Thursday, April 1, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

how to determine the number of the noun in the phrase of "Both adjective 1 and adjective 2 + Noun"?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:45 AM PDT

I was just wondering how to determine the number of the following usage:

Both functional and individual "distributions are" or "distribution is"?

Thanks.

Are there words that specify that a number was pronounced 'six double zero ' vs 'six zero zero'?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:59 AM PDT

Are there words that specify that a number, say 600 was or is to be pronounced 'six double zero ' vs 'six zero zero'?

How about six double oh vs six oh oh? Would that be the same word? How about when you are spelling something, e.g. 'double el' rather than 'el el' for 'll'. Also, should you say 'capital double el' or 'double capital el' for 'LL'?

How do I say whether or not a number was pronounced like a telephone number (or zip code). Are there words for this?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:20 AM PDT

501 can be pronounced 'five hundred one' or 'five zero one'. How do I tell someone how it was pronounced without saying the number. The best I've come up with is 'normal way' vs 'zip code way'. How about some proper terms?

What about the distinction between 'five zero one' style and 'five oh one' style? I know this bit is a long shot but what the heck.

Participation in or on? This study focuses on Castaño’s participation in/on Colombian radio broadcasting since the beginning of the 1950s

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:07 AM PDT

I am uncertain about this sentence:

"This study focuses on Gloria Valencia de Castaño's participation on Colombian radio broadcasting since the beginning of the 1950s and continuing into the mid-1960s."

Than you for your help!

Is there a word for the excitement of getting a result, but also being terrified of what the result may be?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:41 AM PDT

I'm searching for a word that describes the anticipation of a result of an evaluation, but that also takes into account the fear of what that result might be.

For example, I cannot wait to see the results of my code evaluation, but I'm also terrified that this evaluation might show, that I'm not a good software developer.

I was told there is a German word for everything, but I can't even think of a German word, that would explain those feelings. Maybe there is an English one?

Is 'Airsoft' a proper noun, and should it be capitalized?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:31 AM PDT

Should it be:

I want to play Airsoft.

Or:

I want to play airsoft.

Is "airsoft" a proper noun?

Single noun meaning completed task

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 08:39 AM PDT

Assuming that a task is a piece of work to be completed, is there a single word or noun that would be the antonym of a task, meaning a piece of work that has been completed?

So far my best bet is accomplishment or achievement, but I feel they imply the task was difficult and that completing it was an exploit.

An example sentence could be "Here is a list of your accomplishments this past week."

Where did the usage of bury in "bury a jumper" come from?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 08:50 AM PDT

I heard the phrase "bury a jumper" in an NBA game. I googled it, and found:

According to this site:

bury a jumper: To make an especially pretty jump shot.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, here bury means:

sports : to succeed emphatically or impressively in making (a shot)

I'm curious about where did this usage of bury come from? How does it relate to the word's originial meaning?

Looking for a verb that means division into multiple branches

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:07 AM PDT

I am looking for a verb that describes division into multiple branches. The context is an academic report that describes a graph that contains four curves over the range of -3 to 3. Over half the range all curves are identical, but starting from 0, each curves follow a different trend. I know that bifurcation describes a similar situation with two curves.

Issue for repeating nouns

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:29 AM PDT

I am writing some journal papers. I need to be technical but at the same time I don't really want to reapt the same terminology over and over.

The sentence I am having troublt with is like this:

Better discrimination between A and B results in better discrimination between B and C.

My questions are

  1. Is it okay to repeat the noun 'discrimination' like the above?
  2. If not, how should I rephrase it without losing technicality?

Please help.

Has 'being' been omitted?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:06 AM PDT

In 2018 about 50,000 people were involved in it, most of them part­ time or seasonal staff working from small offices in rural areas.

Should there be a "being" between "most of them" and "part time or seasonal staff"? It seems weird when there are only nouns.

thank you for help

Does the following sentence have both a definite and indefinite noun?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:47 AM PDT

Does the following sentence have both a definite and indefinite noun?

Surely with hardship comes ease.

Thanks,

Someone/Something uses a lots of space (maybe more than really needed), what is this phenomenon called?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:15 AM PDT

I try to find a word for someone or something, who/which uses much space or more space than really needed.

Until now I tried to translate a German equivalent (but seemingly rarely used) "Platzfresser" into English with no success on leo.org. Some general search via google brought me "space hog", but I am not able to find any source for this, only some rare usage in newspapers around 2013.

Google translates "Platzfresser" to "space eater", which is too literally to my mind.

Is there a word, or short phrase, which describes someone/something (one or both), who/which uses too much space?

"By both ... and ..." or "both by ... and by ..."

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:16 AM PDT

I wonder, which usage of "both" and "by" is correct/better (maybe both are wrong?):

"Asia is the largest continent by both population and area."

"Asia is the largest continent both by population and by area."

Thanks in advance!

Libavius

Does this make sense?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:09 AM PDT

My team has a vision statement that is structured like:

Improve the skills of males and females using analytics.

The intended interpretation is that we use analytics to improve the skills of males and females. I think that the vision currently implies that we will improve the skills of all males, but only those females that use analytics.

I believe the vision should be flipped around to "Use analytics to improve the skills of males and females", or at the very least, place a comma after "females".

Thoughts?

Does ‘hot summer’ make sense? [closed]

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 05:51 AM PDT

There's a song named 'hot summer' in K-pops, but is it correct to say 'hot weather' (even though 'hot summer' is used in general in Korean) or is it a figurative device or something?

Implication of unstated contrasting cases

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 11:43 AM PDT

Apologies if this question is answered elsewhere. I didn't know how to refer to the following phenomenon and consequently I didn't know what to search for. I'm happy for more expert users to add/remove tags or suggest other amendments to the question.

Take as an example the following imperative:

(S1) Women are not permitted to become priests.

My understanding, and I am a native English (UK) speaker educated to PhD level in philosophy, is that when someone says this, unless they add further clauses cancelling the implication, they imply the following:

(S2) Men are permitted to become priests.

The implication can be cancelled, if the speaker adds, for example, "But nor are men, the state forbids anyone to become a priest" (Perhaps non-binary-gendered people or robots could still become priests in this case).

Is my understanding here correct? If so, is there a name for this kind of implication? Where could I read more about it or direct someone to, to learn more?

What does it mean "It’s raining men"? [closed]

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:15 AM PDT

What does it mean "It's raining men"? I got this in this paragraph:

Metaphor - Describing something by using a word that isn't literally relevant. For example, "It's raining men", "I'm feeling blue", or "The weather was bitterly cold".

Use of "will" in a past tense sentence

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:21 AM PDT

Reading an article today I stumbled upon this sentence:

A day before we first speak, Page will talk to his mom about this interview and she will tell him, "I'm just so proud of my son."

I was wondering if anyone can clarify to me what is the form (or construct) corresponding to "will" usage in this case. My intuition is that it's used to describe a future action in the past or something like that. I would have probably used "would" instead of "will" to achieve that. I've tried googling such constructs but with no luck.

Thanks a lot!

A word or expression to describe a person who tells someone else how to do their work

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:09 AM PDT

In Portugal, we have an expression to designate this, which literally translates to something like "coach from the audience". This is a figurative expression related with those people on the audience of a sports event, screaming at the coach of the team (or the team itself), schooling them how they should play, typically in a condescending way, despite the lack of expertise of this outsider. This expression is also sometimes used when someone is providing unsolicited advice.

I know about the word 'patronizing', but I feel that this doesn't capture exactly what I want to express.

Is there any word or expression in English that is tangible to this?

Is "Blitzkrieg" a word that average native speaker would understand?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:35 AM PDT

The word "Blitzkrieg" (German: "lightning war") comes from a method of warfare used during World War II.

  1. Can the word "Blitzkrieg" be used in other contexts as well? For example: "Blitzkrieg approach to write code"
  2. Would the meaning described in (1) be understandable for an average native speaker?

What is the name for a video that is shown as a preamble to an interview on a talk show?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 07:05 AM PDT

In TV talk shows, what is the name for a video clip that is shown as a preamble to an interview? I am working in the Netherlands, where they call this an 'instart'.

Complication about using present perfect tense with other tenses

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 09:03 AM PDT

Since English is my foreign language, I always run into some unforeseen complication when describing daily activities I have just done in my daily journal. That is, I often use present perfect sentences with present, present perfect continuous, and past simple sentences in order to be specific about the time frame as much as possible. This mixture always confuses me and made me feel less confident when I want to be specific about the time frame. So I would like to know if these sample texts are grammatically correct and sound natural:

  1. I have cleared the table, since the food was so dry that I could not finish it. [Present Perfect + Past Simple]
  2. I have changed my pants, because the weather has been getting hotter this morning. [Present Perfect + Present Perfect Continuous]
  3. I decided to take this course, because it is important for my future career. [Past Simple + Present Simple]
  4. I decided to take this course, because it was important for my future career. [Past Simple + Past Simple]

Any advice is appreciated.

Improper placement of a comma

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 06:06 AM PDT

Consider the following sentence, "Skye will become a doctor, and a priest if he finishes theology school."

My understanding is that the comma before the "and" does not follow the rules for comma placement. So that one must re-write the sentence to be:

Skye will become a doctor, and he will become a priest if he finishes theology school.

In the above sentence the "and" is connecting 2 independent clauses and therefore a comma before "and" is justified. Am I correct in saying that only the second sentence is grammatically correct in terms of comma placement?

What is another way to express something that is idempotent?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:07 AM PDT

I understand the word "idempotent" to describe an action where the second time that action is applied, it has no additional effect. In other words, redundant operations have no effect.

The first usage of the word seems to have been made in a mathematical context, but it is also widespread in computer science (see usage here). As a computer science student this terminology is very useful, but it can also feel odd saying the word. There are even stackexchange questions asking how to pronounce it!

I'd like to be able to express the meaning of the word idempotent in a casual setting using only one word without sounding too technical (a two-word solution may also be interesting).

I tried to find synonyms in a dictionary but found none. I tried to translate to other languages to see if I could adopt a new word, but I couldn't find one.

As a last resort, I don't mind if I have to create my own word or phrase. I was thinking of saying something has "null redundancy". Maybe I could shorten it to be "nullred", but that sounds silly.

Sample Sentence

A credit card transaction should be < word > so that you don't get charged twice.

Another example

Instead of saying "It doesn't do anything the second time", shorten to "It isn't < word >"

I don't care whether the word is a noun, verb, or adjective as long as it makes sense. I think it is best suited as a noun and adjective though.

TL;DR

Do any synonyms of the word idempotent actually exist?

Using latin roots or some other method, can you make a substitute word that you think makes sense?

Plural noun or singular noun + possessive

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 08:01 AM PDT

When the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868 —150 years ago this Monday — it closed the door on schemes that aimed to make the U.S. a white man's country. (source)

I wonder why it is not "a white men's country". We often speak of men's clothes and men's room. Consider:

This is the only large dogs' shelter in the area.
This is the only large dog's shelter in the area.

Which one sounds more natural or idiomatic?

"I love you." ... "As do I." Interpretation? [closed]

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 10:11 AM PDT

If someone says I love you and you reply "as do I " it means I love you too right ? Or does it mean you love yourself ?

When did "blonde" become offensive?

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 08:23 AM PDT

The OED defines blond (noun) as:

  • A person with blond hair; one with light or 'fair' hair and the corresponding complexion; esp. a woman, in which case spelt blonde.

    • 1822 Edin. Rev. 199 Brenda, the laughing blue-eyed blonde.

Other sources suggest that "blonde" as a noun should be avoided as it may sound sexiest and offensive:

Blonde:

  • Blonde may be used to describe a woman's hair, but it is sometimes considered offensive to refer to a woman as 'a blonde' because hair colour should not define what a person is like. (OLD)

  • The use of blonde as a noun in reference to a female with blonde hair is best avoided because it can be interpreted as sexist. (The Grammarist)

Questions:

  • When did the the noun "blonde" acquire a negative connotation"?
  • Is it still nowadays better to avoid referring to a woman as "a blonde"?
  • Are there differences in this respect between AmE vs BrE?

"I went to the hotel you were staying at" vs. "you stayed at"

Posted: 01 Apr 2021 08:11 AM PDT

Is there a difference in meaning between these two sentences?

  1. I went to the hotel you were staying at when you were in New York.
  2. I went to the hotel you stayed  at when you were in New York.

Perhaps one reading is that they went to the hotel where their friend was (still) staying, but another is that they went to the hotel where their friend had (previously) stayed. The use of the past tense were staying at when you were in New York would seem to mean that the friend was no longer there.

With I went, which represents a definite action at a point in time, does it matter if the stay at the hotel is described with the past continuous you were staying or not? Is one more correct than the other?
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