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You were sent a package. If it is not received please call customer support. or You were sent a package. If not received please call customer support. Which version is correct? Is there a better version? | Both are correct. The second is using a form of elision that is only appropriate in some contexts like notices and headlines, but since this text is presumably in a notice, that's okay. If this was part of a larger piece of running text, that would not be okay. If this was followed by a larger piece of text, then it li... | "If not" vs "If it is not" | english |
The following is a passage from an article on the origin of the idiom basket case : The origins of this idiom are somewhat grisly. In World War I, there were cases reported which involved soldiers who lost both their arms and legs in battle. Any soldier in such a condition would be especially helpless, and other soldie... | Oxford suggests a few that this meets in the overlap at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/case but the most directly applicable is: a person or their particular problem requiring or receiving medical or welfare attention. Specifically the person here, rather than the problem. Just as they could be re... | What's the "case" in "basket case"? | english |
Is "Viet Nam" a mistake, a typo, an archaic spelling, a regional spelling, or an idiosyncrasy of the author? I found the word in this stackexchange-url ("book"), and I can't really tell what type of spelling it is. | The country was called Việt Nam or Nam Việt along with some other names that have not influenced the two most common English spellings, of which some are no longer in any use. Việt refers to a region that covers Viet Nam (particularly the north) and a region in southern China where the Việt or Kinh people come from. Na... | Is "Viet Nam" a mistake, a typo, an archaic spelling, a regional spelling, or an idiosyncrasy? | english |
Context: Yesterday, I met my first girl friend. She was beautiful when I first saw her ten years ago. Yesterday, I thought she was beautiful as ever. Questions: If I try to use only one sentence to express 2 and 3, do you think past perfect tense need to be used? Or do you think I can make it clear just by using simple... | The past perfect is necessary when the sequence of past events may otherwise be unclear. Compare: She cooked dinner when I arrived. She had cooked dinner when I arrived. However, it is certainly not 'very necessary' to use the past perfect in OP's context. Ten years ago is ten years ago whether from the perspective of ... | Is it very necessary to use past perfect tense here? | english |
My question is what the differences are between the two sentences. In what situation do you use infinitive as a subject? And when do you use gerund as a subjective? Thanks a lot! | John's job is repairing bicycles. If this is what John does for eight hours every day, you want to use the gerund. John's job is to repair the bicycle. If somebody is assigning tasks, and John's assignment of repairing a bicycle is only going to happen once, you would be more likely to use the infinitive. Both of these... | To repair bicycle is his job. Vs. Repairing bicycle is his job | english |
Is the following the correct grammatical way to use ' persona '? I wonder what persona you have of me? | It's grammatically correct—verbs, nouns and pronouns correctly deployed—but meaningless, as per "colourless green ideas sleep furiously". About the only interesting thing happening grammatically is that the question mark turns a plain statement about what you are wondering about into an implied question, looking for an... | Correct grammatical use of persona? | english |
I'm not sure if a sentence I wrote is correct: "The last one didn't get neither my changes nor thiago's". I'm trying to say that the last activity I ran in a system didn't get the changes I sent and also it didn't get thiago's changes. Since I'm using the "didn't', I'm not sure if I should use 'neither/nor' instead of ... | The last one didn't get my changes or thiago's Single negative applied to a combination joined by or . The last one didn't get either my changes or thiago's As above, but using either to make it clearer what the or is joining. The last one got neither my changes nor thiago's Made negative by neither...nor . The last on... | Use of "either/or" in a negative phrase | english |
I was wondering if I can use "et al." in order to say "as such" after a list of elements in a sentence given as example. If not: What can be the correct Latin abbreviation to use to replace "as such"? Thank you | "As such" and "et al." are not synonyms. "As such" is not used after a list of things, but "et al." is. It is used to say "and so on" or "and others". "This film is ideal for action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, et al." If you want Latin for "as such", it is "per se", but it is not abbrevi... | Latin abbreviation to use in English to replace "as such" | english |
I am working on a website at the moment and I am trying to perfect the User Experience. The products on the store are either sold on their own, or as pairs. What I want is a word or phrase to put in place followed by a colon, and then either the term "Single" or "Pair". So to spell it out (pardon the pun) it would be: ... | The strict word here would be cardinality . The perfect can be the enemy of the good in these cases though. Unless you expect all your users to be programmers or mathematicians or otherwise familiar with singles and pairs as types of tuple with cardinality of 1 and 2 respectively, it's going to cause more confusion tha... | How would you group the terms "Single" and "Pair"? | english |
Consider this example: People tend to understand and use sarcasm from a young age. People tend to understand and use sarcasm from young age. Which one of these is grammatically correct and why? | The only example of where I would use 'young age' without an indefinite article, would be if I formed it into what is effectively a combined noun e.g. 'Young age is no excuse for misbehaviour'. I might use 'young' by itself, such as in: 'Our dialect is something we learn from young'. Otherwise I believe that "young age... | Which is correct, "from a young age" or "from young age"? | english |
In German, we have a phrase "jmd. in die Tasche spielen" , literally "to play into someone's pockets" . I am looking for a fitting English equivalent. The phrase means, you are causing a third party financial gain with your actions. These words are nearly always used in a negative context. For more details read on: In ... | There are several idiomatic phrases in English that have to do with activities that result in another's financial gain, such as line someones pockets and feather one's own nest but those are more often used to describe a self serving activity, one's own gain. The phrase is often used to describe working at the directio... | Phrase that means "gaining money for someone" in a negative context | english |
As a non-native English speaker without a classical education, it took me quite some time to appreciate the "e.g." and "i.e." abbreviations. What is wrong with "f.e." ("for example") and "t.i." ("that is")? | It certainly wouldn't have been impossible for some alternate history version of English to have ended up with those abbreviations. However, we need to consider the things that lead to abbreviations happening at all. The need for them has to be relatively common and they have to actually shorten significantly. If neith... | Why "e.g." and not "f.e."? Why "i.e." and not "t.i."? | english |
When we want to know how tall or how short someone is, we can query for his tallness, shortness, or height (neutral measurement unit). Is there such a neutral measurement unit for the adjectives masculine and feminine? E.g. When we want to know how masculine or how feminine someone is, we can query for his masculinenes... | Height, weight, wrist size are all unidimensional criteria that are amenable to objective measurement. Many other human characteristics are multidimensional, but also subject to objective measurement and description. For example, voice can be measured and described, reflecting primary pitch, overtones, volume and other... | What's the neutral measurement unit for masculine and feminine? | english |
As I get older (into my 30s) the less I feel like using youthful slang, and I take extra pride in using professional English. But I can't think of a word that is universally equivalent to the colloquial term "cool" that means "worthy to judgmental youths" or something of that nature. Could you suggest some more profess... | I agree that the term, cool, is inappropriate for a formal letter, research paper or even a magazine review if the audience is known to be experts themselves in the subject. To say a film is cool is reductive and might get a few of your readers rolling their eyes. Ironically, I believe that to be cool one ought to avoi... | Is there a non-colloquial equivalent term for "cool"? | english |
If I want to know if an item is available , I can check for its availability . What do I check for if I want to know if an item is required ? | I would check for its necessity : whether it is necessary or not. While it's not strictly synonymous, if something is required it's normally necessary . You could reverse the check and verify its optionality . | "Available" is to "availability" as "required" is to what noun? | english |
I'm always hearing math instructors, and students, use ‘times it by’ to describe multiplicative operations: “…To find the ratio, you times it by one hundred…” To hear other students phrasing mathematical operations like this is one thing, but hearing my math instructors using this really bugs me. Could it possibly be c... | I remember this usage from when I was in primary school, and I never adopted it. There are speakers, like me, for whom plus , minus and times are, in mathematics (the topic of my undergraduate degree), only the names of the operations <code> + </code> , <code> - </code> , and <code> x </code> . The corresponding verbs ... | Is 'times it by' or 'minus it by' correct? | english |
What is the noun in this sentence: Some of our greatest innovations were launched during tough times. I know that of our greatest innovations is a prepositional phrase and as such cannot contain the subject of the sentence. Some just doesn't strike me as a noun—or is it? If it is, what is the easy way to recognize thes... | The full subject is some of our greatest innovations . The head of the noun phrase is some , which is an adjective used as a noun with a plural meaning. Most adjectives can be used as nouns in certain situations: some like it hot; red is ugly; the weak will perish; the lowest of the low , etc. If an adjective is modifi... | Can "some" be a noun and a subject? | english |
I was wondering whether it is correct to say ' this is my son's photo ' meaning a photo of my son ? Can the phrase ' this is my son's photo ' imply a photo in which one can see someone's son or can it only mean that the photo belongs to someone's son? Or are both options possible? Thank you in advance! | My son's photo could mean 'a photo belonging to my son', but it will normally mean 'a photo of my son'. The context will in any case make it clear which is intended. | My son's photo vs a photo of my son | english |
I've been wondering about the morphological structure of ' misrepresent ' and ' consideration .' In ' misrepresent ,' is sent , present , or represent the stem? It's quite tricky! Consideration is also a little confusing – when analyzing its morphological structure, should it be broken down into Consider + -ate +... | Well, both words are borrowed from Latin, so you'll have to decide yourself how tightly the morphemes are fused. For instance, consider , which is clearly con + <code> Root </code> , does not have a very good candidate for what <code> Root </code> might be. Though the OED does say that this is the same root as in desir... | Morphological structure of 'misrepresent' and 'consideration' | english |
There was a recommendation of a new book,” How Not to Be a Dick: An Everyday Etiquette Guide” in www.Goodreads com. followed by the next sentence: “On the one hand, nobody wants to be a dick . On the other hand, dicks are everywhere! They cut in line, talk behind our backs, recline into our seats, and even have the pow... | The word is commonly used vulgar slang, at least here in America. The derivation is indeed from the usage of dick to mean "penis," and means an arrogant jerk who is horrible to the people around him (the dick is almost exclusively male, probably because of the derivation) either on purpose or because of a self-centered... | What does “Not to be a dick, but - - -“ mean? Is “Dickishness” an accepted, stand alone English word? | english |
I am a little confused about the usage of pronouns. I often see people using "their" with words that seem to be singular, for example, "somebody" and "anybody", which looks weird to me. (I.e., one person has recently said to me: "If somebody is hating on someone due to the pitch of their voice...") I would rather say: ... | In the recent past, male pronouns were used as generic pronouns in English, and the sentence would have typically read "hating someone due to the pitch of his voice." To modern ears, the older convention sounds dated, sexist and inaccurate, but no one has really come up with a good alternative. The most common practice... | Pronouns of "somebody", "anybody", etc | english |
What does this phase "fling oneself on his/her face" mean in the following context? Winston promptly flung himself on his face. | There is a rocket bomb about to hit, Winston hits the deck to not be hit by flying debris. | To "fling oneself on his/her face" -- expression | english |
I thought about describing it this way: ...which led to his loss of the little of everything he had. It doesn't sound very nice, and it also sounds like I'm saying that the loss was a "little of everything." Is there a better way to describe this? | I'd just remove the "of everything" and possibly change the "his" to a "the" ...which led to the loss of the little he had. | What's a good way to describe "everything", when that "everything" is very little? | english |
I am non-native in English so forgive me if this question is too low level. If you are talking about something that belongs to a person you can say "Jacks phone" to mean "the phone of Jack", at least, that is how I pronounce it. However, in writing it could also be "Jack's phone" and you wouldn't notice anything differ... | I am going to go ahead and presume by your name and location that Dutch is your native language. Writing Unlike in Dutch, where the possessive is formed in writing simply by adding -s to the noun phrase where possible, modern English orthography requires that there always be an apostrophe present in the possessive. The... | Jack's vs Jacks for "Jack his phone" | english |
We were discussing the prospect of messing about on the canals yesterday, and I happened to mention that I had spent quite a bit of time, er, doing what exactly with the narrowboat? I wasn't really driving it To guide, control, or direct (a vehicle). but to say I was sailing it To navigate or manage (a vessel). when th... | Surely one navigates a narrowboat | What do I do with a narrowboat? | english |
( thinkquest ) London itself is a living museum, with more than 2,000 years of history and culture. But it also boasts one of the greatest concentrations of significant museums (more than 100) of any city in the world. In the second sentence, how to interpret the expression "of any city"? Does it refer to "museums of a... | IMHO, it means that London has the greatest concentrations of significant museums (more than 100) as compared to any/all other cities of the world . It refers to the <code> concentration of significant museums that cannot be compared by any city of the world </code> . | How to interpret the expression "of any city" in this sentence? | english |
I have often noticed people who make statements, actually ending with a question mark when written, but where there is no actual question asked. The question is implied sufficiently enough in the context of the statement, and/or the previous statement that the question portion can be omitted. Some examples: Sandra: I'm... | Wikipedia uses the term declarative questions , splicing form and function: Languages may use both syntax and prosody to distinguish interrogative sentences (which pose questions) from declarative sentences (which state propositions). Syntax refers to grammatical changes, such as moving words around or adding question ... | Is there a word or term to describe a statement that implies a question so sufficiently that the question is not actually included? | english |
When should I say, for instance, "Mary and me," and when should I say "Me and Mary?" Example: Which option should I use in the following sentence? After drinking our tea and saying goodbye to Hank, [...] made out way back to the hotel. | The order is not a matter of grammar but of convention. It is generally thought to be more polite to mention the other person first. | Me and X or X and me? | english |
So I am reading the essay "On Some Verses of Virgil" by Michel de Montaigne (translation by Donald M. Frame) and I came across this particular sentence. Is there any ugliness in doing wrong that can dispense us from the duty of confessing it? The choice of vocabulary here is, honestly, quite confusing to me. Here is th... | How about: Is there any deed so vile, that confession is wholly unnecessary; through the indelible evidence that the deed has left on our body; our mind; and our soul? To which question I would answer "Most certainly - for example the Holocaust." | How should this sentence be interpreted? | english |
In her book Wedding Night , Sophie Kinsella writes: He's got a cushy number. Nice salary, cottage on the estate... he's sorted . I looked up the meaning of "sort" in [insert dictionary here] and didn't find anything that looked relevant. The closest I found was the idiomatic usage "sorted out", but there's no "out" in ... | In British English it means that the gent in question has got his life well-organised and in order. Sorted adjective British informal organized, arranged, or dealt with satisfactorily: Sorted can also be said of a person (of a person) confident, organized, and emotionally well ... | What does "he is sorted" mean? | english |
I got this expression from the wikipedia article regarding the novel "Barchester Towers" by Anthony Trollope. The full sentence is: Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni is a crippled serial flirt with a young daughter and a mysterious Italian husband whom she has left. I cannot make much sense of this phrase, can you help? | A dictionary will show you the meanings of all these words. Crippled means disabled, but it is not much used now. A flirt is a man or woman who pretends to have a sexual or romantic interest in another, but without serious intentions. A serial flirt is someone who behaves in such a way with one person after another. | What is a "crippled serial flirt"? | english |
Some native speakers corrected sentence A to sentence B in my essay. Could anyone explain why here "brings to" is needed? A. The problem of foreign language class at primary school is the distraction to other compulsory subjects B. The problem of foreign language class at primary school is the distraction it brings to ... | Because the word distraction (and the verb distract ) does not take a to phrase. (They do optionally take a from phrase). These are just facts about the word, not about English grammar in general. What you wrote is comprehensible, but not natural in English. | when relative clauses is needed | english |
A child meets this kind of discipline every time he tries to do something, which is why it is so important in school to give children more chances to do things, instead of just reading or listening to someone talk (or pretending to). Three Disciplines for Children by John Holt And also, what does pretending to mean her... | Do is a <code> Act </code> , a pro-verb used for active verbs. In this case, the "do something" is used as an ambiguous way to indicate that the child is disciplined any time he performs a given action, where the action can consist of any number of things. "Something" is being used as a filler for a given verb, and "do... | What is the meaning of the italicized "do" in this sentence? | english |
I saw something about Batman somewhere online, and for a very brief moment it crossed my mind that it sounds like 'bad man'. A fraction of a second later I noticed the bat logo. Bats are usually considered scary animals, so I came to wonder: Is there a correlation between the animal bat and bad ? | Here is the etymology of the word "bat": flying mammal (order Chiroptera), 1570s, a dialectal alteration of Middle English bakke (early 14c.), which is probably related to Old Swedish natbakka, Old Danish nathbakkæ "night bat," and Old Norse leðrblaka "leather flapper," so original sense is likely "flapper." The shift ... | Is there a correlation between "bad" and "bat"? | english |
How does a dash end this sentence correctly? It did seem to me that life was just too lovely to— From A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain | A dash used like this signifies a sudden change of mood. Imagine that the narrator (a dog) is reading her story and breaks off one train of thought abruptly. In this case, the narrator is reminiscing fondly of her puppy, and then remembers the next, less happy, part of the story: By and by came my little puppy, and the... | How does a dash end the sentence? Is the sentence supposed to be loose? | english |
One thing I love about English is that verbs can be easily created just by adding the suffix "-ing" and adjectives by adding "-ly". How would you call this phenomenon? Examples: Googling, Youtubing Pants-shittingly | verb + -ing is called a gerund: As applied to English, it refers to the -ing form of a verb when it is used, as a verb, to form a noun phrase (for example, the verb learning in the sentence "Learning English is an easy process for some") These are not verbs; they are nouns. You can't say "I Googling the definition" or ... | Is there a word for made up verbs that end in "ing"? | english |
From A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain: He was a renowned scientist. I do not know what the word means, but my mother would know how to use it and get effects. She would know how to depress a rat-terrier with it and make a lap-dog look sorry he came. But that is not the best one; the best one was Laboratory. My mother could o... | To me the whole key to the meaning of this is the meaning of the unfamiliar (to me) word "taxcollars". I found the following passage in a travel guide from 1875 : One day when walking in the principal street of Klausenburg I heard a great barking amongst the dogs, of which there were some dozen following a closed van. ... | What does “organizing a Trust that would skin the taxcollars off the whole herd” mean? | english |
I've run into this situation several times, being a native Spanish speaker. There are some words you just can't translate into another language. Is there a particular word to describe this? I'm not refering to idioms. Also, if its a noun, people tend to use them by surrounding them in quotes. Is this appropiate? Exampl... | The word you are looking for is: Realia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realia_(translation) Entering in the field of translation studies, a radical terminological change must be enforced: «realia», in fact, does not mean objects, but signs, words and, more precisely, those words signifying objects of the material cultur... | How would you call a word that doesn't exist or translate well into another language? | english |
Does anyone know why B is better than A ? A. Nowadays, public health is a topic that starts to get growing attentions. - B. Nowadays, public health is a topic that is starting to get growing attention. | Nowadays is a complex temporal adverb that means much the same thing as Positive anymore . That is, Nowadays, <code> S </code> asserts that <code> S </code> is true at the present time, and also presupposes that there was a time in the past when <code> S </code> was false. Nowadays, everybody carries a phone. Everybody... | nowadays with verb or verb+ing form | english |
Actually, my question is a bit broader. AFAIK, the latter is generally incorrect: "item" is adjective so it should be singular. However there are some well-known exceptions like "sales manager". Could anyone explain the rule here: when is plural form acceptable? Update: looks like here is an answer . Any comments are w... | One thing about plurals generally, is that we can sometimes think of them as a single unit. For example, when we speak of "sports", are we speaking of "the several different activities, each of which is a sport", or are we speaking of "the single activity of engaging in sporting activities"? The truth of the matter is ... | "List of items" is correct. Is "items list" correct? | english |
"What does the fox say?" Onomatopoeia, and Alien Languages claims there's no onomatopoeia for foxes: But you don't find fox onomatopoeia in this context. Foxes tend to do one of two things: either they are silent, or they speak like humans do. It's certainly a testament to the fox's slyness that it's attributed with hu... | Short answer: No - hence the joke. You can make one up that matches the sound they actually make or use the word "Bark" Longer answer: Here are more examples of fox sounds from http://greenmeditations.com/getting-foxy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NuhlibHsM Alarm bark Vixen's scream Gekkering Howl Literature seems t... | Onomatopoeia for foxes | english |
I am wondering about the wording of this sentence: Empowering solid decisions by providing transparency of the system landscape and IT processes. I'd like to ask if "on" can be used in this context as opposed to "of" and which variant sounds better/is more correct. And what about using "... making transparent the syste... | I think the reason the prepositions sound strange is because of "providing". Try using "increasing": Empowering solid decisions by increasing the transparency of the system landscape and IT processes. Synonyms of "increasing" would also work.. | Providing transparency on or providing transparency of? | english |
I'm writing a mock business plan for a translation company. Alongside the text they have to translate, there is some accompanying media, so they can pull more information out of the sentences (plurals, etc, that vary in languages) I want to describe these additional media as context c(l)ues, but I'm not sure of the cor... | If I understand you correctly I think you want 'cues'. A 'cue' is a prompt. Context cues would I assume be peripheral ideas and text that one could call upon. A 'clue' is something altogether different and is something detectives follow when investigating a crime. e.g. 'The only clue they had to work on were some finge... | "Context Cue", or "Context Clue" | english |
First, is minimalize a word? If so, what is the difference between the 2 words and when to use them? | Several dictionaries do not have an entry for minimalize (such as Oxford Dictionaries and Merriam-Webster ). Still, other dictionaries do (such as Random House, via Dictionary.com and Webster's New World and American Heritage, via YourDictionary ), and the word is definitely in use, so the answer to the first part of y... | Minimize VS Minimalize | english |
What is the more correct form? Quick Google research tells that first form is more popular, but don't give a definitive answer about what is the most appropriate. | Threads are sticky , metaphorically, and in the realm of web publishing, sticky has come to be used as a verb, meaning to make a post “sticky” . On websites and other systems where materials are displayed in chronological lists— blogs and journals, discussion forums, news feeds— new items are usually displayed at the t... | "Stickied thread" or "sticked thread", when talking about internet forum thread | english |
Can prone always be used as a synonym of sensitive? For example, is the sentence "Rabits are prone to humid conditions." equivalent to "Rabits are sensitive to humid conditions."? The first sentence seems to use "prone" incorrectly, but I'm not a native speaker, so I can't tell for sure. | Your intuition is right. To be "prone" is not to be sensitive, but to have a tendency toward something. Which isn't to say that we cannot connect rabbits with humidity using "prone"; it's just that it's not possible to have tendency toward humidity. But let's say that we agree that rabbits can have a tendency to, say, ... | Can prone always be used as a synonym of sensitive? | english |
Can this word be used to mean observing the patient's condition in a hospital in order to make a diagnosis? | It is a perfectly legitimate word to use. It is extremely common to say that the patient is to be kept under surveillance. The commonest use is in the context of patients with precancerous conditions who are routinely kept under surveillance for signs of malignant change. | Is "surveillance" adequate for observing a patient in a hospital? | english |
How to address the VP of a company or department? I have been told that addressing by name was not polite. Any clues? | Unless you knew him personally, it would certainly not be appropriate in the UK, and I imagine it would not be in the US either. Few men will object to being addressed by a stranger as 'Dear Sir'. | "Dear Sir" or "Dear John" if you are addressing the VP of a company | english |
I was trying to explain to a friend that someone is no longer available on Spotify earlier today so I said the sentence: The Avalanches are no longer available on Spotify. Immediately after saying that I realized it might be incorrect (English isn't my first language so this is a common occurrence) because if you take ... | The official rule is: if it acts as a singular unit, it gets a singular congugation; if it acts as a group of individuals viewed individually, it gets a plural congugation. There is no difference between common and proper nouns. For example, Seventy dollars is too much to spend on a DVD. (The seventy dollars is one uni... | "Are" vs. "is" for proper nouns which sound plural (such as band names) | english |
Is the following sentence right: "You got to have that satisfaction to never being satisfied" English is not my first language and a friend of mine wants this as a tattoo. I can't shake the feeling that he will be walking around with a wrong sentence the rest of his life | To begin with it is not grammatical. To make it thus you would need to say You have got to have that satisfaction of never being satisfied And I also think 'that' should be changed to 'the'. The reason for my uncertainty is that the whole sentence sounds paradoxical. Can you be 'satisfied with never being satisfied'? S... | "got to have" in a sentence | english |
In mathematics one will often say "This plus that" or "This times that". This means "This added too that" and "This multiplied by that". Multiply, Add, Subtract, Divide - All are verbs. But what part of speech is "times" or "plus". It's wrong to say "times this by that" or "plus this with that". So they do not seem to ... | M-W defines plus (definition 3, used in addition) as a preposition . This would make sense if you think of "Three plus four" as "Three added to four." Alternatively, you could hedge your bets and call the operator a conjunction, which would make sense if you think of "Three plus four" as "Three and four." | What part of speech are "plus", "times", and "minus" | english |
I'm having difficulty recalling the word for the unique sensory space of an organism. Or it might be the word for the impression derived from those unique senses, I'm not totally sure. It would be used as follows: *The human _ is comprised of sight, smell, taste, touch and sound, and differs from the _ of a bat.* I bel... | If you're looking for a single noun: sensorium . sen·so·ri·um 1. a part of the brain or the brain itself regarded as the seat of sensation. 2. the sensory apparatus of the body. | What is the word for the combined senses of an organism? | english |
I work in Software, and we use "master/slave" as terms. We had one task where we needed to make one software component the "master" of another "slave". The task's name was "Mastering Component X". To me, this doesn't make sense because it sounds like someone is becoming proficient in the subject of "Component X". What ... | The term promote is often used to indicate that something has moved to a higher, more powerful level to raise to a higher rank, status, degree, etc Similarly elevate to raise in rank or status; promote You could say Component X has been promoted over Component Y or *elevated over Component Y. | Word for "make a master of"? | english |
This lesson is in a pattern book. I want to know why the word about is repeated quite a few times in the text: My mother told me stories about cooking and childbearing; she told me stories about menstruation and pregnancy; she told me stories about gods and heroes, about fairies and elves, about goddesses and spirits; ... | We could say that the writer is using anaphora , a rhetorical device defined by repetition of words or phrases in neighboring clauses or sentences that adds emphasis through repetition. In the passage in question, the repetition of "about" (more specifically "she told me stories about") could be emphasizing the many an... | Strange sentence structure from a piece by Paula Gunn Allen | english |
Is the following sentence from the TV series American Horror Story correct, formal grammar? We are powerful. Even though none of you have yet to believe it. In my understanding, it would be "Even though none of you have not yet believed it", which is a double negative. I have never seen "have yet to" used in negatives. | We are powerful, even though none of you have yet to believe it. Would be a perfectly sensible sentence for dialogue. The first clause states something, "we are powerful" and the second clause modifies that first one, by referring to why that clause may not be already evident. That second clause "even though none of yo... | "Even though none of you have yet to believe it" — grammatical? | english |
A group of environmentalists helped direct several small sharks that had lost their way after they had swum through polluted waters to migrate South. Swimming comes before losing the way, yet both verbs are in past perfect. I'm told that this sentence is correct. Is this sentence correct and what about the past perfect... | It is correct. Both actions happened before the fact that the environmentalists helped the small sharks, that's why they need the Past Perfect form. The use of after specifies which of these two actions happened first, i.e. first the sharks swam through polluted waters, then they lost their way. | Two past perfect verbs in the same sentence even though sequence is indicated | english |
I encountered this expression here Napoleon once described Ney as 'ignorant of my projects as the last joined drummer boy', yet he still made him Commander of the Army's left wing at Waterloo. I find this expression weird. How can "the last joined drummer boy" be related to ignorance? | The "last joined drummer boy" (the drummer boy who most recently joined) is new. He is untrained and knows little about what, where, when, and how to do all that needs to be done. The comparison implies that Ney knows as little about the army as said newly joined drummer boy. There is also an extra possible implication... | What's the meaning of "as ignorant as the last joined drummer boy"? | english |
Is there an American English idiom for Russian "die of/from happiness"? I thought I would die of happiness when I heard this wonderful song! | One such expression which is similar is I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when ... This is attested in Macmillan: I thought I'd died and gone to heaven spoken used for emphasizing that you enjoyed something very much [Macmillan] and it's been used in popular culture too. It is predicated on the idea that something ... | An American English idiom for "die of happiness" | english |
we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it, live it for the best good of others , and never mind about the results; they were not our affair. from A dog's tale by Mark Twain | One meaning of good as a noun is profit or advantage; worth; benefit from this dictionary . If I were to substitute the word good by benefit , for example, it will be: live it for the best benefit of others which is also correct. | What does 'live it for the best good of others mean exactly? | english |
Is it right to say contrary to our interest to reduce the size of the paper I want to say that we want to reduce the size of the paper but we cannot do it, due to specific reasons. | If you want to be pedantic about it (and I at least know that, I do) you should mind the fact that 'contrary' has a precise definition in some spheres, and that (by my observations) that meaning does seem to affect the meaning of the word in ordinary language. The word, 'contrary', refers to the idea of two mutually ex... | How to use the word 'contrary'? | english |
I listen to BBC Radio 4 a fair bit. They pretty much always use "woman" as opposed to "female" - like "a woman pilot". To me this just sounds completely wrong, and most stuff I can find online about it seems to agree with me. My first thought was that there might be a gender equality reason for saying "woman" (Radio 4 ... | The only reason I can think of always using woman instead of female is to specifically imply that the person or persons being referred to are adult females. Female has no implication of age whereas Woman does. Technically, the use of woman in place of female (in cases such as you point out) is acceptable and is proper ... | Is "woman" really interchangable with "female" as an adjective? | english |
Is the collocation "almost exactly" grammatical, when one is trying to express that something is almost at the edge of being exact ? E.g.: ...and it's almost exactly like... | Yes, I can see no problem with this phrase. Exactly is an adverb, meaning precisely, perfectly or without error. Almost is an adverb, and means very nearly, or not quite. stackexchange-url ("There is no problem using consecutive adverbs") to describe a situation, and I can't think of a better, single word substitute fo... | Is "almost exactly" correct English? | english |
Please read the following sentence: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is planning his retirement in the next nine months from the software giant he helped build. Would you consider "helped" a Non-Modal verb ? If yes , then would you please tell me why? | Just because one verb can follow another in the bare infinitive form does not automatically make the former verb a modal, nor does the lack to the to particle somehow make the latter verb a finite verb. Help is not a modal verb because modal verbs are not subject to changes of inflectional morphology due to person or n... | "Help" as a Non-Modal verb | english |
Have you ever noticed when you are under water for a long time, your finger tips turn white and their skin is not as smooth as before and they change. But after a while they go back to their previous shape. I wanna know how to refer to that shape of skin. Hope I'm clear enough. | Most people would call that sort of thing wrinkled or maybe pruned , perhaps even corrugated if they were particularly prone to long words. Wikipedia writes: The wrinkles that occur in skin after prolonged exposure to water are sometimes referred to as pruney fingers or water aging. This is a temporary skin condition w... | what is it called when your fingers turn in shape after being under water for a long period | english |
I have read something from an author and I think I would like to use part of his idea in my own context. But how should I cite the author so that it isn't misleading? Let me give an example. Suppose I have read this and wanted to use this idea from Dunne & Raby in my article: Critical design uses designed artifacts... | The standard way of providing this sort of oblique reference is to use compare, abbreviated to cf. cf. abbreviation compare with (used to refer a reader to another written work or another part of the same written work). Origin: from Latin confer 'compare' [ODO] See also Cornell University's guide . The first example of... | How to make a citation for a sentence that is used in my own context? | english |
In a tutorial on ballet classes, I came across the following sentence: Once a star is born, she is given every imaginable opportunity to fall smack on her overextended haunches. I do not understand the meaning of the fragment in bold. | It's just a fancy of saying that a ballerina with star quality is given every opportunity to fall on her ass , or, to put it more directly, to fail. The line is from an article in Time (subscription required) titled "Dance: U.S. Ballet Soars." The relevant paragraph (emphasis mine): Countless thousands of little girl d... | Meaning of "to fall smack on her overextended haunches" | english |
Maybe this question is stupid, but I came to wonder: Why do all negating words start with the letter n ? This is the case in all languages I know of. | As John Lawler has indicated in a comment, most negating words in Indo-European languages derive ultimately from the root *ne- . In non-IE languages, negative words take other forms, eg Hebrew לֺא (lo' = "not") or אין ('eyn' = "there isn't") or Turkish yok ("there isn't") or Georgian არ (ar = "not"). And even in IE lan... | Why do all negating words start with the letter N? | english |
Why is "30 head" singular instead of plural in this sentence? Can you explain more about it? | Dave Phillips says: In BrE we would always say a head of cattle (meaning the whole herd) but we wouldn't give a number of those head/heads. While I would concede that the usage "X head" is not unknown here, the use of 'head' as a synonym of the collective noun 'herd' is probably more common in the UK. ........ Because ... | The herd of cattle had grown to 30 head. Why didn't the writer write 30 heads? | english |
I found on an invoice the shortcut <code> QTTY </code> that stands for the word quantity . Simplified part of the invoice: <code> Item | QTTY Unit | Unit Price |Total Price Product X | 2 | 100.00 | 200.00 ... </code> Would you use QTTY or QTY? Or any other form? | I would say that QTY is used more commonly, though looking through a handful of invoices I have to hand, they all use quantity instead of an abbreviation. | What is common shortcut for "quantity"? | english |
I know that it is common to write the number 'ten thousand' as a numeral with a comma delimiting the <code> 10 </code> and the <code> 000 </code> like so: <code> 10, 000 </code> However, I have never seen a comma used for numbers less than <code> 10,000 </code> , such as <code> 8000 </code> where, I assume using a comm... | In the English-speaking world, it is common to use commas every three decimal places in numbers of four or more digits, counting right to left. When you do use a comma for a thousands-separator, do please make sure to write the digits flush against the comma — that is, without a space to either side of the comma: <code... | When writing large numbers, should a comma be inserted? | english |
I am familiar with the "-ridden" construction, e.g. "anxiety-ridden". I also know that "riddled with X" is possible. I recently saw the combination "ridden with X", which sounds off to me, but I'm not sure whether my intuition is a reliable guide here. Does "ridden with X" make sense, or is it an eggcorn? | It should be "ridden by anxiety", and not "ridden with anxiety". Maybe somebody misconstrued "anxiety-ridden" to mean "ridden with anxiety". I don't think that counts as an eggcorn, because it's incorrect back-formation, and not a misheard pronunciation. You can google and find "anxiety-riddled" as well; that's an eggc... | "Ridden" and "Riddled" | english |
Does 'but for' mean: 'If we had X (but we didn't), Y would have been the consequence'? Or can it also mean; because we had X, as a result Y happened? Some different examples of but for : (Case 1) But for a cup coffee, it was to be a productive day of writing. Unfortunately, I'd run out, and spent the day craving. (Case... | The preposition But for x be expanded as: if x had not existed or if x had not happened This makes but for the equivalent of the third (remote) conditional where the main clause contains the would have construction. On this basis your third case is correct: But for ( If I hadn't drunk ) the glass of wine I had for dinn... | Correct usage of 'but for'? | english |
I was watching Downton Abbey season 4 episode 2. The conversation goes like this: Violet Crawley: Now I asked Branson to come here because I have an idea. Mary Crawley: Granny, you must call him Tom. Violet Crawley: I thought I could call him Branson again now that he's the agent. Mary Crawley: Well, you can't. Tom Bra... | The Dowager Countess was just expressing that she felt as powerless to stop the rising tide of egalitarianism as King Canute was to stop the rising of the tide . | What happened to King Canute | english |
I am reading The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Conner (The Noonday Press). In the second story, there's a conversation going on between Rayber and the barber. The barber starts saying something about politicians at the end of the first page and goes on till the beginning of the first page. Then the quotation marks clo... | The point of the typographic unclosed quotation is to indicate to the reader that a discourse flows uninterrupted across a typographic boundary, viz. , a new paragraph. (There is of course no punctuation or paragraphing in speech—these devices are gestures which signify the presence of structural or prosodic brea... | Confusion about characters in a dialogue: I can't fathom who spoke what from the punctuation | english |
This sentence is in the book pattern complete sentence is: In 1934, in February, when the dust was still so thick in the Minnesota air that my parents couldn't always see from the house to the barn, their fifth child – a fourth daughter – was born. ― MY MOTHER NEVER WORKED , by Bonnie Smith-Yackel, page 2 | For the same reason I might say 'In my house, in the kitchen, there is an oven', or 'In my car in the glove compartment, there are some keys'. I could avoid all that by saying 'In my kitchen at home there is an oven' or 'There are some keys in the glove compartment of my car'. In the same way your author might have sai... | Why is the preposition "in" used twice in this sentence: In 1934, in February...? | english |
I was wondering about adding an e at the end of a word to change it from a noun to a verb. For example. cloth to clothe, and breath to breathe. My question here is if this is some special rule, or a quirk to the English Language . | (The key elements of the answer to this question are given in the comments following it. This answer ties them together and adds some more detail.) If you look at a fuller range of examples— calf , calve ; grief , grieve ; half , halve ; life , live ; proof , prove ; safe , save ; serf , serve ; strife , strive (with s... | "E" at the end of words to make a word | english |
What is the difference between "Made in..." and "Product of..."? Both are often seen on product labeling; my understanding is that "Made in" is not used for agricultural goods while "Product of" is? | I can only speak from a limited perspective, but in Australia there is a very significant difference between 'Made in ..' and 'Product of ..' worth millions of dollars annually. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Country of Origin Code of Practice outlines the differences in detail. They cover agricultu... | "Made in..." vs. "Product of..." | english |
I have to specify not yet collected whether I can specify 'yet to collect' or 'yet to be collected' which one I can use? | they're both fine, but I think "yet to be collected" is better. Also, the comments are also correct - "Uncollected" and "Not collected" are fine. | 'yet to collect' is this correct or not? | english |
I'm trying to choose a name for a variable in my program that includes some number tandem. What is the difference between string and field in this case? For example, which one is better: "field of numbers" or "string of numbers"? | I think it is likely to depend on context. From a scientific or computing viewpoint (given that you have asked about numbers), there is a difference. Field is likely to define an area or container in which particular items may be found. A database or spreadsheet may contain a field which may only contain types of data ... | "String of numbers" vs. "field of numbers" | english |
Prior to reading Langston Hughes Salvation, I defined sin as something that you have done wrong. But, in reading Langston Hughes essay, it used sin to mean something like not believing in god. So, my question is whether sin means the first, second or both of the definitions . | The short answer to your question is both . from Merriam-Webster: 1 a. an offense against religious or moral law b. an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible c. an often serious shortcoming : fault If not believing in a god is a violation of a religion's law, then in the eyes of that religion the act of n... | Definition of Sin | english |
I was reading a booklet when I came across the phrase "personally identifiable". What does it mean in the following context (emphasis mine): As the common household and business router will often display just one IP address for all of the people connected to it, the IP address will identify a group of people rather tha... | The two paragraphs mention two cases that often occur: one where an IP address does not reveal personal identities, and one where it does. The text probably discusses both cases to lessen the likelihood that a reader will assume that either case alone accounts for nearly all situations. Note, the first case is good if ... | What does "personally identifiable" mean | english |
I've never studied English grammar, although I have studied a little German and Latin. If you asked me to differentiate the past perfect from the pluperfect, I wouldn't know where to begin. I read questioners using terms like "verb base + ing" and I ask myself whether he means a gerund or a present participle and I won... | Unhappily, there is no one "accepted nomenclature" right now. The language for talking about English grammar has been evolving very rapidly for two generations as scholars find it necessary to invent new terms to denote new perceptions which cannot be adequately expressed in the old manner, by twisting Greek and Latin ... | Is there a generally accepted group of grammatical terms for English? | english |
A question from a non-native speaker: For some reason I have to find at least three different formal ways to express "we got very good comments". The context is like "our paper got published and the reviewer's comments were very positive". Now I have three candidate expressions: we received rather positive reviews our ... | I would avoid, where possible, words like 'rather' and 'quite', in the sense of 'quite good'. They are imprecise and overworked. In any case, if you say you got 'very good' comments, using 'rather' and 'quite' may mean you are tending to be too modest. So for starters you could say: We received very positive reviews. T... | Three formal ways to express "we got very good comments" | english |
I was thinking the other day about Kleenex , which is purposely misspelled from clean -ex, if that makes sense, and I was wondering if there was a word for purposely misspelling a word, or name. | Deliberate misspelling of words is referred to as eye dialect . It means use of nonstandard spelling. Examples include enuff , goffik and wuz (for was ). Another good self-explanatory term is chatspeak defined in the Urban Dictioanry as Chatspeak, aka netspeak. This is a form of speech in which one shortens words and r... | Is there a special word for purposely misspelling a word? | english |
I would like to reference something a character said in a famous childhood story, e.g. The Boy Who Cried Wolf, or, Goldilocks and the Three Bears etc. amidst normal writing. For instance, I'll use "proverbial" below, but I'm neither sure it makes sense, nor positive it's grammatically correct. I'm also unsure a drop-in... | I think proverbial works, even if you're not specifically referring to proverbs. Note especially the second definition from Merriam-Webster: pro·ver·bi·al adjective \prə-ˈvər-bē-əl\ : of, relating to, or resembling a proverb : commonly spoken of : widely known Edit: "Proverbial" is used correctly in the examples given ... | Looking for a word similar to "proverbial", but referring to fables or folk stories | english |
Please help me. I am very confused. How are these kinds of verb related to each other? Specially Non-Modals and Conjugated Verb. Is the "Auxiliary modal" just another name for "Auxiliary verb"? | I will give you the traditional definitions, although some other people use slightly different definitions. But I think these are what you are looking for. A modal verb is one that adds information about the probability or desirability of the infinitive that comes with it, like can, will, must, etc. An auxiliary verb i... | Modal vs Non-Modal vs Auxiliary modal vs Conjugated Verb | english |
I live in the house next to/close to the cinema. I live in the house that is next to/close to the cinema. I go to the school in front of/behind my house. I go to the school that is in front of/behind my house. I work at a supermarket far from my place. I work at a supermarket that is far away from my place. My friend l... | All eight are perfectly grammatica, and idiomatic, except that I wouldn't use far or far away in that context in ordinary speech; I'd probably say a long way . | Prepositions after objects | english |
The following parameters are given regarding creating acceptable usernames for a particular website: The username is case sensitive. Choose a username that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _.@/- The phrase "Choose a username that is... and must co... | I would say your objection is entirely correct. The imperative can loosely be rephrased as a ‘must’ clause, which would yield: You must choose a password that must contain… This is awkward to the point of being ungrammatical to me. There is only one real requirement, not two separate and separable ones. In some context... | “Choose a username that is …and must contain”: phrased incorrectly or just awkwardly? | english |
When I was in America I was offered eggs for breakfast as either 'up', 'down', 'easy' or 'dropped'. None of them are in use in Britain, where we have our eggs, fried, scrambled, boiled, or poached. Please could someone match these terms for me? | I think... up = sunny-side up down = sunny-side down easy: Eggs cooked "over easy" means that it gets fried on both sides, but the yolk stays runny. To make one, you cook the raw egg just until the whites are set on the bottom, then you quickly flip it over to cook the other side. "Over" refers to flipping the egg, and... | How do you eat your eggs? | english |
What does the expression "Mid or feed" mean? I realized it was a quote from Einstein. In addition, what's the meaning of the "mid" and the "feed" in this semi-context? After a Google search, I see the expression repeated in some online game ("League of Legends"; many related results). What about it, if anyone knows? I'... | The Einstein macro is a fake. It is an example of comedic fake quotes such as "You can't trust everything you read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln. This quote is purely about League of Legends (abbreviated to LoL). Essentially the answer above me explains how 'Mid or Feed' applies to LoL. People say mid or feed to b... | The meaning of "Mid or feed" | english |
Space professionals have popularized the terms Goldilocks planet & Goldilocks zone to describe planets and regions of space around a star that, like earth, are "just right" to conceivably harbor life. Are there other popular instances of using "Goldilocks" as an adjective? Can I just attach the word to any noun? | Perhaps this is useful? Goldilocks Principle It shows examples in cognitive science, medicine and economics. Edit: Been noticing this usage since I answered this question. It really is quite widespread. Here is a description of a pocket knife: It's Goldilocks Knife. It has just enough blades and tools to make it actual... | Can you use "Goldilocks" as an adjective? | english |
I'm looking for an online resource to list conjugation of some of most common English verbs ( to be, to get, to do, to have etc.) in their archaic (Early Modern) forms. In particular, I'd be interested in conjugation for various tenses - I can easily find "am, art, is, are" and similar, but finding conjugation of "did"... | I haven't found a convenient resource, but there's really not much to say: be I am thou art he, she, it is we, ye, they are I, he, she, it was thou wert we, ye, they were have I, we, ye, they have thou hast he, she, it hath I, he, she, it, we, ye, they had thou hadst do I, we, ye, they do thou dost he, she, it doth I, ... | Archaic conjugation of common verbs? | english |
What is the name of this elevated street crossing thing (In Britain?) | As a native British English speaker I would call it a footbridge A bridge designed for pedestrians although some might call it an overpass A passage, roadway, or bridge that crosses above another roadway or thoroughfare. | What is the name of this elevated street crossing thing (In Britain?) | english |
I am constantly told "funner" is not a word. Even Google auto corrects. Yet "funner" is used very often in spoken English with people I meet. Is funner a word? If not why? What causes it to not be a word? | The AHDEL has this USAGE NOTE: The use of fun as an attributive adjective, as in a fun time, a fun place, probably originated in a playful reanalysis of the use of the word in sentences such as It is fun to ski, where fun has the syntactic function of adjectives such as amusing or enjoyable. The usage became popular in... | Is funner a word? | english |
Under which grammatical rule does this fall? Which is grammatically correct: (1) A teacher might find it difficult to explain a lecture in the past. OR (2) A teacher might have found it difficult to explain a lecture in the past. Thank you in advance. | Have + past participle of the verb is in present perfect tense . The first sentence is in present tense . Both are grammatically correct. | might find or might have found | english |
Why is Daddy in this sentence written with a capital D? Her love letters to and from Daddy were in an old box, tied with ribbons and stiff, rigid-with-age leather thongs. This sentence is from the essay named My mother never worked by Bonnie Smith-Yackel. | Please refer to the answer in this link. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090905044418AA92kQ6 It is correct to capitalize those terms when Mum or Dad is used instead of their name. If you are writing "my mum" or "your dad", then the term is not capitalized. | Why “Daddy” in this sentence was written with a capital D? | english |
I have a US Army friend and he had a military exercise a few months ago. I texted him Are you exercising tonight? during exercise period. I learnt that present continuous can be used for future tense. for example We are having a party at my house on Halloween This is why I used present continuous in the sentence. Howev... | In answer to your larger question: "Should present continuous be used when plans are fixed like a timetable?" I would argue that it will never sound wrong to use present continuous for asking questions about the future, but will rarely sound correct to use present tense to do so. It technically may be more correct (acc... | Are you exercising tonight or Do you have an exercise? | english |
Assume Einstein conjectured something (in Mathematics) and Zweistein conjectured something slightly stronger (implies Einstein's conjecture). Which one of the following is correct?: <code> (a) Every X satisfies Zweistein's and thus Einstein's conjecture. (b) Every X satisfies Zweistein's and thus Einstein's conjectures... | Your two pairs are not equal. The second should certainly be (b), since you are talking about satisying both conjectures instead of one or the other. But the first pair does not have quite the same meaning; it is not possible (as you explained, and presumably the audience know) to satisfy Zweistein's conjecture and not... | Using plural for two individual objects of the same kind | english |
Is it acceptable to say "We'll get back to you as quick as we can"? Is "quick" a flat adverb in this case? | The article Flat Adverbs Are Flat-Out Useful suggests that "quick" is a flat adverb. Just as an example, "come quick" and "come quickly" are both grammatically correct. Consider the similar sentence: "We'll get back to you as soon as we can." Here, "soon" is taking the place of "quick" with all most the exact same mean... | As quick as we can? | english |
Free software providers, including such giants as Adobe or Dell, will often try to make the downloaders download more than they are trying to download. Is there a name for this practice? | Foistware refers to any software, bundled with some other primary software, that attempts to install without the user's knowledge or consent during the installation of the primary software. I think this best fits your request. Other sources can also be found Crapware is another, less-widely used term. You can probably ... | Is there a word for the practice of fobbing off additional unwanted software on the downloaders of your free product? | english |
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