Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Can "in" be used to indicate past? [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 09:38 AM PDT

I was reading a comic named "Hey, Wait..."

I am not very sure the usage of "in" here in the second image, where the girl asks that "when'll these photos be taken", and our protagonist replies with "in 15-20 years".

What puzzles me is that, are these photos taken in the past? If so, is the usage grammar correctly? (Existing photos will be taken, in 15-20 years）？

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What do you call who write comments on the Internet? [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 09:31 AM PDT

What do you call who write comments on the Internet? For example on YouTube.

meaning of the idiom - 'reflection on something' [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 09:16 AM PDT

In 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand, when Howard Roark comes to visit Gail and Dominique in their house, Dominique says -

'Wouldn't it be a reflection on my judgment to suppose that I would wish to reject a house you had designed, Mr. Roark?'

I did not understand the meaning of the sentence, specifically of 'reflection on my judgement'.

Use of once in a statement [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 08:29 AM PDT

Which of the following statements is correct one :

once page load successfully
once page has loaded successfully
once page loads successfully
once page loaded successfully

Word that means "describing a group of people based on the action of an individual"

Posted: 11 May 2021 08:32 AM PDT

I don't know how to better describe my question, but I have an example that may clarify. The word I'm looking for can be used for example to say "this person is xxx" when that person says "All Muslims are terrorists" because a couple people did terrorist acts.

Question mark after a comma and a second sentence? [duplicate]

Posted: 11 May 2021 07:55 AM PDT

A non-English native friend has just said that an English speaker told him the question mark should NOT be used after a pair of sentences separated by a comma. Something like this:

"Could someone else have done that, as she was on holidays"

I am also a non-native speaker and am not a language expert but I find this construction quite strange. I would use the question mark here, even if the second sentence is not interrogative. From my point of view, the question is in the first sentence but the second does not act as a separate statement.

Help? Many thanks for your thoughts.

Is there a noun for the word/phrase/number within parentheses?

Posted: 11 May 2021 06:13 AM PDT

Parenthetical is the adjective. I am looking for the noun.

I could write "the parenthetical expression," but that's two words where I really could just use one (assuming this noun exists).

What type of punctuation is missing from this sentence [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 06:02 AM PDT

She decided to take the patient an extra blanket the effects of anesthesia often make patients feel cold.

I can solve it/ can see the car

Posted: 11 May 2021 04:56 AM PDT

Context: In a math class,

Teacher: solve this problem.

After some time, when the students are still trying:

Teacher to one of his students: John, can you solve it? (He is basically asking John whether John thinks his approach till now has been correct and he's soon going to get a solution)

John: Yes, sir. (= I can solve it)

Q: Is there any difference between the uses of "can" in (a) and (b) below?

a) John: I can (=am able to) solve it. (in the context given above; John says this while solving the problem)

b) John: I can (=am able to) see the car. (in response to "can you see the car"; John says this while looking at the car)

both (the) X and (the) Y

Posted: 11 May 2021 07:49 AM PDT

Which of the three alternatives is correct (or recommended)?

  1. "in both the military and civil fields";
  2. "in both military and civil fields";
  3. "in both the military and the civil fields".

(entire sentence: "Current UAV technology has led to an exponential growth in the potential applications of drones in both (the) military and (the) civil fields.")

[update] The intended meaning is "the military field and the civilian field"; the term "field" is intended as synonym of "sector".

Should one say "0.1 degree Celsius" or "0.1 degrees Celsius"? [duplicate]

Posted: 11 May 2021 02:59 AM PDT

The value isn't exactly 1, it's a fraction. But 1 is the only number in the fraction. Should the word degree be singular or plural?

Are these sentences proper ways of expressing regret? [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 02:02 AM PDT

I tried making a sentence that would express regret using a bit more "advanced" English, hoping to sound less like a student.

I know I could have said "My biggest regret is that I've never been to an XXXXX concert", but I tried the 2 sentences below and now I'm not sure they're right:

"The biggest regret I have is to not having been to an XXXXXX concert"

"The biggest regret I have is never having been to an XXXXXX concert"

So, are they right? Would they sound proper to a native speaker? Too wordy?

workshop or studio?

Posted: 11 May 2021 01:15 AM PDT

In the context of university studies - i.e. mechanical engineering - students work on projects in specific equipped rooms with the necessary tools - are these rooms to be called "STUDIOS" because they study in them, or "WORKSHOPS"? where they work on various projects? Thank you.

What are the modifiers in these sentences? [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 08:59 AM PDT

The soft music is necessary for me to study well.

The calculator is necessary for you to solve difficult problems.

Do "for me" and "for you" modify "necessary"?

Can we use 'he' instead of they for a narrator whose gender is quite unknown to me while analysing an unknown poem [closed]

Posted: 11 May 2021 02:14 AM PDT

I have an assignment to complete and I have been asked to analyse "Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost, treating it as an unknown passage. For instance, what I wrote in the beginning is:

The given poem is a narration of the scenic beauty of the "snow filled" woods based on the observations of the speaker. Through this poem, the speaker is seen to express his state of mind by simply talking to himself as he seems to be all alone, travelling on his horseback. In one of the lines, he calls the woods to be "lovely", "dark", and "deep"

I have used 'he' but this seems impossible not to use it anywhere. Please help.

Is modern 'five countries' English the only type of English with stress patterns that change across the entire word depending on the suffix?

Posted: 11 May 2021 04:07 AM PDT

The capital letters represent where the main stress in each word lies

TELephone, telePHONic, teLEphony.
PHOTograph, photoGRAphic, photOgraphy.
biOLogy, bioLOGical.

What about in the past, including older forms of English? Or is modern English unique in this respect?

Does every dialect of modern English have this (I'm thinking about Singlish and Indian English and other non 'five country' varieties/ descendants/blends of English, if they are dialects of English and not something else like creoles, say. Am out of my depth here.)?

Question re: proper usage of to + infinitive construction

Posted: 11 May 2021 08:19 AM PDT

I have recently been asked about the grammatical accuracy of the sentence "My mother bought the book for me to study English." This sentence is meant to convey that the writer's mother bought him/her the aforementioned book, and that the book is meant for the purpose of studying English.

It looked correct at first glance but after thinking about it for a little while I began to get a feeling that there's some ambiguity in the construction of the sentence. I'd really appreciate it if someone better versed in grammar than I am could explain to me whether or not the sentence in question is correct for the intended meaning.

Thank you in advance.

What does "it" refer to in this sentence?

Posted: 11 May 2021 07:34 AM PDT

I'm having a dilemma about a question in a Math assignment:

The area of a rectangle is 70 cm2. If its length is decreased by 2cm and its width is increased by 1cm, it becomes a square. Find its dimensions.

What does "it" refer to in this question (should I answer the length and width of the rectangle or the square)?

My Math teacher says I should answer the dimensions of the rectangle, but I believe that I should put the dimensions of the square. May I know which is actually correct?

Is there a term for a child born after the death of its sibling?

Posted: 11 May 2021 06:44 AM PDT

A couple loses their only child and some time later they have another child. Is there a term for that second child? I once heard a parent use a phrase to describe it, but can't remember anymore.

the implied subject of "looking down into a valley"

Posted: 11 May 2021 04:01 AM PDT

Human beings like a prospect from which they can survey a landscape, and at the same time they enjoy a sense of refuge. A cave on the side of a mountain, a child's tree house, and the king's castle are situations with appeal. Protection afforded by an overhang of some sort (trees, cliff face, roof) is preferred, along with a sense of being "safe" from observation or attack from behind. The most attractive landscapes tend to combine some of these elements, in pictures as much as in reality. In fact, most landscape representation in the history of painting places the implied viewer at some desirable vantage point — a cliff edge, perhaps, typically looking down into a valley.

Q. I was wondering what would be looking down into a valley. Would the implied subject of "looking down ~" be the "implied viewer" or the "vantage point", which rephrased as a cliff edge in this sentence?

When to use On/In/At?

Posted: 11 May 2021 01:01 AM PDT

When should I use On/In/At?

I was In/At School? In/At Home? See you On/In/At Monday? I left the book In/At my parent's house?

Other use cases I cn't think of right now?

And why is there a distinction?

Thanks!

How do I refer to the unmarried mother of my grandson?

Posted: 11 May 2021 09:43 AM PDT

My son had a child with his girlfriend. Since they're not married, how do I refer to her. Is daughter-in-law proper?

Tag (the game) = "Touch and Go"?

Posted: 11 May 2021 09:39 AM PDT

I have been seeing the following post making the rounds on social media today:

tag meme

How old were you when you learned that the game TAG stands for "Touch and Go"?

I was today years old...

Now even at first glance this raised my eyebrow. So I did some quick research and nothing is said on the Wikipedia page and it would seem the game even has its own unique definition in the dictionary

A children's game in which one chases the rest, and anyone who is caught then becomes the pursuer.

which would seem to come from the primary definition

A label attached to someone or something for the purpose of identification or to give other information.

since you yell "Tag, you're it" as part of the game.

My question is, is there any evidence that tag is an acronym for "Touch and Go"? Is is possible this is technically another game, and not the centuries old children's game? Or is this just another case of "Everything you read on the internet is true. - Abraham Lincoln"

The expression,"You lie like a dog in straw"

Posted: 11 May 2021 10:05 AM PDT

My father was originally a country boy, born in Australia at the beginning of the 20th century. He had a number of typically Australian expressions (e.g., "stone the crows"), but the one I remember most was "you lie like a dog in straw". He always used this as a friendly jibe of disbelief when someone in the family was obviously trying to fool him with some story. I was quite young when I figured out the play on words inherent in this expression, which is why I've remembered it so well. However, every reference I can find in a preliminary search of the internet has a shortened version: "you lie like a dog" which, among other things, has lost its early rural association (i.e., the availability of straw). My question then, is: does anyone know of a documented use of the 'full' expression as handed down to me by my father, or of any other references to this version? (which, to me, has an air of earlier authenticity).

Should I capitalise the first letter when a sentence starts with a number?

Posted: 11 May 2021 08:43 AM PDT

When starting a sentence with a number, should the first letter be capitalised?

For example,

96% Real meat.

or

96% real meat.

What's the origin of "dinkum"?

Posted: 11 May 2021 10:15 AM PDT

Dinkum as a noun means work, especially hard work. As an adjective, like fair dinkum, it means honest or genuine.

Other than saying it's chiefly Australian and New Zealand, the OED simply says "Origin unknown" and has a first quotation from 1888 for the noun and 1894 for the adjective.

But why dinkum? What is its origin? Are there any older quotations?

Origin of "chuck a wobbly"?

Posted: 11 May 2021 04:29 AM PDT

Chuck a wobbly is Australian slang for someone throwing a tantrum, and I like it because it invokes amusing imagery.

I'm not certain of its origins however. I can see how it may be equivalent to the similar-meaning idiom "throw a fit", where "chuck" is also Australian slang for "throw", but I can't be certain of what "wobbly" is supposed to mean. It's more difficult to nail down because as far as I know, "wobbly" isn't used in other phrases in Australian slang.

Agreement in "[Singular Noun] Is/Are [Plural Noun]"?

Posted: 11 May 2021 12:40 AM PDT

  1. My fish's native habitat is rice fields.

  2. My fish's native habitat are rice fields.

Which one is correct? I'm pretty sure it's the first, since 'is' modifies 'habitat,' but it still sounds weird...
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