Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- What's the difference between "the third day running" and "three days running"?
- Primary and secondary stress in IPA transcriptions on Cambridge Dictionary when two words are involved
- Is the phrase "...without setting foot outside of your home." correct?
- english is not my 1st language so, how can i write this in a better way?
- Never + nor + or
- I was very unlucky because I almost made it. when I arrived at the station, the train (.......)
- let sand run between/through my fingers? [closed]
- Is the sentence "you and I; we're all connected" grammatically allowed in the English language?
- Why are "said" and "paid"/"laid" pronounced differently?
- Through the ocean or in the ocean
- How are it's and its different? [migrated]
- A word to describe the quality of a system or process continuing to work well as complexity increases?
- What is the figure of speech used in these lines?
- "Minister for" and "Ministry of"
- Please tell me whether right or wrong
- "she" (always takes) or (has always taken) "good care of her finances"
- Should it be "Late policy" or "lateness policy"?
- Did "A F" exist as an intensifier prior to social media?
- Could you help me solve this phonetic riddle?
- Lizard Lip nickname
- What should a table of presence/attendance be called precisely? (Schedule vs Attendance vs Timetable vs Time Sheet)
- Can the Past Perfect be substituted with past simple + time reference only with state verbs?
- Does "commit <action>" always imply a negative moral judgement?
- Present and past participles at the same time
- Origin of "a lot"
- Is it wrong to use "Did you ever" in a sentence?
- Why does the word "tortilla" refer to three distinct types of edibles?
- Why is the "a" in "cocoa" silent?
| What's the difference between "the third day running" and "three days running"? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 10:50 AM PDT Their meanings seem the same. Are there any difference between them?  |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2021 10:43 AM PDT I am trying to understand IPA transcriptions in https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/ when two words are involved. In particular, their rationale for using primary stress and secondary stress. For example, roller skate was transcribed as /ˈroʊ.lɚ skeɪt/. There is a space between "ˈroʊ.lɚ" and "skeɪt", and roller and skate were transcribed independently as /ˈroʊ.lɚ/ and /skeɪt/ respectively. This is intuitive to me. rubber band on the other hand, was transcribed as /ˌrʌb.ɚ ˈbænd/. However, rubber and band were transcribed as /ˈrʌb.ɚ/ and /bænd/ respectively. Finally, safety pin was transcribed as /ˈseɪf.ti ˌpɪn/. However, safety and pin were transcribed as /ˈseɪf.ti/ and /pɪn/ respectively. It is clear that they use space for word boundaries, but what about the stress?  |
| Is the phrase "...without setting foot outside of your home." correct? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 09:02 AM PDT I'm writing a short script for an advertisement. I'm trying to emphasise that the service that is being advertised does not require the user to leave their home as it's done 100% online. "You can achieve this without leaving your home." sounds boring and wrong. I have heard the phrase: "to set foot somewhere". So I was wondering, is the phrase "You can achieve this without setting foot outside of your home." correct? It just sounds better. What are some other great ways to phrase and emphasise the benefit of not needing to leave you home for a product or service?  |
| english is not my 1st language so, how can i write this in a better way? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 08:27 AM PDT " After their first baby, she quit her job, ever since then she is a stay-at-home mom." --how can i write this in a better way in my case study of a child?  |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2021 07:24 AM PDT I would like to ask whether the following sentence is grammatically correct and natural for a native speaker to hear:
Thank you.  |
| I was very unlucky because I almost made it. when I arrived at the station, the train (.......) Posted: 24 Apr 2021 07:36 AM PDT Which form of the verb should I put in the blank, past perfect "had left" or past simple "left"?  |
| let sand run between/through my fingers? [closed] Posted: 24 Apr 2021 06:32 AM PDT How do I describe that I let sand run between my fingertips?  |
| Is the sentence "you and I; we're all connected" grammatically allowed in the English language? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 04:37 AM PDT I was wondering if this sentence would be allowed grammatically if you were specifically speaking to one person or can it only be used when writing a speech or talking to multiple people. E.g. if I were talking to someone, could I say something like - "You and I; we're all humans" or would I have to say "You and I, we're both humans."  |
| Why are "said" and "paid"/"laid" pronounced differently? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 03:27 AM PDT The words say, pay, lay are phonemically /seɪ/, /peɪ/ and /leɪ/ respectively (with the diphthong /eɪ/). Their past and past participles are respectively: /sɛd/ (or /sed/), /peɪd/ and /leɪd/. The past/past participle of "said" contains a vowel instead of the expected diphthong /eɪ/. Say and lay are both Old English words while pay is from Old French through Middle English. "Say" and "lay" belonged to the same verb class in Old English, if I understand it correctly. That's why their past/past participle are spelled the same. I didn't have much luck tracing their roots and finding what happened that caused "said" to have the vowel /ɛ/ instead of the diphthong /eɪ/. So why does "said" have a vowel and not a diphthong?  |
| Through the ocean or in the ocean Posted: 24 Apr 2021 03:07 AM PDT In an essay should say I swim in the ocean or through the ocean. For sailing what should we say?  |
| How are it's and its different? [migrated] Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:28 PM PDT I'm confused, how is it's different from its as they look pretty much the same. I want to know how its and it's work. I've tried sentances like, It's collar was shaking. and Its collar was shaking.  |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2021 08:02 AM PDT Some systems can be described as highly scalable, meaning that they will continue to perform well as the volume of data or number of users increases. I'm looking for a similar word that would describe a system that continues to work well as the complexity of the subject matter it is applied to increases. i.e Size is to scalable as complexity is to ? I thought of something like "complexifiable", but that doesn't seem to be a valid English word. I'd like to use this in a context where I'm comparing models or tools, and their varying ability to handle increasing complexity.  |
| What is the figure of speech used in these lines? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 03:38 AM PDT
What is the figure of speech the poet has used in the highlighted parts? Also, what is the point of the poem and why is it titled so? I may be wrong but I thought the whole poem was rather a doggerel.  |
| "Minister for" and "Ministry of" Posted: 23 Apr 2021 05:09 PM PDT In some British Commonwealth countries, e.g. Singapore, government ministries are named "Ministry of", as in "Ministry of Defence". However, the title of the minister in charge is "Minister for", as in "Minister for Defence". Australia and Scotland are two other governments which use "Minister for". In other countries, such as Canada, it is "Minister of". New Zealand is the most quirky, with an even mix of "Minister for" and "Minister of". Why I know that semantically, as an earlier question answered, there is no difference in usage, does anyone know how the term "Minister for" came about? Why was it not consistently "Minister of" just like "Ministry of"?  |
| Please tell me whether right or wrong Posted: 24 Apr 2021 04:25 AM PDT I have noticed it is mentioned as a common error, but all authors of the there books are not native mostly are Indian or Chinese. As I see or think most of those use different English than the the usual we have learned either American English or British English. For example one sentence : Incorrect There is no place in the hall. Correct There is no room in the hall. So, why is it incorrect ? Sources :
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| "she" (always takes) or (has always taken) "good care of her finances" Posted: 23 Apr 2021 05:18 PM PDT the question is in "Common mistakes at CAE" (amazon) unit 1 the book says the answer is "she has always taken good care of her finances" but why can't I say "she always takes good care of her finances" ? i imagine the context as being that she is very disciplined and careful with her finances and budget, always pays everything correctly and never lose control over her money. i saw in google that you can "she always takes care of her younger siblings" for example Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women sorry if the question is stupid... i'm trying my best ç - ç ============ the question in the book simply says "Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verb in brackets" 8 - She ___ (always / take) good care of her finances. here in the first page  |
| Should it be "Late policy" or "lateness policy"? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 08:51 AM PDT I am writing a paper that discusses different policies for accepting assignments after the nominal deadlines. Should I refer to it as a "late policy" or "lateness policy"? Here is a sample sentence:
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| Did "A F" exist as an intensifier prior to social media? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 03:51 AM PDT "A F" is short for "as fuck". It popped into my lexicon a few years ago, when I started hearing it in Youtube videos. (See this video as an example, although this wasn't where I first heard it.) The earliest entry in Urban Dictionary I can find is from 2011. Looking at USA Google Trends for "A F", "A. F." and "as fuck" show "A F" has been used for something (possibly Air France?) since at least 2004, which is pre-Twitter, but post MySpace. It also shows an uptick in "as fuck" from around November 2009, which might coincide with the introduction of "a f" as an intensifier. The "a. f." line is pretty low.
This seems impossible to search for in Google Books, because A F are initials. Using the ngram viewer with "A F_ADVERB" gets no hits. It doesn't appear in the OED online, and Greens Dictionary of Slang lumps it in with "as fuck". I'm at a loss for where to look. Is there any evidence out there that "A F" was coined before the advent of social media? Perhaps in military slang?  |
| Could you help me solve this phonetic riddle? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 01:07 AM PDT From the position for normal breathing, you move your soft palate upwards and shut off the nasal cavity. Then you round your lips, leaving a rather close air passage there, and at the same time, you raise the back part of your tongue pretty high towards the roof of the mouth cavity, but not touching it, thus leaving a rather narrow air passage in the back part of your mouth cavity. You breathe out, letting your vocal cords vibrate. Wait a minute! You've just pronounced a /__/ sound ! Then you lower the tongue, particularly its front part, to a very open position, never stopping the vocal cord vibration. Then, after about 60 msec. or so, you move the front to central part of your tongue towards the position which is just above the close-mid.  |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2021 09:34 PM PDT I'm translating titles of old black-and-white movie "Hard Luck" directed by Buster Keaton and met a confusing nickname. Here's the title from the film, describing a bandit on the rampage: And another, poster on the wall: This Luke is played by Joe Roberts, burly man, who has nothing common with lizard. Maybe it is some idiom? Or maybe this nickname emphasizes dry lips or thin lips of the character? But there's 'lip', not 'lips' in context.  |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:39 PM PDT I'm looking for a precise title to put on: A page on which people of a team indicate which days on a week they are present/working in the office. Looking for different terms, I've several options by non of which I am satisfied: Schedule: This term suggests a meaningful series of timings or plans to achieve something. Its emphasizes the timing of the jobs not the people. From Merriam Webster's:
So, even adding prefixes to this term, can't describe what the document indicates. Timetable: This one is very precisely on the timing of something specific. As used for timing of trains, I can accept this term to indicate the times that are agreed upon to coordinate daily or weekly events and their times but not people who are participating in them:
Time Sheet: This one is precisely a tool to calculate how much time someone has spent on his work. This is specifically a record of past events not a plan for future. From Merriam Webster's:
Calendar: A too generic term which carries no meaning on what it is to show. It suggests something long-term or a plan. This one has a long definition on Merriam Webster's Dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calendar Attendance: This one also suggests a record of the past. It has also too much emphasis on attending to something which is not the case in an office because it needs to be an event like a class. From Merriam Webster's:
There are combination of above words with Sheet and Table and also Work Schedule which is the best one I found but still unsatisfactory. I'd be more than happy to hear ideas and arguments about the right term.  |
| Can the Past Perfect be substituted with past simple + time reference only with state verbs? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 06:08 AM PDT As an English teacher, I often find students unclear about the use of the past perfect. It seems that this is sometimes optional if there is a time reference. I take both these sentences to be correct and mean the same:
However, in these two examples, I don't believe they mean the same:
The first being a habitual act, or decision not to eat sausages; the second the absence of sausage eating during the speaker's lifetime, perhaps due to a lack of sausage-eating opportunities. So, my questions are, can the past perfect be substituted by the past simple plus a time reference (or conjunction) only when a state verb is involved? Are there any 'rules'(which time phrases or conjunctions can be used, for example)? I'm sure my students would be keen to know! Many thanks. Peter.  |
| Does "commit <action>" always imply a negative moral judgement? Posted: 23 Apr 2021 09:28 PM PDT The word "commit" has a couple of uses: "to commit (oneself) to X", or "to commit X". The former seems to generally imply commitment to doing something good, while the latter seems to generally be negative. Examples:
Is there any case, contemporary or archaic, where this structure is used without negative connotations? Why, historically, did this pattern develop? *This example is somewhat anomalous, since in modern usage, though negative, it may not imply a moral judgment.  |
| Present and past participles at the same time Posted: 23 Apr 2021 11:03 PM PDT As part of my efforts to improve my English, I'm trying to paraphrase the following statement by the founder of Wikitribune and it turns out to be such a challenging job for a non-native English speaker because it complicatedly has "present and past" participle phrases in the same sentence:
Would you find these two paraphrases I came up with grammatically correct? Could there be any better or more versions?:
I would really appreciate any advice, desperately seeking answers.  |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2021 04:27 AM PDT I am working on a novel set in the early 19th century and am wondering if the phrase "a lot" is too contemporary. That happened a lot with debutantes, he mused.  |
| Is it wrong to use "Did you ever" in a sentence? Posted: 23 Apr 2021 08:15 PM PDT My German friend thinks that it is wrong to use "Did you ever" in the sentence "Did you ever fly a kite"? She is telling me it is wrong because you must use "Have" with "Ever", which would make the sentence "Have you ever flown a kite?". My argument is that "ever" is just an adverb, it shouldn't define whether "Did" or "Have" should be used. Is her argument correct?  |
| Why does the word "tortilla" refer to three distinct types of edibles? Posted: 24 Apr 2021 03:32 AM PDT The crisps[BrEn]/chips[AmEn] that are made of corn (and probably not deep-fried) are called tortilla:
The wraps with that special taste, are called tortila:
And then, the omelet-like meal is called tortilla!
I can understand that the first usage is probably derived from the second, since I saw something saying that frying the wraps, you can make the chips; but the third usage is not related to these two at all. What's the commonality among these three that has made the English use the same word for all of them? Or is it just a random confusion/carelessness after borrowing the edible + the name from Mexican and Spanish in different periods of time?  |
| Why is the "a" in "cocoa" silent? Posted: 23 Apr 2021 10:46 PM PDT Not being a native speaker of English, one of those words that tripped me up is "cocoa". Besides having its vowels inverted from "cacao"; it also is pronounced exactly the same as "coco", whereas "cacao" isn't pronounced "caca" and "boa" isn't pronounced "bo". So why is the "a" in "cocoa" silent? Phonetic spelling from a dictionary:
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