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From Dictionary.com: > a·vi·a·tion noun > > 1. the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, > especially heavier-than-air aircraft. > > 2. military aircraft. > > If _aviation_ is the design, production, and use of aircraft, then what is the corresponding word for the design, production, and use ...
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Which is more correct: > Apropos of your earlier comment, I decided to.... or > Apropos your earlier comment, I decided to... Actually, _apropos_ is so fancy a word, even I, a word maven if I do say so myself, am not entirely sure when to use it. If I may add to my preposition question, are there any constructions wher...
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My question comes apropos a comment on an old question's of **RegDwight** 's, _"jail" vs. "prison"_. After many answers established that there was indeed a difference in usage between the two terms, **JohnFx** said, > I would argue that the difference isn't archaic. Let's just say I've known a > few people who have bee...
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I was looking through my old A-Level English set books from 1989 at the weekend. We had to study the Canterbury Tales and I can still remember our delight when we discovered that 'queynte' was the 13th Century form of a certain four-letter obscenity beginning with 'c', used to describe the female regenerative organs. U...
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I have a sentence which has an object that is described with an adjective: > We need to inform our interested patrons of this change. If I modify _"interested"_ with _"more"_ or _"less"_ , do I connect the words with a hyphen or not? Example sentence: > We need to inform our less-interested patrons of this change. * * ...
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Is the contraction from _that will_ to _that’ll_ an actual word or not?
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What is the difference between _colloquial_ an _oral_ in the phrases, _colloquial English_ and _oral English_?
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I know _asleep_ and _sleeping_ are interchangeable in many cases. But in these situations, I am not sure. I read stories to my son after he went to bed. After reading the stories, I stayed for some time and tucked the quilt for him. When I came out of his room and met my wife, she asked " **Is he asleep**?" or " **Has ...
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I found the following phrase in a NYTimes article and I was pretty surprised that it wasn't corrected or edited out: " _But when it comes to privacy and freedom, cash can't be beat._ ". I am under the impression that this is incorrect grammar and the sentence should actually be " _[...] cash can't be beaten._ " or " _[...
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I have read that Don Armado is one of those _rackers of orthography_ who distort the written language when they convert it into speech. What is the origin of the word _rackers_? What does it mean? > Holofeners: " _He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the > staple of his argument [...] such **rackers of...
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I have to formulate this question very carefully. So I would say I have the impression that the knowledge in grammar matters of English mother-tongue speakers is as an average lower when compared to speakers of other languages. I am not quite sure whether everybody will agree. I wonder what may be the causes. One cause...
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> 1. The birds' nests are high up, safe/secure from predators. > 2. These elephants are relatively secure/safe from poachers. > 3. Make sure you keep these documents safe/secure. > 4. Keep your credit cards in a safe/secure place. > 5. I always feel safe/secure when I'm around my big dog. > What's the difference betwee...
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This is from a song that Johnny Cash sang. I want to know what _runners in her hose_ means: > Back when we could laugh and play > On family reunion day > Didn't we all look funny > In our 1950s clothes? > Your daddy wore that greasy stuff > Your brother drank more than enough > Your mom wore penny loafers > With runner...
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I have this sentence: > As this problematic situation could be applied to Europe, so could the way > of dealing with it _be_ I don't know whether the last _be_ should be removed or not. Is it correct as it is written now? When writing _so do I_ or similar structures ( _so could I_ ,...), can it be followed by a sentenc...
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How did the word come into English with the two variants _czar_ and _tsar_? The 'ts' spelling is a transliteration of the Russian 'царь', but the 'cz' spelling is what interests me more. To me it looks Polish, where 'cz' is common, but is pronounced as English 'ch'. Where did this second form come from?
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I was wondering what's the difference between these two sentences: > 1. The person who **was** at the head of the demonstration **is** Ms. Tan. > > 2. The person who **was** at the head of the demonstration **was** Ms. > Tan. > >
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I have searched on the internet but the explanations are in Chinese, which I can't understand. What is the difference between these two (pairs of) sentences? * I have 2 pens. One is red, another is black. * I have 2 pens. One is red, the other is black.
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Names are supposed to be proper nouns because they refer to a unique entity, right? But what about when the condition of specificity is not applicable? Take the word "Albert". It's supposed to be a proper noun. Why? There are no doubt thousands of people with that name in the world. If you know more than one Albert the...
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Is there a word that describes the phenomenon, often seen on SE sites, where someone says they are asking a question "for a friend", but actually mean themselves?
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How do I say that "something contains a lot of content" by a single word? Is there an English word for this statement? **UPD** * _something_ \- may be text, article, blog post * _contains a lot of content_ \- contains good, new information that is usable for users * _a lot_ \- is about only **quantity** , not about "wi...
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I'm aware that there are certain websites around that provide recorded examples of English words pronounced in different accents/dialects. Could anybody list some of them?
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I've tried to find some more expressions in dictionaries but with little success... How many examples can you mention to express this activity? Do you know any informal expressions which can be used?
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Should it be > 1. A student **of** ABC College is required to ... > 2. A student **in** ABC College is required to ... > 3. A student **from** ABC College is required to ... > In addition, if the "ABC College" is a school that offers online education, does that automatically cancel out option 2 since the student would ...
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What is the linguistic meaning of this sentence? > Vowels are always voiced, and have **no attack of their own.**
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We are the provider of certain (on-line) services and we have different pricing for different user categories, depending on their volume of operations. Currently we use "tariff plan" as a term for pricing plan, but I think this term may be less common in the US than, say, "rate plan". So, my question is: which term is ...
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In chat the other day I asked the following question: > "Recently I've been seeing writers using "soft-peddle" in print (in > reputable publications, to boot) when I am certain the trope is "soft- > pedal": anybody have an opinion on this?" My reasoning is that the term comes from the _soft pedal_ of the piano, which t...
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Does _to believe the impossible_ mean * to believe that everything is possible * to believe that something seemingly impossible is actually possible * something else?
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How often have you heard a native speaker say "very much true"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzMx1Oo7hvg&t=0m18s
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There was an interesting story titled 'Want a New You? Change Your Name' written by singer and pianist, Alina Simons (Alina Vilenkin by her old name) in New York Times (December 26 issue), in which she introduces how her life changed after changing her name: “Twelve years ago, I changed my own name to Alina Simone. - -...
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What do _raptivity_ and "And lead raptivity captive" mean?
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In _freedom fighter_ the _fighter_ supports freedom. In _fire fighter_ the _fighter_ fights fire. How do you determine when it is the first or the second case? What is the meaning of _spam fighter_? @Hellion, as the afterthought and in response to comments by @Kosmonaut, and as a person who has lived in a dozen of coun...
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What is the difference between the verbs **to squander** and **to waste**? For example: * to squander money * to waste money
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Are all four terms in current use in AmE today to refer to a bakery's shop where bread and other baked stuff like cakes and pastries are sold? As far as I know, "bakeshop", "bakehouse", and "bakery" can designate also the workplace where the baked goods are made. But "bakery", unlike "bakeshop" and "bakehouse", can add...
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What's the difference between a "conflict of interest" and the "appearance of a conflict of interest"?
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Consider the following two statements, and the tenses. > * Did you win? > * You just won. > But what about *Did you just ___ _ a camera*? Would it be followed by _win_ or _won_?
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In the Longman dictionary, there is an example for _Compensate_ as follows: > Her intelligence **more than compensates** for her lack of experience. I am wondering what the grammatical point of using **more than** before a verb is here. How does it modify the meaning of verb? Could somebody give another example of such...
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How far can we carry the **_-ish_** morphism? quote: > Ok so I know a similar(ish) question has been asked before. :unquote I thought that _-ish_ adds the sense of _like_ , _similar to_ , _approximately_ , etc. From which, it would seem the threshold would be the tautologies _like-ish_ / _similar-ish_. * * * The questi...
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I'm pretty sure this is a duplicate, but it's a generic case and searching brings up thousands of examples, so I'm forced to post. The question is, which of the sentences below is punctuated correctly? A. I work at Google a search company. B. I work at Google, a search company. And in that vein, as a sub-question, whic...
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When referring to a step, which one would be more correct between "see step 1" versus "see step1"?
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What words do we use to describe an unmatched couple, for instance, the female is much more attractive than the male, or the other way around? If we found that a girl is out of the league of her boyfriend (8 vs 5), or the other way around, how would we describe such a couple?
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I am quitting a job. I wrote a letter of resignation and have come upon the following sentence: "Moreover, I believe [name of restaurant] will be better suited to have an employee that is different than me/myself." Initially I wrote 'myself' because I am the subject and the 'myself' refers to me as an indirect object. ...
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Is it an old farming metaphor, or a military saying? Where did this(these) saying(s) originate?
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I'm writing up my dissertation and I'm really confused where to use "the". Examples: > In this experiment, (the?) heat transfer coefficient was calculated, > allowing to estimate (the?)frost thickness. And: > Firstly, (the?) air properties are defined. And: > As (the?) crystals grow in radius, the amount of air in (the...
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Another term for saying "Opener" in a Christian devotion.
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What would be the adjectives for nouns like _shopkeeper, country, wife, earring, teacher, father_ — and so on and so forth?
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According to an article published on quizlet.com, titled 'The most difficult and unbelievable word of the OED' (which I dont have access to), _levament_ means "The comfort which one hath of his wife". So I wonder if there is a similar word that means "The comfort which one hath of her husband"?
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Which are the main and subordinate clauses in the following sentence? > Individual components do not directly depend on other components, which > means that they can be more easily developed in isolation.
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In a brief exhortation followed by the name of a sports team, such as "Let's go, Dodgers!" or "Go, Phillies!" is it ever appropriate to omit the comma?
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There may not be a right answer but hopefully there can be a best answer. Obviously we use these terms quite interchangeably (which I find annoying), and dictionaries have a lot of overlap in their definitions of these words because dictionaries often don't attempt to contrast words with each other. But if we had to gi...
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As a non-native speaker I'm looking for the right term for a technical application/product that dispenses or doses a viscous liquid, i.e. the device will "output" a specific amount of "stuff". However, dosing/dose/dosage appear to be "medical" to me, also maybe describing a ratio of components (like controlling the amo...
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what would you consider more appropriate? -"She is writing her thesis under my guidance on a topic related to the Australian tax system compared with the European one", -"She is writing her thesis under my guidance on a topic related to the Australian tax system in comparison with the European one" -"She is writing her...
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Are dictionary definitions for words with multiple meanings ordered based on chronology, hierarchy, or frequency of usage? Is/was there a standard format?
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Are the two phrases'time is up' and 'time is over' used in different contexts or can be used to convey the same meaning
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Is there a general term for punctuation that surrounds a word or phrase? Something that includes brackets and quotes, but there may be other types of punctuation, formal or otherwise, that have the same appearance. Let me give some examples, and their purpose: * Parentheses `()` to separate supplementary information fr...
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Is it correct to say "People were survived", or its better to say "People Survived"? For example yesterday there was a war between government & people, people were survived at last.
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In the process of making a design, what is the design called? (Specifically in regard to graphic design) As in: > Please see first design(??) of poster attached
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I would like to know when to say _think(s) that_ , _say(s) that_ and _mean(s) that_ and when to omit _that_.
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How do we pronounce _E = mc²_? This is a physics equation.
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Jeff Atwood argues that "What is bounty?" is correct here, but is this really the case?
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My Longman dictionary states that the comparative of 'shy' is 'shyer'. However, at least two online dictionaries also give the form 'shier' as being acceptable: The Free Dictionary and Merriam-Webster. On an English language forum I came across a reference to British (shyer) vs. American (shier) spelling. But an Ngram ...
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This might be a simple one, but I'd like to have your opinion/authoritative statements: I write a thesis in a technical modelling context, where a mathematical model operates on a discrete set of **timesteps (or time steps?)**. Paramaters/Variables that are defined over this set are then called **timeseries (or time se...
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Im finding an adjective describing a judicial system that has many limitations like the system has lax regulations and sanctions are not harsh enough. Looking forward to your replies.
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I'm writing a research proposal in which I frequently reference the cardinal and inter-cardinal (ordinal) directions together. Is there some term, no matter the obscurity, that refers to the eight of them? If there are any related words that come to mind that don't quite fit (like one that collectively refers to vaguel...
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I am not a native speaker. From my reading and verbal communication, I came to believe that _striking a chord_ means connecting to someone at an emotional level. However, I recently used it somewhere and someone (an American, if relevant) told me that it actually means pissing someone off (quite the opposite of what I ...
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The OED doesn't say much other than the two words have long been synonyms since the 1500s. > _healthful_ \- promoting good health > > _healthy_ \- being in good health/condition Why do we say that our bananas and tomatoes are _healthy_ foods when it should be _healthful_? Is there any substantial evidence on why this w...
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Drawee bank is the bank, who will pay the cheque/draft. Then what would we call the bank in which the cheque/draft will be deposited? I did some search over the internet and found this link. Is it correct to call it "Payee Bank" or some other phrase is more suitable?
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According to Oxford Dictionaries, _contretemps_ means "an unexpected and unfortunate occurrence". What is the plural of it, if it exists, and how do I use it in a sentence? Do I say "contretemps startled me"? Can the word be used with an article?
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The _“ **< NOUN>**s’s”_ construction comes up quite often in signs, at least in my neighbourhood. I haven’t seen a legal use of the arrangement, though — and I wonder, is it at all possible? If it is, under which circumstances?
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I'm heading into the postgraduate phase of my Computer Science-oriented studies, and I can't put my finger on what this root means. According to Etymology Online it comes from Cybernetics, which in turn comes from the greek for "Helmsman" and is the study of governation or governing systems. But modern usage, such as c...
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Maybe I know nothing about english and this is too easy phrase, but can you tell me what does " _shout cat calls at me_ " mean? **In context:** > I pulled my shoulders back and tried to look confident, not letting the > nerves show on my face. As if on cue, the boys started to whistle and shout > cat calls at me, and t...
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what is the meaning of "head over to" I was reading one blog. In that blog, they said like if you want more informatio please "head over to this link"
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In "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny" Beatrix Potter writes "Old Mr. Bunny had no opinion whatever of cats." What does it mean? > The cat looked up and saw old Mr. Benjamin Bunny prancing along the top of > the wall of the upper terrace. > > He was smoking a pipe of rabbit-tobacco, and had a little switch in his > hand. > > ...
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Which of these sentences is grammatically correct? 1. I wanted to share with you the outcomes of today's board meeting 2. I wanted to share the outcomes of today's board meeting with you
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Particularly in film and television, visual imagery can be used to convey additional meanings besides their literal ones. Is there a word for when the same is done using audio or musical cues? I would like to say something like this > The way the music changed key during this scene was very symbolic But I'm not sure th...
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> [i] I saw her **clean** the room. > [ii] He helped me **do** the work. > [iii] She made me **clean** the room. > What makes you **think** so? > Let me **know** what he said. Bare infinitival has the meaning of ‘ _wholeness_ ’ in [i] - I saw the whole event of her cleaning the room, not a segment of it as in ‘ _I saw ...
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This question regards the sentence in the New Yorker’s (June 14) article “Lunch at Gitlitze” I quoted in my previous question, "Is “battled-hardened” correct, or just a typo?” > “When we walked into the restaurant, we immediately saw her – my father’s > battled-hardened nemesis; a waitress named Irene. She was standing...
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Can you please clarify if it's acceptable to use these terms interchangebly and if not point out to significant differences between these titles. It seems to me that it may be something with scale of an organization (perhaps, small/medium businesses have managing directors, and large corporations have chief executive o...
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> This moment will nap, you will have a dream; but this moment study, you will > interpret a dream What does _interpret_ mean? * You study, then later, you will have knowledge to interpret this dream * You will accomplish this dream
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What is the grammatical usage of " **but** " in this sentence? > You are all **but** forced to use them instead of standard C++ Could we ignore " **but** " and yet convey the same meaning? > You are all forced to use them instead of standard C++
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Which one is correct? > I am a _new_ graduate and have been teaching German for a few weeks now. > > I am a _newly_ graduate and ... I can't decide whether to use "new" or "newly".
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What is the story behind the word **Mahjong**? Google says "sparrows", but is that accurate and why sparrows? Other results seem to be vague or non-descriptive at best. It boggles my mind that the word "Chess" has a vast amount of information regarding the origin, history and etymology available, while "Mahjong" leaves...
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Is there a difference in how you pronounce the drug and the female hero? Like, for instance, if I see a movie with a great actress and I want to say to my friend > That was the best **heroine** I have ever seen. Can it be confused with > That was the best **heroin** I have ever seen. ? Or will my friend consider me a j...
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I find it difficult to understand the sentence as shown in the title. 1. Is the card data? 2. Is the card processing? 3. Is the card a method (or style) to process data? I'm Chinese. If I express the sentence with Chinese I'll say _The punch card was the main method of data processing back then_. * * * **NOTE** : I'm a...
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My late grandfather had several word-choice peeves for which he would gently interrupt a speaker, especially a grandchild, in order to correct. The one I remember most was his dislike for the use of "hard" as a synonym for "difficult," as in the statement: > This homework is really hard. I read and hear "hard" used thi...
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The word I'm looking for means to capitalize the first letter of some words, but I want to use a single verb since I need to say this many times, as in "*** all the words that appear in the table headers". Is there such a verb?
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What is the difference between 'go up there' and 'go there'? Examples: > * The boys want to go up there. > * He didn't want to go there. > Are they interchangeable in the above examples?
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I want to know the exact meaning of "Of all". For example, in a paper the author in the first paragraph explained some methods and at the beginning of paragraph 2, he started with: > "Of all the above methods, ... " and explains another method. My questions: > 1: What is the exact meaning of "Of all" at the beginning o...
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Please consider the sentences below: > He **chiseled** me out of my dues. > He **swindled** me out of dues. > He **cheated** me out of my dues. Below are the definitions given by Dictionary > **Chisel** = cheat or swindle (someone) out of something. > **Swindle** = use deception to deprive (someone) of money or possess...
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This is a sentence in active voice: He cannot rear any cattle on his farm. Its passive would be: Any cattle cannot be reared by him on his farm? OR On his farm, any cattle cannot be reared by him? OR Any cattle cannot be reared on his farm by him? Do all the three conversions mean the same thing, does order of words ha...
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Is the given sentence correct grammatically and semantically? > _A consulting dietitian by profession, Tina has enjoyed teaching young > children about healthy eating habits for over a decade._ I feel the use of present perfect tense with the phrase 'for over a decade' in the same sentence is not justified. I feel the ...
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For some verbs like 'live', where if you say "have lived" it means you lived somewhere for a period of time but that is not true anymore, and if you say "have been living" it means you still live in that place. I know there are some verbs for which there is no difference in meaning when using the two tenses. What verbs...
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> He barely noticed when he ran out of the woods onto the bare red road. It > streaked beneath him like fire hardened and only gradually as his breath > choked him did he slow down and begin to take his bearings. The sky, the > woods on either side, the ground beneath him, came to a halt and the road > assumed directio...
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As a British native English speaker I have only ever used the word "folk" as an adjective in phrases such as "folk music" or "folk tales". My unscientific impression is that its use as a synonym for people is increasing in the British media, which prompts the question: _How can I decide whether it should be folk or fol...
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I'm trying to refer to a marriage but I've used the word too much already in my paragraph so I need to find another word which I could use in a sentence like: "I had the pleasure to attend to the -------" In Spanish, I could say something like "tuve el placer the estar presente para tan feliz ocasión¨ but that´s really...
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Can you suggest what would be a good proverb for "Someone will work, but another will get the result"? Like for the situation when one person does the hard work, but some other reaps the benefits. EDIT: Just wanted to mention that I just meant a single line proverb that is commonly used for the above situation in Engli...
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The context is a course scheduling and the process in creating one: course scheduling. I have looked up, that **schedule** is typically used American English and **timetable** is typically used in British English, is that correct? Then my question would be, how would a native speaker experience it when both terms are u...
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I've found a lot of versions, like: * baffled why * baffled about why * baffled at why * baffled by why * baffled as to why * baffled on why * baffled over why Is there a _correct_ form? Is any of the above wrong?
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I'm discussing and comparing two books and I want to know if I'm using quotation marks correctly: > Both books are known for being existential and the reader is bombarded with > questions throughout the books. ‘Whose fault is this? Who did this? Why did > it happen this way? Did it even happen this way?’ I'm having **a...
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Yesterday, I handed my assignment to the professor as I was reaching the deadline. For some reason it took a while for her to check my paper, which made me uneasy, but eventually she looked at me in awe, mouth agape, and said: > Wow! You really surprised me! Now I think I don't know you at all. Who are > you? Seriously...
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I was writing another question on Workplace Interview when i realised that I did not know a term / word to describe someone whom you are gossiping about What is a word / term to describe someone whom you are gossiping about ???