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.
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Question: I understand the capitalization rule for nouns, proper nouns require a capital letter. Also, I should begin a new sentence with a capital letter. When & why 'mom/dad' requires a capital letter ? (Reference- ELL- I am at Vapi where mom is hospitalised) mom: (n) informal term for a mother/North American term for mum.

Answer: When it is their name, Mom and Dad would be capitalised: Dear Mom and Dad, I am just writing to let you know, that although everyone has a mom and a >dad, you are my special mom and dad. So, Mom, I just want to say 'brava!'; and Dad, 'bravo!'. I've just been telling Sis, that Mom's new coat is so cool. XX Here's the commentary from an exercise from BBC English on Line ...to have a roast chicken lunch with my mother. I can't wait! - mother does not need a capital 'M' as it is not being used to replace her name. If I said, 'I am going to lunch with Mum', it would need a capital letter, but 'I am going to lunch with my mum' does not.

Question: What is the correct version of this common phrase? First come, first serve First come, first served Gramatically, I believe 2. is the correct form. However, it seems that 1. is commonly employed in spoken and even written English.

Answer: The second is correct. It is a form of 'Those who come first are served first.'

Question: I am writing a report where I want to say something like: The number of structures in the PDB has been steadily increasing, with nearly 140 thousand structures currently available. However, this number feigns in comparison to the number of unique protein sequences that have been discovered, with over 210 million unique sequences present in the UniParc database. However, I am not sure about the 'this number feigns in comparison to' part. I have a feeling that I am using the wrong word here, but googling around didn't give me any leads.

Answer:
Pales in comparison, I suspect. To pale in comparison is to look weak, small, meagre, or inferior compared to something else. Pale here takes the little-used sense to become smaller. It's the same pale used in the common phrase (less common in the U.S.) pale into insignificance, whose meaning is obvious. (says Grammarist.com)