Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- Should I put a comma before "other than" in a sentence?
- To be v3 confusing usage [migrated]
- feel passionate vs passionately about
- Minority languages [closed]
- Do I need to put comma if I use "here" in the middle of a sentence?
- "Epic" meaning in this is epic [closed]
- 'Got more sense'. What does it mean?
- usage of adverb "comparably"
- Use of singular or plural number in quantities [closed]
- A replacement for 'follower' word
- looking for a term to replace chaplain
- If you can insert the word "like" and "as" into what people assume is a metaphor, isn't it really a simile?
- "With probability", "with a probability", "with the probability"?
- Myth and Mouth: Is there any etymological connection? [closed]
- Can we use a to-infinitive directly after the subject? [closed]
- What kind of sentence element is [not together ] in this sentence?
- What is a common idiom meaning, 'that a situation is likely to change all of a sudden without notice or reason'?
- Locally vs Local [closed]
- Why is a comma needed here? Before "some"
- Uses of 'after all', 'withal', 'anyway', 'anyhow' instead of 'however'?
- Word for moving quickly enough for things to seem blurry
- Is the word "psithurism" really used in English?
- "the age is come"
- A difference between two parts of sentences
- 'Results to be declared by the college': to be + past participal
- "We're both" or "both of us"?
- Single word for (request, response) pair? (casual words ok)
- What is the meaning of "Many a mickle makes a muckle"?
- What does the phrase "before too long" mean?
| Should I put a comma before "other than" in a sentence? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:29 AM PDT Suppose that the sentence I'm writing is: "There was very little they could do about it, other than to move on.". Should I use a comma before "other than"? I checked google books and the results are all over the place. Some people put a comma and some people don't so I'm asking for your help. Also is there a style manual where I can look this up?  |
| To be v3 confusing usage [migrated] Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:24 AM PDT I was scrolling through, and I confused when I saw this post, I dont understand Why " to be returned" used here. What tense is it ? What's that "to" for ? We see end of the cartoon's " To be continued " And it means next episode will come, I mean it is future tense. But here I dont think this text is implying to future time. .  |
| feel passionate vs passionately about Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:53 AM PDT I teach English in South Korea. One text book says that only the following sentence is grammatically right: "Highly skilled athletes feel passionate about their successful involvement in sport" But the next sentence is grammatically wrong: "Highly skilled athletes feel passionately about their successful involvement in sport" I am bothered by the curiosity.. Could you explain why the latter sentence is wrong? Here is the context. Values are defined a a person's beliefs about what they consider important in life. For example, an athlete who values commitment, responsibility and health will tend to develop daily rituals and long-term habits that promote their high-quality sports performance and good health. Highly skilled athletes -and their coaches- feel passionate about their successful involvement in sport.  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:44 AM PDT Some minority languages are on the brink of extinction because of very few people using them. Although people say that governments should protect this languages by money from national budget, I completely disagree with this idea, but I think this have some advantages. This essay will be discussed both of views before a reasoned conclusion is drawn. On the one hand, protecting languages is essential for each country. Firstly, many historical documentaries are recorded by using minority languages. For example, in Iceland, it has a huge collection of North Europe mythology stories, which are written by Runes signs. If local native languages was lost, scientists could not discover and analyze ancient civilizations as a result. Minority languages also play an importance part in local culture and identity, uniting us a community. Thus, when a language is lost, a part of the community and culture also disappears. This must be an enormous loss for each region, some countries are affected far more than others by disappearance of a language. On the other hand, the government should pour public money to enhance the standard living especially developing countries. For instance, some countries in the Africa, numerous citizens live under the line of poverty, they have not enough food to consume every day. Consequently, if governments spend money to focus on protecting local native tongues, citizens may be face with death. Moreover, healthcare systems need to improve in recent. For example, vaccines like covax-19 are ultimately invention during Coronavirus pandemic, which allows us to prevent the infection and save thousands of people's lives. In conclusion, even though minority languages should be conserved due to the significance of the languages towards the culture of a nation and its potentials to find out the historical context of ancestors, I believe that such funding should be allotted to other more important sectors such as healthcare and the quality of life. It is recommended that the government should allocate money from national finance to aspects, such as education or social welfare, that develop countries, if it does not conduct, this might cause the chaos in society.  |
| Do I need to put comma if I use "here" in the middle of a sentence? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:33 AM PDT Imagine, there is a sentence such as: From this question, I get to know that this is a perfectly structured sentence. But should I use a comma before & after the word "here" for formal English? Or is it good to go?  |
| "Epic" meaning in this is epic [closed] Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:22 AM PDT Could someone please tell me what the following sentence means? Is damn a positive word or a negative one. "Damn! This is epic"  |
| 'Got more sense'. What does it mean? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:32 AM PDT Can you elucidate the meaning of the third sentence in the dialogue: A: "I am no more sick than you are," said the woman in bed. B: "Oh, yes you are!" A: "I just got more sense than you have, that's all," said the other old woman, nodding her head. It means: 'I don't have any problems with my mental health, but you have', isn't it? Thanks!  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:24 AM PDT I'm an English teacher in South Korea. I've always taught my students to use adverbs to modify verbs or adjectives and adjectives to modify nouns. So I know "They offered a number of jewels judged comparable in value to the bag of food." is correct, not "judged comparably". But I want to make sure that using "comparably" is never acceptable in this context. Can we never say "comparably"? I'd appreciate your answers.  |
| Use of singular or plural number in quantities [closed] Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:10 AM PDT Reading the book "extreme economics" page 43 come across these two uses of number,"the sheer numbers of fatalities" and "the number of companies". Question, why the difference between the use of plural and singular number?  |
| A replacement for 'follower' word Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:05 AM PDT I'm developing software that user can use to follow the other users' posts, but I'm not sure that the 'follower' is a correct word for indicating the post's followers! Do you have any suggestion to use instead of 'follower' word? Do you think 'listen' or 'observe' can be appropriate replace for 'follow'?  |
| looking for a term to replace chaplain Posted: 20 Apr 2021 05:45 AM PDT Looking for another word to use in place of chaplain in a non-religious organization It has been suggested to use "secretary of reflection and remembrance" which is too wordy and too long  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 05:31 AM PDT In this article: https://blog.prepscholar.com/simile-vs-metaphor The author uses a popular Katy Perry lyric "baby you're a firework" as an example of a metaphor. Katy Perry could just have easily said "baby you're like a firework" but it wouldn't have sounded as good. So isn't this kind of like a "fake metaphor"? It is a very simile-like comparison but people call it a metaphor just because it doesn't use the words "like" or "as". To provide a different example, if I were to say that I longed for connection to my spouse but due to past trauma I found myself hiding behind a wall, that seems a much stronger example of a metaphor. In order to express the same sentiment as a simile, I would have to say something like: I longed for connection to my spouse, but due to past trauma I had distanced myself by creating a set of behaviours that were like a wall. So you could still say the same thing as a simile but it would be totally stupid. Therefore shouldn't we be teaching people that if you can insert the word like or as into the metaphor without making any substantial changes to the syntax, then it's not really a metaphor?  |
| "With probability", "with a probability", "with the probability"? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 02:05 AM PDT As a mathematician, I often write and read about probabilities. In the literature, I've seen versions of all the sentences below. Which one is correct?
In particular, what article should one use and is "of" correct/necessary?  |
| Myth and Mouth: Is there any etymological connection? [closed] Posted: 20 Apr 2021 01:34 AM PDT Is there an etymological connection between myth and mouth? For Myth, Etymonline.org has: 1830, from French mythe (1818) and directly from Modern Latin mythus, from Greek mythos "speech, thought, word, discourse, conversation; story, saga, tale, myth, anything delivered by word of mouth," a word of unknown origin. For Mouth, Etymonline.org has: Old English muþ "oral opening of an animal or human; opening of anything, door, gate," from Proto-Germanic *muntha- (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian muth, Old Norse munnr, Danish mund, Middle Dutch mont, Dutch mond, Old High German mund, German Mund, Gothic munþs "mouth"), with characteristic loss of nasal consonant in Old English (compare tooth), probably an IE word, but the exact etymology is disputed. Perhaps from the source of Latin mentum "chin" ... presuming a semantic shift from "chin" to "mouth."  |
| Can we use a to-infinitive directly after the subject? [closed] Posted: 20 Apr 2021 03:32 AM PDT
Is the above sentence grammatically correct? OR does it require a verb:
So, basically ... which sentence is grammatically correct?  |
| What kind of sentence element is [not together ] in this sentence? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 03:00 AM PDT We are not together anymore. In this sentence, [ we ] is the subject, and [are] is the linking verb. Normally, following by the linking verb should be the predicative adjective or predicative nominal, but [ not together ] is an adverb in here rather than an adjective. What kind of sentence element is [not together ] in this sentence?  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:56 AM PDT The situation to which I refer involves a person who has had an accident and their recovery was going well then not and it keeps changing. I am trying to warn someone caring for them that the situation can change quickly without notice and I can't think of the idiom to describe the speed and unpredictability of that potential change so that they will take nothing for granted.  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 07:03 AM PDT Which sentence is correct or are both sentences correct? I think locally is used as an adverb and local as an adjective but I am really not sure.
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| Why is a comma needed here? Before "some" Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:01 AM PDT My teacher said that in this sentence: "She noticed that on one of the pages some information about the painting had been written." I should put a comma before "some". I don't know why and I don't have a way to ask her that right now. Could someone please explain this to me? Thank you in advance.  |
| Uses of 'after all', 'withal', 'anyway', 'anyhow' instead of 'however'? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:46 AM PDT Suppose, a sentence is: 'He isn't qualified on paper; however, the interviewer recommends to hire him based on his great potential.' Can I use 'after all', 'withal', 'anyway' and 'anyhow' instead of 'however' in this sentence?  |
| Word for moving quickly enough for things to seem blurry Posted: 20 Apr 2021 07:59 AM PDT I want to describe an anecdote, but want to use a word to describe the time period. So in physics when you move quickly enough to approach the speed of light, time breaks down and relativity kicks in. I want to describe a period in the past that I was moving so quickly at the time (such as through college) that the events seem to mesh together. Like a very, very fast moving object in relativity. Preferably a single word I can use such as
Or
Or
Naturally I can just give the long winded physics explanation, but that's extremely verbose, and distracts from the subject matter because the need to explain what the metaphor is directly.  |
| Is the word "psithurism" really used in English? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 01:28 AM PDT I have seen people using this word to refer to the sound wind makes as it moves through trees. However,  |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 12:47 AM PDT When writing my book about a local history, I used as a heading:- The Age of the Engineer is come", simply because I'm sure I've seen this usage elsewhere. Am I OK with this, or have I got it round my neck?  |
| A difference between two parts of sentences Posted: 20 Apr 2021 03:58 AM PDT What's a difference between these two parts of sentences: Example: This software is ..., it doesn't catch (any) errors, it leaves everything to someone.
Could I use contraction in annotation?And should I use article the in this sentence?
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| 'Results to be declared by the college': to be + past participal Posted: 20 Apr 2021 03:26 AM PDT I always get confused by the sentence structure 'to be + past participal'. What does that mean – present perfect or future? Like in this sentence:
Results are declared? Results will be declared? Also as in this sentence:
Is this correct or should it be
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| Posted: 20 Apr 2021 07:04 AM PDT For example: • We're both 20. Or • (The) both of us are 20. I don't mean to include the person I'm talking to. Which one is more appropriate?  |
| Single word for (request, response) pair? (casual words ok) Posted: 20 Apr 2021 04:37 AM PDT I'm looking for an unambiguous word (or expression) for referring to a question and a corresponding answer as a single entity. The word should express that no more and no less than 1 question and 1 answer is covered, and that they correspond to each other. The terms "request, response" may be technical jargon but I'm looking for a general word (it may be technical or not). (In case this should be obvious, please merge this to ELL, I'm not native.)  |
| What is the meaning of "Many a mickle makes a muckle"? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:25 AM PDT I've heard this phrase, and don't know what a "mickle" or a "muckle" is. Hence I have no idea at all what the phrase itself is supposed to mean.  |
| What does the phrase "before too long" mean? Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:12 AM PDT What does the phrase "before too long" mean? Excerpt from where I read this phrase:
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