Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

Example Input: How do you know when to use singular or plural nouns if they're used as adjectives? i.e. 32-bit computer vs 32-bits computer? teacher union vs teachers union? wedding planner vs weddings planner? sport medicine vs sports medicine? student council vs students council? Which one is correct?.
Example Output: You are thinking of noun adjuncts, or attributive nouns. Both Wikipedia and someone from Pearson Education state that traditionally, all attributive nouns are singular. However, the number of plural attributive nouns have increased over the years in a rather arbitrary manner. This means that there is no longer a set rule to determine whether the attributive is singular or plural. Despite this, there is a rough guide that you can use. The attributive noun tends to be plural in the following situations: 1: The singular form might lead to ambiguity an arts degree (a degree in the humanities) as opposed to an art degree (a degree in fine art) [I believe that this situation is what is referred to on wikipedia as 'lexical restrictions', providing the example of 'arm race' vs 'arms race'] 2. There is no singular form of a noun (in pluralia tantum) a customs officer 3. There is a need to denote variety a soft drinks manufacturer [but] a car manufacturer 4. A topical issue comes forth, often in newspaper stories... the tapes issue the tapes compromise the Watergate tapes affair the White House tapes mystery and other examples, including jobs cut. [I am not entirely sure what the point of this fourth category is] [Source: Pearson Education , directly quoted apart from what is enclosed inside square brackets] To this list I add my own: 5. [The attributive noun is plural if] it comes from the possessive form of the word teachers union ladies man However, this is more of an explanation rather than a rule you can use. There are too many exceptions, and you are unlikely to know the origins of the word. It doesn't make sense that it is teachers union but not students council. Note that we often 'choose by ear and it doesn't matter (employee lounge, employees lounge)' (Chicago Manual of Style). I would argue that it would be easier to just look it up every time and memorise words instead of trying to find a rule or categorise them. Even as a native speaker, I was not entirely sure whether it was 'sport medicine' or 'sports medicine' before looking it up. If you find yourself completely lost and without internet, go with the singular form because it is the traditional form and more common.

Example Input: Possible Duplicate: 'Alternately' or 'alternatively' What is the difference between alternate and alternative? For example, I have two versions of the same software and I want to write one of the following: Software Name (alternate version) Software Name (alternative version).
Example Output: In British English, an alternative version is one that can be considered as a possible choice, while an alternate one changes places at regular intervals with another version. However, I understand that in American English 'alternate' is an alternative to 'alternative'.

Example Input: Is penultimate commonly used in English, or are its variations (such as second to last) more common? I need to use it in conjunction with the expressions First Payment Date and Last Payment Date to name variables while programming. In my mother language (Portuguese) Penultimate Payment Date would be fine, but it feels strange in English. (I know feels strange is not very helpful, but I'd like to know how to convey the meaning in the most natural way.).
Example Output:
Someone I know who is a native speaker of Spanish and a professor at a university in the United States has complained that when he used the word 'penultimate' in class, the students don't know what he's talking about. The word is perfectly, unimpeachably, 100% correct. It is a bit of an upscale, literary word though. It certainly is a 'term of art' in fields like linguistics, where it is used commonly to refer to syllables. I searched for the word in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and divided the results by section: spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper, and academic, and got these results: spoken: 10 fiction: 53 magazine: 55 newspaper: 36 academic: 93 total: 247 So, it is certainly used in all areas of English, with a moderate skew towards higher registers like academic writing. Depending on the intended audience, a writer contemplating using the word 'penultimate' should consider that there is a relatively high likelihood that word will not be understood. Instead of 'penultimate', the phrasing in common usage is either 'next to last' or 'second to last'. Both of those should be universally understood. Interestingly, Google Ngrams shows that the word 'penultimate' rose in usage (in published books) steadily from 1800 to about 1990, and since 1990 it has shown a steep dropoff, taking us back to usage levels from the late 1960s. The better-understood terms 'second to last' and 'next to last' are less common (again, though, in published booksGoogle Ngrams tells us nothing about spoken usage), with 'next to last' having more historical usage but a slow tapering off of usage since 1960 and 'second to last' increasing in usage from 1970 on, with both enjoying approximately the same usage today.