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1,000 | 175,247 | 76823_0 | If I were writing a postcard home from a sunny city, I would normally put the adjective just before the proper noun like "sunny Berlin". What should I do when it's The Hague? |
1,001 | 172,210 | 76823_0 | Googling didn't help. Thanks in advance for your help. |
1,002 | 87,297 | 76823_0 | I assume that > *He didn't say he enjoyed the party at all. is ungrammatical. But what about > He didn't think he enjoyed the party at all. Is this analysis correct? And if yes: What's the difference? |
1,003 | 44,220 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > What does "Roger" mean in war movies? In some movies, when they are talking from base-camp to a plane for instance, they end their sentences with "Roger" (I hope it's written like this). In french, we are using "à vous", meaning that it is your turn to speak. From where does this surname (if it this) come from ? |
1,004 | 42,666 | 76823_0 | This is in very common use on the internet. I just read this: > "[The] hotel employee walks in, I say "uh, puppy" and she just **NOPEd** the > [heck] out of the room." This is often done by adding _'d_ to the word. |
1,005 | 44,222 | 76823_0 | What is origin of the usage of the word 'do' when in reference to a social event (primarily in Britain)? For example a 'Stag do' or 'Christmas fundraiser do'. |
1,006 | 36,178 | 76823_0 | I read this in an Agatha Christie novel from 1965: > He certainly left here on Thursday evening carrying his BEA bag. What is a BEA bag? Is it a brand or a specific type of bag? Googling doesn't yield very specific results. |
1,007 | 102,273 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > What is the word for an unmarried female? What is the word for an unmarried female? The above closed question is unanswered as _bachelorette_ implies both unmarried and divorced/widowed. _Spinster_ is for old women. _Bachelor_ is a never-married man. Is there no such female equivalent of _bachelor_? |
1,008 | 146,457 | 76823_0 | In Dutch, the term "de wetgever" (literally "the legislator", "the lawmaker") is often used to refer to the legislative power, the legislature. This is very often translated in English as "the legislator". E.g.: "A new ruling by the Constitutional Court will force **the Belgian legislator** and social partners to harmonise the employment statutes for blue-collar and white-collar workers by 2013, ..." (source: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2011/12/articles/be1112011i.htm) However, I cannot find good examples of this English term being used this way on UK websites. So, I was wondering if this actually correct. |
1,009 | 36,174 | 76823_0 | When it comes to "the level of importance", what is the difference between "urgent" and "critical"? I have my own idea, but I recently came upon a scenario where the relative level of importance was reversed from my expectations. Thus, I'm looking for a standard/objective difference between the two. |
1,010 | 146,459 | 76823_0 | Taken from _First Certificate Language Practice_ , by Michael Vince, page 78, exercise 7, sentences 2) and 7): 2) John has done well in French, but not so well in Maths. (to be rewritten as, says the key:) * While John has done well in French, he has not done so well in Maths. (could also be written as:) * John has done well in French while he has not done so well in Maths. * While John has not done so well in Maths, he has done well in French. * John has not done so well in Maths while he has done well in French. 7) I'm not going to pay, although I know that I should. (to be rewritten as, says the key:) * While I know that I should pay, I am not going to. (could also be written as:) * I am not going to pay while I know I should. (but not as:) * *I know that I should pay while I am not going to. * *While I am not going to pay, I know I should. So, in this case, the order of the clauses matters, whereas it did not in the previous case. Why? |
1,011 | 123,941 | 76823_0 | If my understanding is correct, the **possessive personal pronouns** (which are _mine, thine, yours, his, hers, its, ours,_ and _theirs_ ) are used in place of nouns, whereas the **possessive determiners** (which are _my, thy, your, his, her, its, our,_ and _their_ ) are used as adjectives. If this is the case, then why is example 1 below correct, as opposed to example 2? 1. Whose book is this? It is **mine**. 2. Whose book is this? It is ***my**. |
1,012 | 14 | 76823_0 | Are there any concrete rules that say which words (parts of speech) in a title should start with a capital letter? What would be a correct capitalization for the title of this question? |
1,013 | 68,627 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? First of all, after knowing the answer, I may need to edit the title of this post as the very first thing :) Moving to my actual question, which groups of words in the title should be Capitalized. I know, all nouns have to be, any other parts of speech? |
1,014 | 110,763 | 76823_0 | My father has a website with over a thousand posts with the titles in UPPERCASE. We'd like to change the post titles to follow the Chicago Manual of Style Title Case rules. To speed things up I am going to run a script that will automatically capitalise all of the title words, apart from those words where lowercase would normally apply. We will then go through and manually check all of the posts for acronyms etc. So far I have identified the following words to be automatically changed to lowercase: 'a','an','the', 'and','but','or','nor', 'if','then','else','when', 'at','by','from','for','in', 'off','on','out','over','to','into','with' If we want to get as close as possible to the Chicago Manual of Style Title Case rules what additions/ deletions should I make to this list? |
1,015 | 19,701 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Hi everyone, I am German and the German language follows very strict rules of capitalization: A word starts with an upper case letter if its a noun or at the beginning of a sentence. In the English language however, nouns are usually written with a lower case letter at the beginning. But right now I am working on the slides for a presentation and I wonder what the rules for capitalization are in titles? I do have a template here and on that it looks like in titles all nouns are written with an upper case letter in front. Is this true? What is the general rule here? |
1,016 | 66,269 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? I'm not a native speaker of English, and I've asked myself a lot why on many (most?) blogs, all words in an article’s title (except some little words like "of", "for", "with", ...) start with an uppercase letter. From my point of view it makes it less readable. But maybe it's a grammatical rule I don't know. Example: http://nytimes.com/ |
1,017 | 102,539 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Why are some book titles written with all letters in all words capitalized, while others choose to capitalize some words in the title? I mean, for example, when it comes to publication, what is the difference between "THINKING IN JAVA" and "Thinking in Java"? |
1,018 | 4,256 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Initial caps, otherwise known as title case, e.g. "When Using Inital Caps, Which Words Should Be Left Un-capitalised?". Which words should be un-capitalised? **Edit** I gather this differs between UK and US ... |
1,019 | 43,691 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Suppose I'm going to write an article/essay with the following title: _**"What To Do If You Believe Space Aliens Shot JFK"_** Does the word "if" get capitalized, like above, or not? |
1,020 | 146,853 | 76823_0 | Let's say I have a few titles here: > Fire _in_ Our Hands > Who _am_ I > Land of Dreams > Do I write the _italic_ words with capitals like the other words, or is it properly written the way it is? |
1,021 | 26,224 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? For instance: _The Story of a Boy who Likes Pancakes and is Hungry_ <\- (completely random made-up title) In this example "of, "a", "who", "and", and "is" are all not capitalized. I'm fairly sure this is correct but I'm not 100% positive about "who". In any case, is there some kind of list of what words are not capitalized in titles, or how do you know when not to capitalize specific words? |
1,022 | 149,495 | 76823_0 | In "That Someone that I Love", would "that" be capitalized? |
1,023 | 39,729 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? If I'm using an idiom in a title then should all the elements of the phrase be capitalized or just the ones that are usually in capitals? For example, which of the following should be used? > be up and Running > > be Up and Running > > be Up And Running |
1,024 | 62,630 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Could you please tell me: What is the recommended capitalisation style for the section titles of a business document and a scientific text (PhD thesis)---first caps or sentence style? And if I use the first caps in the titles in the document, should I also use first caps in the table of contents? |
1,025 | 138,618 | 76823_0 | Suppose I have a headline for a subsection of a book or article that goes something like: Everything Collected in One Place. Is this correct or should it be: Everything Collected in one Place. ? |
1,026 | 127,725 | 76823_0 | My friend is starting a blog, and the name she is planning to use for it is based in this structure: "Becky" the "Foodie". Should "the" in the name/title be capitalised? Becky The Foodie? Or Becky the Foodie? Thanks so much! |
1,027 | 9,448 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Which words in a title should be capitalized? Often words in titles has its first letter capitalized, but some don't (such as "The Title of This Question"). What are the rules for which words to capitalize? |
1,028 | 146,302 | 76823_0 | I understand that you should not capitalize prepositions in titles but the following looks a bit funny: "Accept Changes into a New Space" To me, capitalizing 'into' looks more right, "Accept Changes Into a New Space". Is this still acceptable? |
1,029 | 171,250 | 76823_0 | When writing a title, do you capitalize "the" in names like "Boris The Animal", "Mike the Bike Guy" or "Tom The Dancing Bug"? |
1,030 | 18,769 | 76823_0 | Why are "done me wrong" and "did me service" established phrases instead of the more standard "He wronged me" and "He serviced [helped] me"? **EDIT** : I just realized whatever connection I saw with French was spurious. The curious thing is why _do_ takes the object "me" here, which PLL has amply answered. |
1,031 | 89,948 | 76823_0 | Both of these seem very similar to me. Is there any difference between "books translated **to** English" and "books translated **in** English"? Google search returns many results for both (> 400,000), though "translated _to_ English" gives more results than "translated _in_ English". If only one of them is correct, then why the confusion? |
1,032 | 168,082 | 76823_0 | What is the best word to describe the creator of a scientific theory? As in: > Einstein was the `_____` of the theory of Special Relativity. _Creator_ , _author_ , _originator_ , and _inventor_ are possibilities, but which is the most appropriate/accepted term? * * * **EDIT:** “Father” seems to be the best fit for the example I gave, but is less apt for theories not as widely recognized as relativity or evolution. What would be the term for a less renowned scientist who has proposed a more controversial theory? |
1,033 | 33,524 | 76823_0 | Do all words have a part of speech? The closest counterexample I can think of is _yes_. The dictionary says its supposed to be an adverb but it doesn't really strike me as something that modifies a verb. Are there any words in common use that simply don't have a part of speech? Or, alternatively, are there any parts of speech that they just don't teach in school because they're too abstract to the children learning their parts of speech? |
1,034 | 33,525 | 76823_0 | **Bad Words:** * f*ck * sh*t * *ss * d*mn * b*tch * ... Ok, so there's no point in listing them all. The thing I'm interested in is this: Why is it that in English we have a strong sense of a _group_ of words that are bad, while in other languages/cultures, this distinction does not exist? Maybe this is a Western thing; for example, in Japanese they have _impolite_ words, but these words aren't segregated into their own fixed group. Their notion is much more vague and situational. Was English always this way? Was Old English _arse_ for example a "bad" word? When did the change happen? Did we inherit this more from an earlier language? |
1,035 | 18,764 | 76823_0 | I'm looking for an adjective that describes a living being as having very long ears (rabbit, donkey, etc.) preferably ending in "-uous". |
1,036 | 41,542 | 76823_0 | I am thinking a lot about infrastructure these days. My definition of infrastructure is "something, which facilitates other things, but does not by itself fulfill the need of a person". An example is the fiber-optics combined with the TCP/IP protocols and a bunch of other technologies, facilitate the creation of the internet, which again facilitates creation of services, which in the end fulfill the need for people to for example communicate. The word infrastructure can certainly be used for the fiber-optics and I believe also for the internet. Another example, is pure research, which "is research carried out to increase understanding of fundamental principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate commercial benefits". I believe that one cannot use the word infrastructure for pure research, even though I believe it is conceptually the same thing. Is there any other expression than infrastructure one can use for these things (Social Capital is another example)? |
1,037 | 87,125 | 76823_0 | I am writing an essay for class and I want to write something about my power- lifting regimen. The problem is that I can not come up with a good starting line. Every thing I come up with seems clumsy and flawed. So after some thinking I've come to decide how to start but I am having trouble with certain phrases. Here is what I have come up with so far > The bar sits ever so stubbornly in the **palm of my hands** , **waiting for > that one chance to bring me down** , both literally and figuratively. I am a non-native English speaker and I am struggling with making it sound right. Can you help me in making this sentence better-sounding. |
1,038 | 64,801 | 76823_0 | Context: I have two options to spend the coming summer, one would be to find a internship job and the other one would be to just relax and maybe try to do one of my projects that I have been telling you about lately. Honestly, I am **___ __** to/for taking a break and start a project or two - I feel that I need it. The word I'm looking for is similar in the sense to "leaning" or "biased", but both of these words can't be used here. |
1,039 | 41,545 | 76823_0 | _Balaclava_ is hyphenated as: * bal-a-cla-va, according to the online edition of Merriam-Webster * ba-la-clava, according to the 1989 printed fourth edition of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, p. 77 Which one is correct in British English? If there is a difference with the American English, which one is correct in American English? |
1,040 | 87,120 | 76823_0 | I'm in search of the word that describes the strong referendum that a candidate receives upon a strong election win that grants him or her vast leeway in enacting policy reform. I can't quite get it; referendum is close, but I believe that there's a more specific word for this, perhaps 3-4 syllables and starting with a 'c'. |
1,041 | 41,548 | 76823_0 | I'm confused with the following sentence: > In this section, we look at how the shuffle works, as a basic understanding > would be helpful, should you need to optimize a Map-Reduce program. How do I understand the grammar and the meaning of this sentence? |
1,042 | 87,129 | 76823_0 | In the United States I think it's considered politically incorrect or culuturally insensitive to refer to China and other Asian countries as the "Far East". That's because calling it East of anything suggests that Europe is somehow the center of everything. But did you know in Chinese, the name for China is literally translated as "Central Country" (http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/phpbbforum/why-is-china- called-zhongguo-t81787.html). Pretty ironic, eh? |
1,043 | 87,128 | 76823_0 | What is the difference between Biochemistry vs. Molecular Cell Biology? Is the former from chemists who became interested in biology and the later from biologists who became interested in chemistry? Why can't we all just get along... |
1,044 | 129,434 | 76823_0 | situation; Mr. Peter Smith is died is the below sentence is ok for his wife, Mrs. Peter Smith (late) |
1,045 | 30,948 | 76823_0 | I've recently heard this phrase spoken twice on a British television show, and I assume it means something along the lines of, "everything's fallen apart," generally meaning, things are bad right now. Is this correct? Two follow-up questions: 1) What is the history of this idiom? 2) Is it commonly used in other countries? |
1,046 | 83,630 | 76823_0 | In serial numbers etc., there are many cases where you can't tell if the intended character is a number or a letter. For example, the number `0` and the letter `O`, the number `1` and the letters `l` or `I`, and so on. Is there a name for this concept/problem? Background: I'm writing a spell corrector for my search engine that handles this situation. I'd like to know what this concept is called so I can document it properly. |
1,047 | 129,438 | 76823_0 | Using a computer mouse to point to a far away target and running out of table surface (or hand range), one typically lifts the mouse, moves it in the opposite direction, puts it back down, and continues the movement. Is there an English word or expression for this action? If not, how would you concisely refer to it in a text? (I thought of _rowing_ or _scraping_ with the mouse.) |
1,048 | 61,854 | 76823_0 | Which one of the following sentence is grammatically correct? * Can we at least make this predictable? * Can we make this at least predictable? What is the grammar rule? |
1,049 | 186,085 | 76823_0 | In a betting sport such as horse racing or boxing, the competitor for whom the odds are lowest is known as the _favourite_. Can the other competitors be termed something in contrast? |
1,050 | 137,846 | 76823_0 | I am trying to polish the following sentences: > The analysis time of an image depends on many factors. The size of an image > is not as primary as its nature, because... The context is: 1. There are many factors which determine the analysis time of an image. 2. Among them, we can think of "the size of an image" and "the nature of an image" (but there are still other factors). 3. For these 2 factors, our remark is that "the size of an image" is not as important as "the nature of an image". So my questions are: 1. I'm not sure if "nature" is a good term to use for "image"... 2. is "primary" a good word here? or maybe we can use "decisive"? Hope someone could help me write this sentence well, because it is a conclusion and quite important. |
1,051 | 137,845 | 76823_0 | I remember my grammar teacher saying that: > If we want to tell the length of time a person has **not** done something, > then we can use either **_for_** or **_in_**. As in: > I haven't written a single line of code **in** two years, but I'm back at > business again. or > I haven't written a single line of code **for** two years, but I'm back at > business again.> However, I couldn't verify this from another source. Can somebody confirm it? I ask because this statement "looks" valid: > I have read at least nine books in nine months. |
1,052 | 137,842 | 76823_0 | (particularly related to question/answer sites such as this) Quite often people want to ask _"How do I/you... ?"_ Maybe to be less personal or to have a generic title, _"How to... ?"_ is chosen instead. To me this feels quite jarring/incorrect (discussed here: Is a question beginning with "How to" grammatically correct?). Why is this wording so common? _"How does one... ?"_ might be more appropriate, but could be regarded as too formal or pompous. Is Is there another, better way to ask? |
1,053 | 137,840 | 76823_0 | what's the derivation of the term buff for a physically well built, attractive male? Is it simply it simply shorthand, since buff means polished and therefore a man's torso that resembles a marble statue (think Michelangelo or the ancient Greeks) resembles this fantastical image of a man's torso? Is it now becoming popular to describe women also? |
1,054 | 16,357 | 76823_0 | I'm not a native English speaker. So, I was wondering about what you might think of a title like this. It sounds a bit too much to me. Calling something that's already "super" as total. |
1,055 | 190,231 | 76823_0 | > Do I get all my packages? > Do I get any food for supper? > Do I have ....? Does this kind of sentence pattern starting with "Do I " when said as expressions for querying information sound more like kind of interrogation or challenge, for native speakers? It does for me sometimes, but then I don't know if my sense of the tones in oral English is accurate. |
1,056 | 159,840 | 76823_0 | The word "thou" (and similar variations of the Latin _tu_ in other languages) was used between people for informal speech, and talking to people of lower standing. So why did people use it (most prominently, in the King James Version of the Bible) to address God? If anything, I'd think speaking in humble deference to one's deity would _definitely_ require one to use "you". |
1,057 | 164,879 | 76823_0 | I seem to recall from my youth, when my vocabulary was many times what it is today, learning a word (started with an 'a' I think) whose meaning was "an old, unused, or archaic word" or something roughly to that effect. I believe it was an adjective though it might have been a noun. This would be quite fun as an autological term. Does anyone recall such a word, or am I deceiving myself? |
1,058 | 133,345 | 76823_0 | Can _sought_ and _searched_ be used interchangeably? As in "we searched for an article" versus "we sought an article". (Or if I got those two examples wrong, but there are correct examples where sought and searched have the same meaning, please correct me.) |
1,059 | 152 | 76823_0 | In the following example, is it appropriate to use _a_ or _an_ as the indefinite article, and why? > He ate __ green apple. I know that in the case of just "apple", it would be "an apple," but I've heard conflicting answers for "green apple," where the noun is separated from the article by an adjective. Also, which is more appropriate in this case: > He ate __ enormous Pop-Tart. |
1,060 | 5,265 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? I got the following sentence from the book I'm reading: > You can take a database-first approach by first creating a SQL Server > database schema. From what I learned, I think it should be " **an** SQL Server database schema", not " **a** SQL Server database schema". So which one is correct? |
1,061 | 76,157 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > "An SQL Server database schema" or "a SQL Server database schema"? > How is SQL pronounced? I'm looking at a splash screen for a Structured Query Language interface, and the use of the word "an" on the page bothers me. It states "An SQL yadda yadda". Now, SQL to a large portion of users is pronounced "EssQueEll", where others pronounce it "sequel". The an is correct if you pronounce it the first way, but sounds wrong when pronounced the latter way. Is there a determinant factor when using it, or is it just the preference of whoever is writing at the time? |
1,062 | 138,856 | 76823_0 | It seems like "A European" is the correct one but why ? Is this a general rule about Capitalized words? |
1,063 | 2,736 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? Although I am clear about the usage of 'an' and 'a' on most cases, but I am not sure how they are applied in front abbreviations. I heard that, whether vowel or consonants, abbreviations are always used with the 'an' article. Can someone confirm this? |
1,064 | 47,933 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use "a" vs "an"? While I was reading a book, I faced the following sentence: > There is a one-to-one correspondence between the two sets of quantities. So, my question is: why the indefinite article "a" is not "an" in this phrase? The following word starts with a vowel, so shouldn't it be "an"? |
1,065 | 26,127 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? We are making a banner for our LGBT running club. Is it An LGBT Running Club or A LGBT Running Club? |
1,066 | 93,901 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use “a” vs “an”? > Do you use “a” or “an” before acronyms? Consider the following sentence: "This is a one-time deal" sounds right "This is an one-time deal" sounds wrong "One" is pronounced the same as "won", which wouldn't require an "an". Is it proper/required to use the 'an' before a vowel rule when it just sounds wrong? |
1,067 | 50,076 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > "A" vs. "An" in writing vs. pronunciation In an article in The Economist, it is written "That was raised in an FT op- ed...". Why is it "an FT op-ed" and not "a FT op-ed"? |
1,068 | 34,385 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > “a” or “an” for words that don't start with vowels but sound like they're > starting with a vowel > Do you use “a” or “an” before acronyms? > Does one use 'a' or 'an' before the word X-Ray? > Use of “a” versus “an” I understand that "an" has to be used whenever the next word phonetically begins with a vowel. But in this case _L.V._ is an abbreviation. |
1,069 | 91,289 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use “a” vs “an”? I'm writing about concepts in programming languages, and for instance in the Java language, so-called annotations are declared with an "@" sign in front of them. When such annotations are referred to in the text, is the "@" typically "pronounced" by the reader, or is it silent? That is, would you write > Use an @SuppressWarnings annotation or > Use a @SuppressWarnings annotation My gut feeling is that the latter variant is better, but then again, I'm not a native English speaker (nor a native Java programmer). I would prefer to be explicit, and thus not to write > Use a SuppressWarnings annotation |
1,070 | 100,276 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use “a” vs “an”? Sorry I couldn't think of a better title, but I don't know how to explain my problem using terminology. I have this sentence: "Aside from that I'm **an** Irish Setter loving, Frank Turner junkie." I understand you should use the word "an" over "a" when the following word begins with a vowel. In this case, it does. However, the sentence is meant to flow through to the word "junkie" – if that makes sense. And if you read it like this, it doesn't make sense to use "an": "I'm an … Frank Turner junkie." Should I be using "a" or "an" in this sentence? |
1,071 | 161,651 | 76823_0 | I am currently writing a (mathematical) paper, which considers so called paths in graphs. The start of a path is usually denoted by the letter s and the end of the path is denoted by t. The whole path is then called "s-t-path" and my question is about which indefinite article to use with it. The selected answer in Indefinite article before symbols says to just use 'a' or 'an' according to how you pronounce what follows. This would imply that one should write "a s-t-path", because the s goes with a (a superhero, etc.). When I am actually using the construct in a spoken sentence, however, what I would be saying is "an s-t-path". There are 39,700 google search results for "an s-t-path" versus 41,900 results for "a s-t-path", which is to show that this topic truly divides the nation ;-) |
1,072 | 169,017 | 76823_0 | "A person" or "an ornament" are normal instances of 'A' being followed by consonants or vowels. However the rule seems to have exceptions when a word sounds like it starts with the opposite, such as "an hour" or "a url" (when url is pronounced letter by letter). Is there a name for this kind of exception? |
1,073 | 177,150 | 76823_0 | Im a programmer and I was writing a comment today that read: > Finds a XPath relative to the Node From what I understand you should always use 'a' over 'an' when it proceeds a word starting with a vowel. such as > I ate an apple > > I ate a orange It sounds weird to me the way "Finds a XPath" reads. It feels more comfortable reading "Finds an XPath". I know English is full of weird rules and I am wondering if this is one of them. What is the correct usage here? In case it is relevant heres a link to what XPath is. |
1,074 | 35,828 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Use of "a" versus "an" I'm confused, when do I use "an" and when "a" ? I see some people are correcting my questions and changing `a` with `an`. `I drive a car` sounds much better than `I drive an car` :| |
1,075 | 1,019 | 76823_0 | Is it correct to say or write _an student_ or _an store_? |
1,076 | 14,429 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicates:** > an SQA or a SQA? > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? Since SSD (solid-state drive) is pronounced es-es-dee, I'm wondering whether one should write "an SSD" or "a SSD". Saying "a SSD" out loud feels a bit off... |
1,077 | 5,146 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Use of "a" versus "an" > Is it "a uniform" or "an uniform" In spoken English we do say: > He is _an_ unhappy person But I never hear anyone say: > He has _an_ user account I have a lot of exposure to overseas students in Australia, and I am thinking that it is because of textbooks and lack of spoken English that this is now becoming a trend. Can anyone please tell me if this is correct or not? It makes me so mad I want to ride away on an unicorn. |
1,078 | 41,561 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use "a" vs "an"? > Does one use 'a' or 'an' before the word X-Ray? As far as I understood, you prefix "an" instead of "a" before any proceeding word starting with a vowel when you wish to speak about an object (there's probably a correct term for this), but ie. a towel, a tree etc. So why is it so common to say " **a** user clicked this" or "please enter **a** username" and not "an" instead of "a" like "an umbrella"? |
1,079 | 192,755 | 76823_0 | Which of the following is correct? * a ½-approximation algorithm * an ½-approximation algorithm What is the rule? I have tried to find the rule for numbers, but I don’t know how to apply this to fractions. |
1,080 | 169,906 | 76823_0 | Can you explain why we say AN NHS provision but A National Health provision. Or A UFO but An UNIDENTIFIED Fly Object. Are there any rules regarding the use of A or An when using initials such as ! In business FME ? Thanks |
1,081 | 1,016 | 76823_0 | 99% of the time, I'm clear on when I should use "a" versus "an." There's one case, though, where people & references I respect disagree. Which of the following would you precede with "a" or "an," and why? * FAQ * FUBAR * SCUBA [Note: I've read the questions "A historic..." or "An historic…"? and Use of "a" versus "an", but the rules given there don't necessarily apply here.] * * * [Edited to add] Here's a shorter (and hopefully clearer) version of the question… In written English, which is correct (and why): "a FAQ" or "an FAQ"? Some references with differing opinions: * _an_ : the UC San Diego Editorial Style Guide and Apple Publications Style Guide (page 69) * _a_ : the _Microsoft Manual of Style for Tech Publications, 3e_ * either: the alt.usage.english FAQ and Yahoo! Style Guide |
1,082 | 88,232 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use “a” vs “an”? which article should be used with the words which start with the letter "E" such as "Ensemble" ? |
1,083 | 43,794 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? First of all let me clarify that _SSTP_ is an abbreviation of a technical term. I want to know, when using in a sentence, should I use _a_ or _an_ before _SSTP_ and such terms? If I'm right when letter _s_ is at the beginning of an actual word, it is a consonant. But what about the abbreviations? |
1,084 | 167,252 | 76823_0 | IS HR an acronym? Should "a" or "an" be used in front of it in a sentence, such as: Do you have an HR question? |
1,085 | 8,181 | 76823_0 | I was asking this question on Area 51: "How do I tell if an airport scanner is a X-ray scanner?", but I keep wanting to put an 'an' in front of X-ray because it starts with the 'eh' sound. So is it 'a' or 'an'? |
1,086 | 19,744 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Use of "a" versus "an" > "A" becomes "an" before a word beginning with a vowel, does this apply to > "u"? > Is it “a uniform” or “an uniform”? > Which is correct — “A Year” or “An Year”? I noticed an ad on Stack Overflow featuring another StackExchange site and the title of the question had this in it: > Allow an user to... But shouldn't it be > Allow a user to... Am I wrong or is this just one of those exceptions? |
1,087 | 184,604 | 76823_0 | I have seen people saying "I am an Web developer", but by googling it, we can see that "A web developer" is much more common, and probably the right way. What is the rule here, since the W from "Web" is pronounced like a vowel? |
1,088 | 75,523 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use "a" vs "an"? I have recently seen this image:  Should _"a"_ have been used instead of _"an"_ in the _"...an $100,000 apartment"_ part? |
1,089 | 19,627 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? When there is an acronym such as NSFW (Not Safe For Work) as in the following example > This is an NSFW link > > This is a Not Safe For Work link Is it correct to use "a" or "an" when using the acronym? I've assumed that it was dependant upon how you're going to pronounce the acronym when speaking (spelling it out "N-S-F-W" or just saying what the letters stand for "Not Safe For Work"). I see in print > This is a NSFW link which to me is incorrect because I pronounce the acronym letters. |
1,090 | 184,993 | 76823_0 | I got a doubt when reading this text: > The name of the decorator should be prepended with an @ symbol. Should we write "a @ symbol" or "an @ symbol"? As "@" is in fact "at", I would think "an" should be used to avoid the coexistence of two vowels one after the other. More generally, what is the general rule to know if we have to write "a" or "an" before other symbols like "€", etc.? Is it based on how the symbol is read? |
1,091 | 35,343 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? What article should be used directly in front of an acronym that begins with 'N?' Since the pronunciation of the letter 'N' begins with a vowel sound, would 'an' be correct? |
1,092 | 69,467 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Does one use 'a' or 'an' before the word X-Ray? I understand that the decision between "a" and "an" is generally based on what vowel sound the following word begins with. In the case of "x" I am not sure, it could be either: * An ehcks * A ecks |
1,093 | 23,744 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms? Why do we write 'He has an MA' and not ' a MA' even though MA does not begin with a vowel? Can anybody give me anymore examples like it? |
1,094 | 158,983 | 76823_0 | Depending on the word, using `an` before a consonant is not right. What about in this phrase, "David has just gotten an SX250". To me, it does sound a lot better than "David has just gotten a SX250". I saw a similar phrase in a book the other day, and it did not sound/look right at all! Don't know if I'm going crazy or what.. |
1,095 | 148,145 | 76823_0 | Suppose that 'x' is a variable in a Mathematics text. What is more correct to say: a. Pick an 'x' _or_ b. pick a 'x'? |
1,096 | 27,564 | 76823_0 | Is there some articulatory reason behind why we choose to preface consonant sounds with the article _a_ and vowel sounds with _an_? The reasoning I've read in the comments somewhere, I don't remember exactly where, is that we are trying to avoid consecutive vowel sounds, but why exactly are we trying to avoid these consecutive vowels? Are they harder to articulate for some reason? (If so, can that be explained as precisely as possible?) Are there many cases that can pointed to in English where we similarly avoid consecutive vowel sounds? Why not dipthongnize the vowels? Is the whole thing mere idiosyncrasy on English's part? |
1,097 | 12,801 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > When should I use "a" vs "an"? > "a" or "an" for words that don't start with vowels but sound like they're > starting with a vowel On some forum today I referred to myself as _a English nerd_. Now I'm wondering whether maybe I'm _an English nerd_. My gut feeling tells me that there is a slight nuance in meaning between the two phrases and that even though the general rule is to use _an_ in front of a word starting with a vowel, I think _a_ is more appropriate in this case. The _a_ in _a English nerd_ refers to the word _nerd_ and the adjective is only added to denote the type of nerd that I am. Whereas using the phrasing _an English nerd_ would imply that I am a nerd who happens to be English (I'm not). Now, my question is: Did I analyze this correctly and is there in fact a nuance in meaning? Or should I have used _an English nerd_ to comply with the general "a versus an" rule? |
1,098 | 57,042 | 76823_0 | > **Possible Duplicate:** > Why shouldn't we say "an user"? I've personally seen the indefinite article `an` coming before consonants in many places whereas I think that should be a mistake. I'm wondering if that's the case or using `an` before consonants is grammatically a mistake? For example consider this: > Insert an user into the database. Taken from Worepress Trac (line `1028`). |
1,099 | 185,078 | 76823_0 | The sentence in question: > Every list item that is marked with an `*` is optional. The word "asterisks" isn't spelled out, so I'm not sure if "an" or "a" is the correct word to put before it. |
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