was always suggested to avoid using "resultingly". Why?


texts: Formal, scientific or mathematical word describing the discrimination between "multiple-choice" and "single-choice"

texts:
For example; I am constructing a web page that asks two questions.  The first question is titled Marital status: from a list of choices; there can be only one.   The other is a multiple-checkbox asking Devices owned, here there could be none, some, or all choices selected.

I'm seeking a word which differentiates the two types with respect to how one allows multiple selections, and the other does not.  Words that are close, but don't cut it are things like "multiplicity", "factor" or "deviation".

In computer programming we use such interesting words like singleton, scalar, and idempotent.  Is there a discriminating word for "multiple choice / single choice"?

It's difficult to put into a sentence without getting too technical, I'm building an application that has different strategies for validating answers based on if they are multiple choice or not.   There are two strategies: one for answers that can only have one choice selected at a time, and one that can have N choices.  The "strategy" is used to determine which [insert word] validation strategy to employ.


texts:
Is there a word that describes a person who constantly exaggerates? Exaggerating both facts and their emotions?

Edit: the word should have a negative connotation, as if you are criticizing someone for exaggerating too much.


texts: Should "State" be capitalized on its own?

texts:
Say we had the following:

  Higher Education spending, clout, and influence in New York State is substantial. Within the State’s borders...

Should the latter instance of State be capitalized or not?


texts:
The sentence is,

  The English teacher jumps across the room with a large stick.

Does it mean the English teacher really jumped from one position to another position?


texts: What's the relationship between persons using non-symetrically first-name and Mr. Smith?

texts:
What's the exact relationship between two adult people which call each other non-symetrically, one by first name and other by Mr. Smith?

Many languages have this distinction and I believe the use cases for such assymetrical addressing are not the same. So I'm asking about this in English.

Is it demeaning for the one who is called by one's first name? Do they feel it unpleasant? Is it a sign of patronizing?

Is it perceived as demeaning if a doctor calls an adult patient John but is called himself Dr. Smith? (In my language it would be terribly patronizing and demeaning.)

Has it changed over time? In Jane Austen's there are lots of such examples, such as Emma and Mr. Knightly.

Is it this perceived the same in UK, USA, Australia, and Canada?


texts: Single word for a person who achieves the impossible.


texts: What is the term in linguistics when a word comes to have a new meaning over time, e.g 'wicked' is commonly used to demonstrate this

texts: I'm not sure what to add here. I think the title says it all. I just need to know and would like to try this service because I believe it's really useful.


texts: I see that on the presidential election news these days that "Trump holds double-digit lead in 2 national polls", I don't understand what it means.


texts:
Are there any adjectives that indicates the levels of calmness ?

Especially, words that would fit between "calm" and "aggressive".

Not synonyms but different levels.

For example, it can be done like this:

calmer
calm
aggressive
very aggressive

But can we use different adjectives than using comparatives, adverbs etc. ?  Or should we stick to my example?

Note: For example, I thought using "even-tempered" after "calm" but they are synonyms. (unless there are nuances of usage)


texts: What is the correct way to say the next sentence?

texts:
Spanish is my first language and I just saw a post on Instagram that says "Quality sobriety must include self acceptance" and I want to comment it by saying this:

This is the hardest part for me

Is it correct?


texts:
Somewhat related to this question, but I'm interested in a phrase, not just a single word.

The longest I am aware of is

  A man, a plan, a canal: Panama

Are there longer palindromic phrases?


texts: "Is" or "are"? What is the subject here?

texts:
I have the following sentence:

  One of the most widely used theoretical frameworks for modelling food webs is/are the Lotka-Volterra equations.

Should it be is, referring to "the one most used framework" or are, referring to "the equations"?

I'm leaning towards is, but it sounds a bit weird with "equations" following it.

Thanks.


texts: Pronunciation of "Celt": /kɛlt/ vs. /sɛlt/

texts: Both /kɛlt/ and /sɛlt/ are considered acceptable pronunciations of the noun Celt and similarly of the adjective Celtic. Is there a reason for the different pronunciations? Which is the more common? Is each variant perhaps particular to a geography? Scottish vs. Irish, maybe?


texts: What is the name for the ropes used to define queues in theaters etc?

texts:
You know how a movie theater will sometimes use these ribbons/ropes/chains/beaded-strings on waist-high poles to define a place to form a neat line, divide a larger area, block an entrance, etc.?

For the latter, I think I've heard “velvet rope” used.

But I most commonly see things that are 3 inch wide webbing in a reel that sits on the top of the pole, and this is pulled out to the needed length and the end secured to another such post using a dovetail slot.  There are slots every 90° or every 45° (leaving off the one that's the dispenser).

The old fashion kind are simply large linked chains (yellow plastic, typically) that can have any link hooked to a hook on a post, with the extra length hanging free.

If it makes a difference, I specifically want to refer to the modular adjustable kind, as opposed to a short fixed length like the “velvet rope”.

  The podium held four dignitaries, and (one of those queue-control rope things like you see in theaters) was set parallel to it, herding the guests past them in single-file.


texts: Good book on English grammar from the very beginning

texts:
My wife is fairly new in US and her native language is Ukrainian. Though she is not afraid of speaking english, she does it with lots of grammar mistakes, starting from wrong sequence of words in a sentence to wrong times used to wrong sequence in a question. I was trying to find a thorough book on beginner grammar, but found that most books lack consistency, jump form subject to subject, don't go into deep details explaining rules and don't really start from the very basics.

She will need to take ACCUPLACER exam for nursing program and I'm afraid she doesn't have necessary knowledge to pass the english grammar part of it.

Any recommendations on a good grammar book for a ESL person in need of building a decent grammar base?

P.S. English is not my first language either, so don't pick on my grammar here :)


texts: Is there a word for when people secretly want to fail at something they're doing?

texts:
I'm looking for a word (or possibly a phrase) to describe a situation where someone, usually in secret, wants to fail at something they're doing, or where one or more people want a project that they're part of to fail.

Some examples:

A player is repeatedly not picked for his team's basketball games. After a while, he becomes frustrated and starts hoping that his team lose matches, as it may increase the chances of his coach making a change and giving him a chance.
A software development team is given a difficult project with a very short timeframe. It requires long hours of hard work. Some members of the team want  the project to miss its deadline in order to show management they've been overworked.
A kid is always chosen by her friends to be the goalkeeper when they play football. She hates playing in goals, so starts messing up saves, dropping the ball and such, so they'll pick someone else and let her play outfield.

I was thinking something along the lines of "schadenfreude" (those Germans have a word for everything!) as they're taking a degree of pleasure from something unpleasant, but it doesn't quite fit, as it's their own endeavour and they should, ostensibly, want themselves or their teams to succeed.

Thanks.


texts:
I am using a notification system where I have trouble naming a category of user.

A user can subscribe to the newsletter of the week.

If the user set his settings, and decides to receive the newsletter of the week, he is a Subscribed User
If the user set his settings, and decides Not to receive the newsletter of the week, he is an Unsubscribed User
If the user did not set his settings, he is a ? User. How do we call this category of user?


texts: "Above" or "later" when referencing a range of versions of software

texts:
Which is correct when referencing an operating system version "OS X 10.6.x and later" or "OS X 10.6.x and above"?

Bonus points for providing the why.


texts: Is changing nouns to verbs indicative of the evolution of English?

texts: I have lately noticed a tendency, at least in the US, for sports commentators to change nouns into verbs. For example many American football broadcasters will now say a player "lost contain" of another player instead of "he lost containment." This seems to be improper usage. Is this an example of our language evolving to simpler terms, or is it limited to sports?


texts:
I was looking at the word "riches" and noticed that it doesn't have a singular form. I can have riches, but I can't have a rich.

As far as I can think there are no other nouns like that, apart from nouns like "jeans" or "pants". Even nouns where the plural form is the same as the singular form can have a singular form. I can have fish, and I can have a fish, etc.


texts: Should there be the Past Perfect? “He advised me to do as he said but I didn't pay any…”

texts:
Where is the error in the following line?

  He advised me to do as he said but I didn't pay any attention to his advice.

I am confused what is the error here or even error been there or not?
As far as my grammatical knowledge say that if there are two instances of the past then 'past perfect' will be used in first instance and simple past in 2nd.


texts: What is the origin of the place name "Abbottabad?"

texts: We know that Abbottabad is named after Major James Abbott, an officer in the Indian Army who founded the town. But where does the "...abad" come from? Does it have any relationship to the English word abode?


texts:
When you have too many tasks in your to-do list, you will like to clear them one at a time. Is there another way to say this? Or to say "worrying about the next one only after finishing the current one".

In my native language, we say something similar to "cut one branch at a time (of a tree)"


texts: What does "Moth" mean here in Agatha Christie's Peril at End House?

texts:
'George hasn't turned up,' said Nick. 'A nuisance his having to go
  back to Plymouth last night. He'll get over this evening sometime or
  other, I expect. In time for the dance anyway. I've got a man for
  Maggie. Presentable, if not passionately interesting.'

  A faint roaring sound drifted in through the window.

  'Oh! curse that speedboat,' said Lazarus. 'I get so tired of it.'

  'That's not the speedboat,' said Nick. 'That's a sea-plane.'

  'I believe you're right.'

  'Of course I'm right. The sound's quite different.'

  'When are you going to get your Moth, Nick?'

  'When I can raise the money,' laughed Nick.

  'And then, I suppose you'll be off to Australia like that girl-what's
  her name?'

  'I'd love to-'

  'I admire her enormously,' said Mrs. Rice, in her tired voice. 'What
  marvelous nerve! All by herself too.'

  'I admire all these flying people,' said Lazarus. 'If Michael Seton
  had succeeded in his flight round the world he'd have been the hero of
  the day-and rightly so. A thousand pities he's come to grief. He's the
  kind of man England can't afford to lose.' (Peril at End House, Agatha Christie)

I suppose Moth here refers to an expensive brand/thing but can't figure out exactly what. The phrase in question is bolded.


texts: In “Why do you think this is?” is the verb “to be” a linking verb or a stative verb?

texts:
In this clip, you can hear the following question:

  Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?

It’s not clear to me if the clause “This is” leaves out something, e.g. “This is like that”, “This is true” and so on, or if, on the contrary, the verb “to be” is used here with a full stative meaning, as if it meant “This exists“.

Moreover, is this usage of the verb “to be” linked to questions such as that I gave as an example, or can it also be used in affirmative sentences?


texts: What is the meaning of "These aren't things"?

texts:
An English YouTube teacher is annoyed at some common mistakes his countrymen make. At ~2:20 in this video he says:

Would of, could of, and should of.
These aren't things. Stop.

Why? Is this an idiom, or do I just not understand well?
The presenter is criticizing some bad habits in English usage and pronunciation. After more listening I found out that the meaning of the phrase in question might be this: "These expressions as they are have no meaning, they are incorrect and should not be used." Could this be the meaning of what I was asking about?


texts: Is “release one’s butt cheeks” a euphemism?

texts:
It was interesting to learn that the English language is spoken or heard differently by the person in the following sentence of Tina Fey’s Bossypants, describing the scene in which Tina Fey met Sylvester Stallone for the first time in the rehearsal, and ventured to ask him to enunciate his speech more in a Saturday Night Live show:

  He looked at me. I muttered, “In the Rita sketch, you were a little hard to understand. Can you just enunciate a little more?” Stallone was unfazed. “Youcannunnastanme? Youneeme nanaunciate maw? Okey.” He couldn’t have been more easygoing about it. I went back outside and manually released my butt cheeks.” – ibid Page122

However, I don’t understand what the ending phrase means. I know “butt cheeks.” But what does “manually release one’s butt cheeks” insinuate?

As a non-native English speaker, I cannot judge whether this is a normal, creative, or vulgar expression.  Is this a passable expression to describe an action to release oneself from mental pressure, or just the author’s idiosyncratic phrasing?


texts: Should I use "continue to be" or "continue being"?

texts:
In this sentence, I cannot make up my mind...

Which one is correct? Or which one is better, in case both are correct.

  This feature allows setting whether the Application Bar will continue
  to be visible when the end-user scrolls down the content

or

  This feature allows setting whether the Application Bar will continue
  being visible when the end-user scrolls down the content


texts: Word for when someone was being sent back and forth between lots of places to get something done

texts:
Like when your Bulgarian national insurance record gets corrupted and, now, you need to prove that you didn't earn 500,000 USD back in 2001...
So you go to NOI, who tell you to go to MVR-IP, who tell you the case is actually with NAP, who tell you everything looks fine, this is a NOI problem, so go to them...

I can put some slangy words in context but they aren't as precise as I would like:
She got rattled around all the sections of the IT department until someone agreed to take a look at her computer

Ideally, a words that not so slangy but rather more literally meaning what I am trying to describe above :)


texts:
"Whatever," says Peyton.

I understand the comma needs to be after "whatever" to indicate that is what Peyton is saying but..

  Peyton says, "Whatever."

can a period go there because that's all she said or does a comma need to be there as well?


texts: A word for things that can affect the ground

texts:
I'm looking for a term that can describe any form of effect on a ground.
Say it's rained, well, the ground would have water on it. It doesn't matter if it's asphalt, dirt, grass, or sand, if it's rained, the water has an affect on the ground.
Other things that would apply here are for example, dust on the ground, snow on the ground, etc.

The necessity for this term comes from game development (as so often). I have sprites for the ground, but those sprites can be covered with specific kinds of effects: Rain-Effects, Snow-Effects, Dust/Sand-Effects, etc. I need a term to group those things together.

I suspect that from a purely semantic standpoint, rain soaking into dry soil would still count, though the other two wouldn't. However in this specific example, I don't care as much about the interaction between the ground and whatever has an effect on it. Rather, just what those conditions could be called.


texts: Usage of “when” or “while” in this context

texts:
He left the house _ I was still sleeping

Would this sentence be better completed with when or with while?


texts: When should I use "opportunity of" and when "opportunity from"?

texts:
Which is the proper preposition, from or of?:

  There are many opportunities from/of the energy turnaround.


texts:
I am new to this English stack exchange, I asked this question on the movie stack exchange

Though it was a question from a movie it's also related to English Language. I will be simply pleased and delighted if anyone could help me to understand. Thank you


texts: What does the word, “rascally charm” mean? Can “Rascally” be used as a complimentary modifier?

texts:
There was the following comversation in the Vanity Fair’s (November 14 issue) article that came under the title, “Imagined Celebrity Connections: How Beyoncé Responded to Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine Cover”

  Kate Middleton meets Harry Styles:

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Duchess,” Harry says, shaking Kate’s hand,
  biting his lip. Kate laughs.

  “Now, are you the one who dated Taylor Swift?” Harry smiles
  sheepishly.

  “Maybe?”

  “She saw you in trouble, right?”

  “Something like  that,” Harry murmurs.

  “You know, you remind me of another Harry I know,” she says.

  “You’ve got that . . . rascally charm.” Harry looks up, smiling
  slightly.

  “So I’ve always wondered . . . do you, like, eat real food?

  http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/11/beyonce-kim-kardashian-paper-magazine-cover

OALED defines ‘rascally’ as an adjective of ‘rascal,’ which means a person who shows a lack of respect for other people and enjoying tricks on them.

Collins Cobuild English Dictionary defines ‘rascally person’ as a person who behaves badly and wicked or dishonest.

What does “rascally charm” mean here?
What is a charm of a person on earth who behaves badly and wicked or dishonest to you? Is it a complementary / endearment expression, or a simple irony?


texts:
Here is an exercise from Intermediate Language Practice by Michael Vince:

  Complete the following sentence with a present simple or present
  continuous form of the words in bold.

    Pat has got an interesting hobby. __________ a boat. she
    build

The answer key says "She's building", but I think "She builds" is more appropriate. As I understand it, the present continuous generally indicates a temporary situation whereas the present simple indicates a more permanent one. Without any more context, I see a hobby as a fairly permanent activity, so the present simple should be used here.

Is the answer key incorrect or am I missing something?


texts:
I generally face problem in sentence structure .

Which one is correct :-

Mainly he does this .
He mainly does this .
He does mainly this .
He does this mainly .

All the above sentences seem to be correct and carry same meaning

I being a non native speaker of English generally face this problem .

Is there any rule regarding this problem which not only applies to this particular example but for all such similar examples ?


texts: Avoiding the possessive form of words ending with "s"

texts:
This question deals with the proper possessive for words that end with s.

I am wondering how common it is to restructure a sentence as to avoid the awkward possessive form.  For example:

  I visited Paros' lighthouse.

appears less attractive than:

  I visited the lighthouse of Paros.

I am particularly interested how this affects spoken English.


texts:
I was going through Goodreads and found this quote

  “Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.”

  ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

I thought it means behind every hero there is a story of his
struggle to become a hero.(efforts/hard work/sacrifices etc etc)

(1) Are there any hidden interpretation(s) to it?

(2) Reading more online I saw one site referencing it to the word Hamartia ?
    Does it relate to Hamartia ? If so, how?


texts: Which phrase sounds better( more natural and common for native speaker)." Victim of art"

texts:
I have doubts about the phrase "Victim of art". Should I change it to "Art victim" or it can be used as it is but may be I miss articles? Or, please, suggest your own version with the same sense.
Thanks.


texts:
You are sent this e-mail because...

Is this correctly worded or does it sound weird? I ask because I think I've seen similar wordings, such as "you are being sent X because Y", but I'm not at all sure what I wrote is correct.


texts:
Have I used commas correctly in this sentence please? I'm not sure if they are required after the "and".

"The boy grew, and grew, and grew, into a magical boy named Kevin, who was the height and size of a tree".


texts: Possesive pronoun to use with the interrogative pronoun

texts:
When using the interrogative pronoun, 'who', what would the possessive form be?

'Who checks X letterbox every day?'.

I feel it ought to be 'his' but some people I know claim it should be 'their', which to me seems to contradict the singular form of the verb 'check'.

'Who checks his letterbox every day?' is what I would say naturally.
'Who checks their letterbox every day?' sounds a bit off to me.

Looking on the internet doesn't really return anything useful, only the use of 'their' as a singular pronoun, which seems to be somewhat popular a topic.

Note, this is specifically regarding the interrogative pronoun; I understand the debate about his/her/their/ones in other circumstances but I want to know whether the same can apply to 'who' or 'whom'.


texts: Is there a single word for standing still over a long period of time?

texts:
It’s called ‘sedentary’ if you spend a lot of time sitting down. E.g. an office job.
I was wondering if there’s an equivalent for standing all day.


texts: I'm looking for a word that means the area a person last slept

texts:
I want a word that means the area or location a person last slept at or something close to that. The part of speech doesn't matter to me. Possible sentences may look like:
P1: "Where did you last sleep?"
P2: "My _ was at my desk in class."


texts:
I'm working on something where I used the word knob for a button to drag.

I thought this is the right word.

Then today an english friend of mine told me that knob means penis in english.

This would be very embarrassing when this is the first association you read the sentence.

It is "Drag knob to change the position"

Is it really that bad?


texts: How do I determine which adjective to use here?

texts:
It was a treat to see your group perform its music at the community event. Could you do the same for us at a private gathering next month? My company will be hosting a welcoming celebration for some clients. We are planning a special dinner and need accompanying entertainment. We'd also like to book the dancers who were with you at the concert. They were obviously quite _____ to watch.

thrilling
content

I choose No.2 but my textbook said the answer is No.1. Why can't I use No.2 in this situation?

Sorry for omitting. And thanks for all of opinions. I think now you can check the situation better


texts:
Me and my dad are having a dispute over if this is is a run on sentence or not:

  From making silly pictures on Photoshop to playing a game that brought me to another world, and even being dubbed as the IT guy in elementary school.

He argues that it's a run on, and the ending can't stand on it's own. I think otherwise. May anyone help settle this debate?


texts:
In Indian spelling, what is the correct suffix, -ize or -ise?

E.g. authorized or authorised?


texts:
Should I use "upvote", "up vote", or "up-vote" on SE sites? What about "downvote"? They're not words in the sense that they're in the dictionary, but they are commonly used in this community. Also, "downvote" reads much more naturally than "down vote".

  I upvoted the post with ponies and
  unicorns.

Or:

  I up voted the post with ponies and
  unicorns.

Or:

  I up-voted the post with ponies and
  unicorns.


texts: why do people say "I would do it" for "If I were you, I would do it" which actually indirectly means "I would like you to do it"

texts:
I came across this many times while I was conversing/texting mostly with native english speakers on something they want me to do and they would put the statement in a very polite way. For instance if he wants me to give a shot on installing some software, they would say
I would give it a shot(let's call this sentence A) by which they would actually mean-
If I were you, I would give it a shot (calling this sentence B)

I am really curious to know on how sentence B above transformed to sentence A in daily usage of english language. Is this a part of english grammar or just an evolution of the language?

I feel just sentence A is a bit confusing because there were instances where I took its literal meaning and interpreted that as he would give a shot on installing that software.


texts: Word for person unwilling to share information

texts: What do you call a person who is unwilling to share information?


texts:
If we have the sentence

She is interested in philosophy (especially philosophy of mathematics).

is the following ellipsis acceptable in modern (American) English?

She is interested in philosophy (especially of mathematics).

I am asking because I'm weirded out by the fact that to my nonnative ear the second sentence is  right between sounding completely fine and sounding a tiny bit odd.


texts: For example, is it correct to say "the idea of a deity" or "the idea of deity" when referring to the concept of deity in general?


texts: I need a single word meaning "to keep silence"

texts:
The Hermitic tradition names four powers attributed to the Sphinx: to know, to dare, to will, and to keep silence. I am looking for a short word which means "to keep silence" to use in a graphic design along with the short words for the other three powers.

My current design drafts use "know", "dare", "will", and "hold", but "hold" doesn't quite fit the intended meaning; and neither does "hide". Both "hold" and "hide" physically work well within the design, however.

An ideal candidate would be similar in length to the other three, be a single word, and not be outright silly. (I.e., "zip it" would could fit, but it is two words and idiomatic, although it is short enough to fit within the design constraints.)

In context, the phrase "to keep silence" refers to "a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate" in the words of the occultist Eliphas Lévi.


texts:
Only one of the following is correct, but I am not sure which. My answer key says that Sentence 1 is correct, but I don't understand why. Here they are:

  Sentence 1: Therefore, a Platonic idealist believes that these abstract forms are as effective as, if not more effective than,
  sensory experience at revealing the nature of reality.

  Sentence 2: Therefore, a Platonic idealist believes that these abstract forms are as effective, if not more effective, than
  sensory experience at revealing the nature of reality.

I still think sentence 2 sounds more syntactically accurate.


texts: How do historians reference the people alive in a given century?

texts: I suspect historians have a more concise way of referencing [[the people alive in the 17th century]] than people alive in the 17th century. Do they call them 17th centurians, for example?


texts: I've got a sentence that starts, "As much as we – Tom, Charles, myself and a few others – saw the need for..." I set it up that way because in the context of the piece the first three of us were the most important involved and who I want to emphasize, but I wonder if that use and placement of "myself" is acceptable grammatically, vs. sticking the "few others" first and "I" at the end. Thanks,


texts: Word for eyeglasses with no prescription

texts: I once heard/read a word for eyeglasses that have no presciption in the lenses. Just plan glass, worn for effect. Can someone recall that word for me?


texts: 'Come next saturday' and 'come the end of the world'

texts:
I know 'come tuesday' or 'come spring' are correct (or I think I do). But can I say for example 'come the end of the world' or, when I'm driving my car and a tire blows out, 'come one of the tires blow out'?
I'm not a native English speaker and google isn't helping one bit. So I'm hoping someone can shine some light onto this mysterious 'come-business' for me.
Thanks in advance!


texts: What is the reverse word for abbreviation?

texts:
An abbreviation is a shorter form of a word (or a phrase). This need not be unique. Suppose that one abbreviation for Engineering is ENG. Hence, we would say that the abbreviation of Engineering is ENG.
What would we call Engineering with respect to ENG? The "abbreviated word" does the job, but is there a more direct way of getting there? Say, the "unabbreviated"?


texts:
I've come across the phrase 'reviewing over' and at first I disregarded it as a hold over from grammar in a foreign language but now I've seen a native English speaker use the same phrase.

For example:

While reviewing over the documents the lawyer found many loopholes.

I have looked around a good bit on the internet but cannot find any explanation as to why this phrase would be written like this versus 'going over' or 'reviewing'. Can the great minds of stack help me feel better about this or have a good reason to discourage it?


texts: Is it correct to say: "you are the shape of my thoughts"?

texts:
I want to tell someone that I think about him all of the time. But, in a new style. Can I say: "You are the shape of my thoughts."?

I would be thankful to have better suggestions.


texts: Meaning of "seeing as", "the business", "in quiet sophistication"?

texts:
They had cooks and drivers, and guards who occupied a gatehouse, armed with machetes. Seeing as I had regularly petitioned my parents for an electric fence, the business with the guards strikes me as the last word in quiet sophistication. - David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

I have three questions about this sentence.

First, I think "Seeing as" in the sentence is working as a conjunction, but I only get the meaning vaguely. Are there other alternative conjunctions for it?

Second, the context is that the author is envying his boy friend's family ["They"] for having had servants such as cooks, drivers, and guards. My question is, what does "the business" mean here? I think it is more like "the story about the guards". Is that correct?

Third, I do not understand what "in quiet sophistication" means. I looked up the dictionary for the word "sophistication", but I think the words put together make a new meaning or something.


texts: Omitting ',' or not in the case of ', from the cellular level to the organ-system level,'

texts:
I read through my textbook and encountered this quote
'Homeostasis is a dynamic condition. In response to changing conditions, the body's parameters can shift among points in a narrow range that is compatible with maintaining life... Each structure , from the cellular level to the organ-system level, contributes in some way to keeping the internal environment of the body within normal limits'

I don't believe I should omit ',' as I am sure all of the structures in the human body can range actually from the cellular level to the organ-system level. So ', from the cellular level to the organ-system level,' is actually a non-relative clause phrase. But I can be wrong. I tried to write the original sentence in its full form and make 1 example to make it more clear. Could anyone help me with the 2 sentences?

Original sentence: Each structure , which are from the cellular level to the organ-system level, contributes in some way to keeping the internal environment of the body within normal limits
My own sentence: All of the structures in the human body, which range from the cellular level to the organ system level, contributes in some way to keeping the internal environment of the body within various normal limits

Thank you!


texts: Correctness of "alongside" vs "along with"

texts:
When is there reason to prefer "along with" over "alongside", or vice versa?

Received feedback, re a wedding invite:

  Jane and Simon,
  alongside Sam and Diane [i.e. Jane's parents],
  cordially invite you ...

that it should be "along with". I thought these two phrases were interchangeable, and under the intentions of our copy (whimsical but adhering to standards) "alongside" seemed preferable.

I'd like to understand under what circumstances either choice is a better fit, and if my correspondent's advice is correct, how strictly it ought to be followed.

If it helps, my fiancée and I are American and everything is taking place in the US. Also the question is not about conventional wedding practices (that probably doesn't belong here at all), only the word usage.


texts: Looking for a quote which is like "it's not for their sins, it's ours"

texts:
I came across this quote some years back and I don't remember it correctly. If I understood it correctly it implied that when some things go wrong (especially relationships) it's not the other person's fault, it's ours that we let go that relationship. I am not sure about the meaning but it was close.

It has 'sins' in the quote.

Can you help me find the quote? Thanks in advance.


texts: Are there any plans to extend the English alphabet

texts: Certain sounds possibly deserve their own letter in the alphabet, are there any indication that some more letter may be added to the English alphabet?


texts: What are English counterparts to Japanese Honne (real intent) and Tatemae (public position)?

texts:
I think many foreigners who have lived or worked in Japan heard this set of words, “Honne 本音– real intent” and “Tatemae 建前– outward reason.” Actually many expatriate colleagues I had worked with in office used to use “Honne and Tatemae” as it is in Japanese.

According to Kenkyusha’s Japanese English Dictionary (KJED),
Honne is ‘one’s real intention, underlining motif.'
Tatemae is ‘principle, a rule, one’s public position’

For example, we use “Honne” and Tatemae” as in,

What you are saying is Tatemae. You cannot live only on Tatemae. Look at the reality.
He says he decided to live apart from his wife, considering the convenience of commuting office, but it’s Tatemae. His Honne is to get divorced from her.
The company says they transfer a group of middle managers to the frontline of sales force to give them a chance for self-development. But it’s Tatemae. The company’s Honne is to get rid of them.
North Korea says development of the rocket is for space exploration purpose. But it’s Tatemae, their Honnne is development of ICBMs with nuclear-head.

I’m fine with the KJED’s definition of ‘Honne’ as one’s real intent, but not comfortable with the definition of ‘Tatemae’ as a principal and rule, because it isn’t principal or rule, but is outward / superficial, sometimes a disguised excuse (reason / claim) as shown above.

Interestingly, Google Ngram shows that the usage of ‘Honne’ can be traced back to circa. 184o, which had been leveling off at 0.000001 emergence level until 1980, when it suddenly started to draw a sharp rise in combination with ‘Tatemae’ to 0.000005 level. I don’t know what made a leap of the incidences of both words during 1980 – 2000.

With that said, do you have a set pair of words in English corresponding to ‘Honne and Tatemae’?
Do you have the time to have to manipulate Honne and Tatemae in your actual life, as we do, not very often, but as needed?

Could you suggest to me English alternatives that you think are closest to the original meanings of ‘Honne and Tatemae’?


texts: Difference between 'hallucination' and 'illusion'

texts:
The following quote is found on The Basics of Philosophy page:

  Representationalists argue their case from the "epistemological fact" that it is impossible to have experience beyond the sensory surface, from the fact that dreams, hallucinations and visual illusions clearly indicate that the world of experience is not the same thing as the world itself,

What is the difference between the terms "hallucination" and "visual illusion", as used in the quote?


texts: How can I rephrase this sentence to emphasize the underlying statement?

texts:
What are the better ways to describe a happy person -> (meaning someone who has everything he needs)
and opposite of that misery (but not quite) -> (meaning someone who is alive but living in hell)

  These are the ways a happy person turns his life to living hell.


texts: Why are "creature" and "creative" pronounced differently?

texts:
Both the words "creature" and creative" share "creat" in common so they should be pronounced same, right? So why is there a difference?

According to these links "creature" is pronounced as "kree-cher" whereas "creative" is pronounced as "kree-ey-tiv", why "ey" added in next than in the first.

Is there any rule to remember where to use "ey" and where not to?


texts: Word or phrase for a particular type of spiral

texts:
The leaves of the Aloe Polyphylla - Spiral Aloe

produce the appearance of five different curves spiraling to the center of the plant. Is there a word that describes a spiral with five, preferably six, curves converging?

The closest thing I could find was hypnosis spiral,

but I don't want to suggest hypnosis.

Sample sentence-The exhaust of the five spaceships curving to a central point formed a ____ spiral.  Though any part of speech would be acceptable.

A compound word or phrase would be acceptable.


texts:
I am curious what the exact meaning of the phrase "fast inside" is, as used in this sentence by D. H. Lawrence:

  White savages, with motor-cars, telephones, incomes and ideals! Savages fast inside the machine; yet savage enough, ye gods!

Is "fast" actually an imperative verb?


texts:
What is the possessive form of blocked when used as a verb. For example:

  Remove the friend I blocked’s material.


texts: What's a word that describes many individuals working together to form a whole?

texts:
For example, there's a massive group of fish that all move as one. What would you call the whole group of fish? Or as a better example, a brain is made of trillions of neurons working in concert.

What's a word or phrase to describe both the fish community and the brain?

Sample sentence: The school of fish acted as a/an ___ of the individual fish.


texts: What is the difference between "left/right side" and "left/right-hand side"?

texts:
This question arose in the context of referring to locations in a figure, e.g.:

  A dot is added to the left(-hand) side of the diagram.

What is the difference in meaning (if there is one)? What is the difference in style? What does sound more elegant?


texts: When did 'street', 'road', etc. start being capitalised?

texts:
Old newspapers and books seem to very rarely capitalise (and often hyphenate) phrases like "High street", "Herbert-road", and "Trusting lane". These days, we capitalise "Street", "Road", and "Lane". When did the change come about? (Or, of course, am I wrong in my thinking?)

I am vaguely thinking it was around the 1950s or '60s.


texts: How should I greet between 12pm and 2pm? Should I say 'Good Afternoon' or 'Good Noon'? Is Good Noon commonly used or not?


texts: Word/phrase that describes someone that doesn't do anything without something happening

texts:
I'm looking for a word or phrase that describes someone that doesn't take action until something adverse happens.

For example, this person sees a leaking pipe, but doesn't get it fixed until it finally burst.

Another example is this person sees structural damage in a building, but didn't get it retrofitted until it came crashing down. They then took action by asking for rescuers to rescue trapped people.


texts:
I would like to know what the origin of hapless is.
For example,

  He is a hapless person

means

  He is an unfortunate person.

Has it got anything to do with the fact that hapless people live their lives with no good things hap-pening to them? Was there hapful or a similar word back in the times?


texts:
I understand the use of circa / c. as it applies to approximating dates. However, I have a writer who (over)uses the word in other contexts.
Examples:

... from circa early 1990's up until circa 8 years ago ...
... said population is circa 92-94% ...
... making one stop circa Pacific Coast Highway ...
... cost of circa $300,000 ...
... Rarely was I at either bar past circa 10:00PM ...
... circa 5 car widths from ...

Is this just my hatred of obfuscated language that's annoying me when I read this, or is it always appropriate to use "circa" when you mean "approximately?"


texts: "A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst [...], keeps asking"

texts:
In the last chapter of The Catcher in The Rye:

  A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here,
  keeps asking me if I'm going apply myself when I go back to school
  next September.

What is the real subject? 'A lot of people', or 'this one psychoanalyst guy'?

It seems that the subject is 'this.. guy' because the verb is 'keeps', which does not match 'a lot of people'.


texts: Which (if any) pedantically, grammatically, correct uses of the apostrophe will lead to a valid “NOUNs’s” construction?

texts:
The “<NOUN>s’s” construction comes up quite often in signs, at least in my neighbourhood.

I haven’t seen a legal use of the arrangement, though — and I wonder, is it at all possible?

If it is, under which circumstances?


texts: Past continuous vs Past Perfect continuous

texts:
When I was taking a Biology class in 2005, we were assigned to do an animal experiment.

So what is wrong with that sentence? I am using a free grammar checker website and it says the tense is wrong.


texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct, and why?

Thank you Bob for scheduling the call. I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow at 4pm.
Thank you, Bob for scheduling the call. I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow at 4pm.
Thank you, Bob, for scheduling the call. I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow at 4pm.

I believe #3 is correct since commas are used to separate parts of a sentence to make the meaning clear and easier to read. However, English is not my native language, so I want to validate my understanding.

Thanks!


texts: Can the Passage of Time Change the Grammatical Correctness of a Sentence?

texts:
I would use the present perfect in the following sentence:

  As of now, we have received 100 ticket requests.

If the present time was currently Wednesday morning, and if I was to replace the word "now" with "Wednesday morning," I would write the sentence like this, still using the present perfect:

  As of Wednesday morning [that is, now], we have received 100 ticket requests.

Those reading that sentence on Wednesday morning would, correctly, understand the sentence to mean that currently we have received 100 tickets.

But what happens tomorrow when Wednesday morning represents the past? Had I written that same sentence on Thursday, thus referring to the past, I would have used the past perfect, especially if more tickets had come in since Wednesday morning:

  As of Wednesday morning [that is, yesterday], we had received 100 ticket requests.

So my question is, do some sentences, such as the one I have illustrated, begin their lives grammatically correct, but become grammatically incorrect as time passes? Or perhaps some sentences require their reader to know the date and time they were written. What are your thoughts?


texts: There is a current trend of using past tense, when meaning present tense.

texts:
For example, someone on the phone said, "I was calling to ask for a form," when she meant to say, "I am calling to ask for a form."

I hear this consistently, and usually in customer service situations. It is also being used by the under-30 crowd, of which my daughter is one, but as an out of state resident, she also finds it odd, and thinks it may be a coloquialism.

What's confusing is the person asking the question is typically unaware of their tense confusion, almost in the same way that someone saying, "like" cannot hear themselves. I'm sure I say similar things, but I try to weed them out, for clarity of communication.

Can anyone shed some light on this usage, or have others noticed the trend?


texts:
I'm writing in the context of ice skating.

This is the sentence I wish to construct:

  There will be many falls, but serious injuries are rare, and picking ups are easy.

"picking up" is the antonym of "fall".

What's the plural form of "picking up"?  It's a gerund.  What are the pluralization rules for gerunds?  And if there's a better word for it, please suggest them.


texts:
Are both of there correct?

Circle with radius r = 1 cm.
Circle of radius r = 1 cm.

I do not want to use other sentences such as "Radius of a circle is r = 1 cm."


texts: What's the reason for the difference in pronunciation between "dispatch" and "dispatcher"?

texts: I checked some online dictionary and found that the pronunciations of p in dispatch and dispatcher are a little different. What's the reason or pronunciation rule for this difference?


texts:
I sent an email including a sentence like,
“I would like you to pay attention...” I know the proper usage should be like “I would like to draw your attention” but I am just wondering if the way of expressing is polite or not? Or Did I make a mistake?


texts:
What do you call a water tap placed on the outside of a house?

I'm looking for the correct technical term in English. Here in Sweden there seems to be only one vendor and model, which I'm not so fond of, so with the right technical term I can search the internet for alternatives.


texts: What is a single, all-encompassing term for an amazing find?

texts:
Today I bought an old cloth-bound copy of a commentary on the Gospel of John by Leon Morris for $16. I'm a bit of a book-o-phile and also a little OCD, so normally would be quite keen to have a brand new hard-cover copy of a book if I could, but I wouldn't trade this for anything.

Inside it has a hand-written dedication by Morris himself to someone called "Francis", and when I looked on the first leaf, it has the name of Francis Foulkes (of St John's College, himself a commentator).

What's a word I could use when writing about this find that would capture the awesomeness of it (but not as street as awesomeness!)?

As in: I just made the most ___________ find!


texts:
What's the difference between the following?

I met him in the UK.
I've met him in the UK.

Does the second sentence mean that the event was happened recently?


texts: Word meaning the reverse of 'Xenophobia'

texts: Xenophobia refers to the irrational fear or hatred of foreigners. But recently I've seen people displaying (in newspaper articles and other places) an irrational fear or hatred of their own countrymen. Is there a word for that?


texts:
Can a sentence have no verb except in what would otherwise be its noun phrase?

e.g.

The car in the street I walk down.

I'm guessing that "the street I walk down" would be the noun phrase, and it contains a verb (walk). So I wondered whether that's sufficient for a sentence. I'm guessing not.

I think I mean (tortuously)

I walk down the street the car is in.

What if the elided verb is more obvious?

The bird in the air I breath.

That seems to be the case here (birds always seem to fly in the air)

I breath the air the bird flies in.

So I think I'm asking about

verb ellipsis (the car [is] in), and
whether I can put objects first, both before its subject and verb (OBJECT I walk down), and
so that the object with an elided verb is before its subject (the car in SUBJECT).

3 could be an example of

  poetic hyperbaton "Answer gave he none", and "What say You?"

2 could be an example of an elided 'but'

  OSV... as a contrast with the conjunction but: "Rome I shall see!" and "Oranges I may hate; (but)* Apples I shall eat!".

I'm not sure these can be used together, or when verb ellipsis is reasonable.

In summary, are "The bird in the air I breath" or "I breath the air the bird in" complete sentences, and might either say the same as "I breath the air the bird flies in"?


texts: Is there any word for "conversation with myself"?

texts: I found one word soliloquy but its meaning lies in "act of speaking", where I want the meaning to be more general like just talking to your self, whether loud or silent. Also soliloquy is drama jargon, I want a common generic word.


texts: Term for organization being sponsored — "sponsee"?

texts:
I have seen a few sponsorship agreements and in one of them the term "sponsee" was used to define the organization being sponsored.

The context was a company who sponsors a local team. The agreement specifies the sponsor's benefits (advertising on the team's shirt, etc) and the sponsor obligations (providing X amount of money, support...).

Is this an actual word? If not, please provide me with alternatives.


texts:
What does means "who cares here?" and to whom pronoun "you" refers in the following context?

  So I went. It was frightening. I played. I thought, who cares here? You played Bach prelude and fugue, Chopin study, one of the Tchaikovsky Seasons and a classical sonata. For the final you had to play Tchaikovsky 1 and another concerto - I did Brahms 1 - and you had to do them back-to-back.

I found the phrase in this article: http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/qa-special-pianist-barry-douglas


texts: "woman" or "women" as a stand-in for the adjective "female"?

texts:
As in,

  Emily Dickinson was a great woman poet

or

  Emily Dickinson was a great women poet

in order to mean

  Emily Dickinson was a great female poet

Think I may have seen this adjectival usage of "women/woman" in a feminist art criticism paper, wondering if there's an accepted spelling...


texts: Cogs, wheels, cogwheels, cog wheels, sprockets, etc.?

texts:
As a non-native English speaker, one of the most recurring confusions I've had, and which I can't seem to ever get straight, is how to refer to those mechanical "thingies" you often see in old machines and in cartoon depictions of machines.

Are they "cogs", "wheels", "cogwheels", "cog wheels", "sprockets", or something different entirely? I suspect that there are multiple synonyms in English and also that there are different variations of the same basic idea, given different words, which is probably what confuses me.

The one I imagine is like a metallic "circle" (although usually not very flat) with "teeth" around it, made to hook into another such object for the purpose of doing some kind of mechanical work in an efficient and predictable manner. Sometimes, they seem to not have teeth but instead a belt. I don't know if these are considered distinct objects or all the same.

I assume that there are still large, industrial machines that use these, but I primarily associate them with the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. They also exist as very flat and small versions in mechanical watches.


texts: Word for someone who is helpful but not very nice about it?

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe this kind of person.

e.g. "Hey dude what's the square root of 9 again?

"Oh my God are you really asking me that? It's 3... you idiot."


texts: "He had snaggle teeth" — how to say correctly?

texts: Is it okay to say "He had snaggle teeth"? Or there is a better way of describing that problem with teeth?