Saturday, May 15, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

What's the verb for troop movement, when a unit of soldiers travel by foot together?

Posted: 15 May 2021 10:24 AM PDT

I'm fairly certain there's a verb for this. It's on the tip of my tongue. These are the parameters of the word:

  • It's a verb for what they're all doing together (I'm not looking for words like "infantry" or "footmen"). It's an equivalent of "walk" or "travel."
  • It refers to the process in which a unit of soldiers travel from fort to fort, or campground to campground. This process is just simply for moving troops, especially in time eras before tanks or planes.
  • It does not refer to a battle formation or a battle technique. It does not directly involve enemies.
  • The process might take several miles or several days, and they might have to take a rest stop at some point during it.
  • They're probably bringing their equipment with them.
  • It's by foot, not by water.

So far, I've come up with "march," "trek," and "migrate." However, I really feel like there's a more accurate word for this process. Any help is appreciated.

What means count of four from this two variants?

Posted: 15 May 2021 10:16 AM PDT

What means count of four from two variants?

Answers variants:

a) 1, 2, 3, 4

or

b) 4

Sorry for silly question, but I'm interesting and have bad understanding of this.

Subjuntive and Inversion

Posted: 15 May 2021 10:10 AM PDT

Still another possibility is to consider the negative estimate as evidence that the assumed linear model is incorrect, requiring that a study of the model and its assumptions be made to find a more appropriate model.

  1. Why is the word 'still' put at the beginning of the sentence?
  2. Why to-be auxiliary verb is in bare form? Is it the result of subjunctive structure? I have search the word 'require' in a number of subjunctive lists of subjunctive verb, I however can not find it.

if "a people" is correct, is it singular or plural [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 09:12 AM PDT

Pluralizing proper names that end in a common word (Let's Try)

Posted: 15 May 2021 08:00 AM PDT

I've sometimes been confused on how to pluralize proper names ending in common English words. For example, the phrase "Let's Try" is a popular YouTube/video game phrase attached to giving new games a try, but is sometimes the proper name of a video series, hence the capitalization here. How do I pluralize this, and other proper names like it?

This question says to "simply add s to the last word," which would give us:

I liked all of her Let's Trys with puzzle games.

Of course, "try" has in irregular plural ("tries"), and "Trys" is not an English word, so I'm a little dubious of this as a general rule (and to be fair, I don't think their answer was intended as such). Do you then simply pluralize the last word, as in:

I liked all of her Let's Tries with puzzle games.

Correct or not, that bothers me because it alters the name, and could lead to confusion in cases where the name already ends in a plural, such as, say, Game of Thrones. (And this leads to another obvious question, which is: how do you pluralize names that already end in a plural?)

More often than not, I avoid pluralizing the name, as in:

I liked all of her Let's Try videos with puzzle games.

Much of the time, perhaps this is for the best, to avoid the confusion I outlined above. However, I'd still like to know how to pluralize proper names when I want to!

What does "right monkey" mean?

Posted: 15 May 2021 07:31 AM PDT

A comic called Mr Al Read would sometimes say "Right Monkey" as a catchphrase on the radio. I cannot find the meaning of the phrase in a dictionary.

Interchangeability of where and when? [duplicate]

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:34 AM PDT

This is the day where I will arise to redeem your life and fully restore it back to Me.

I Hear His Whisper Volume 2: 52 Devotions Brian Simmons · 2016

M-W Learner's Dictionary: Where

The dictionary says that both are interchangeable, but to what extent and is this true at all? I often hear "the day where" used to mean "the day when", is this grammatical or not?

Start sentence with "Second" and "importantly"

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:20 AM PDT

I am writing a thesis and want to emphasis the second point I make when presenting two arguments.

Second, importantly technology induced employment falls are not the result of an industry declining.

So importantly refers to the point I am making. The sentence seems weird to me. Shall I put the comma before or after importantly or is something else wrong here?

The usage of "need + verb+ing"

Posted: 15 May 2021 09:36 AM PDT

In Michael Jackson's "Got to be there", you can find

The moment I know she loves me
'Cause when I look in her eyes I realize
I need her sharing the world beside me".

My interpretation of "need" used with a gerund is:

"need doing" can be exchanged with "need to be done"

but apparently that lyric line means to me, "I need her to share the world beside me". Is it correct to say "need someone doing" in the meaning of "need someone to do"? If so, how common is it and how different are they to each other?

Thank you.

prepostions followed by that-clauses [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 05:25 AM PDT

  1. The apartment is nice except that the rent is too high.
  1. You can't always count on it that someone will help.

Prepositions "except" and "on" are both followed by that-clauses(serving as objects). In the second example, why should "it" be used and placed between "on" and " that"?

Receiving money 'as agent' or 'as an agent' and other similar cases

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:13 AM PDT

So I've actually come across this kind of sentences quite a lot, when we're describing the capacity in which the subject does something. For example, sometimes we say:

The vendor's solicitors will receive the deposit as agent for the vendor

I always thought, strictly grammatically speaking, the correct formulation was:

The vendor's solicitors will receive the deposit as an agent for the vendor

Are both correct? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency, as I've come across both formulations quite often.

I was going to + if [migrated]

Posted: 15 May 2021 04:14 AM PDT

Could some one please help me with understanding which of the following is correct?

I was going to ask if you wanted to do the running today.

I was going to ask if you want to do the running today.

What does "split my cut" mean? [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 03:30 AM PDT

"Does this mean I gotta split my cut with you?"

can I use "what's it to you?" for "it's none of your business"? [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 03:07 AM PDT

can I use "what's it to you?" for "it's none of your business" in everyday English?

Clause between comma

Posted: 15 May 2021 05:16 AM PDT

When the number of observations is even, say 2n, it is customary to define the median as the average of the nth and (n +1)st rank-ordered values.

The clause 'say 2n' between two comma appears to be grammatically wrong since it neither contains subject nor has reduced relative clause structure. What structure is this?

How do I use "It's none of your business"? [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 02:38 AM PDT

I don't know how to use the phrase "it's none of your business" in everyday English or slang, please help me?

What justifies poor grammar in newspapers' articles? [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 01:29 AM PDT

Why is grammar in newspapers' articles' titles so lax. What justifies poor grammar in newspaper articles? I mean skipping the definite and indefinite particles which leads to difficulties in telling apart nouns from verbs from adjectives and adverbs. I understand that space is limited but is that really a reasonable excuse to compromise clarity? The the/a/an articles are not optional as far as I understand.

I am asking about specific policies the newspapers follow and how is it explained by journalists.

Marsh ~ Swamp ~ Bog [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:39 AM PDT

I am going through the word

沼泽 zhǎozé marsh, swamp, bog

Tried to find out the meanings for 3 of them as below:

Marsh

an area of low-lying land which is flooded in wet seasons or at high tide, and typically remains waterlogged at all times. "the marsh marigold loves damp fields, riverbanks, and marshes"

Swamp

an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where water collects; a bog or marsh.

Bog

an area of wet muddy ground that is too soft to support a heavy body. "a peat bog"

What is the difference among these three? In my native language the word used for uncultivated ground (next to the cultivated land is called "Alugu" and you can not use this word for other wetlands.

Me vs My in East Midlands dialect [duplicate]

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:49 AM PDT

In the dialect I grew up with (1960's Leicestershire/East Midlands), I'd say "me", when I meant "my". For example:

"That's me car."

vs

"That's my car."

What I have wondered for a long time is, am I saying "my" with a different pronunciation, "m-ee" vs "m-eye". Or am I, in the dialect, using an entirely different part of speech, pronoun vs possessive.

5000 miles and 40 years away, I'll still often say "me" instead of "my".

Which is correct: "What lurks underneath ARE our lives," or "What lurks underneath IS our lives"? [duplicate]

Posted: 15 May 2021 04:38 AM PDT

I admit, the fact I can't figure this out is embarrassing. I'm not looking to change the wording of the sentence, but rather want an answer to which is the correct verb tense in this exact instance. Since "lives" is plural, then "are" should be the corresponding verb, one might argue. On the other hand, something seems intuitively amiss about that choice. Perhaps "what IS lurking underneath (IS) our lives is causing confusion for me, as I try to sort this out (I think "what" is being used as a singular pronoun. Or is it? Maybe it's being used as a determiner.) Maybe "our lives" is one singular concept that should match to a singular verb. I'm going down a rabbit hole here and can't seem to get out. Help! Any assistance is appreciated!

Confusing examples that I've considered (that aren't helping) - What time ARE we going? What time IS it? (What is determining the verbs "are" and "is" in the above examples?!) Please help before I go insane!

How would you describe a situation where you can only stop something by doing it first?

Posted: 15 May 2021 10:03 AM PDT

I'd like to know what this situation is called.

The gist is the only way you can stop something is by doing it first.

A real world example is a MS Windows feature called sticky keys. You can turn on sticky keys by pressing the shift key 5 times in quick succession. It will then make a beep. Every time the shift key is pressed another beep will occur.

Now someone says that the beep from pressing the shift key must stop (no speaker control) but the shift key must still be usable.

The only way to turn off sticky keys is to press the shift key 5 times in quick succession resulting in further beeps. The 6th press will not produce a beep.

Anyway, hope that makes sense.

I don't believe this is a catch 22 but correct me if I'm wrong.

Word order in a negative imperative sentence

Posted: 15 May 2021 03:02 AM PDT

The following are imperative sentences with subjects not omitted. (Emphasis on verbs.)

  • Everybody look!
  • Nobody move!
  • John sit down; the rest of you go home.
  • Somebody answer the phone!
  • You keep out of this!

These are negative imperatives:

  • Don'tV youS worry.
  • It's a surprise party so don'tV anybodyS mention it to Jim.
  • You allS, don'tV move!
  • YouS, don'tV move!
  • Don'tV youS move!
  • JohnS, don'tV speak!
  • Don'tV JohnS speak! (← not works)

In a negative imperative sentence having an explicit subject, when does the verb precede the subject, and when does it not? By "when," I mean it in terms of grammar and meaning ⸺ What kind of subjects can be used in the "Don't (subject)―" construction, and what kind of subjects in the "(subject) don't―"? And how would the order affect the overall tone of the sentence?

Do I include "that" or leave it out when used adjacent to "whatever, whereever, etc." such as in the following example?

Posted: 15 May 2021 02:01 AM PDT

"Advantages of whatever THAT happens always outweigh the costs"

Grammarly underlines THAT as red to leave it out. I know that when I say "whatever happens, I will be there for you" there is no need for "that. But when I use it after "of" I feel like a "that" is called for.

If you agree or not could you please ascertain why or when one uses "that" with "whatever, whenever,etc" if ever..

Thank you

"base documents" vs. "basic documents" for commonly referenced sources

Posted: 15 May 2021 07:03 AM PDT

As a non-native speaker, I might be mislead here. I tend to prefer base documents because I think base is a better word for something used as a foundation - and basic might translate to simple. However, when searching for both terms, it appears they are used almost interchangeably, and I have a hard time finding out if one of the two is preferred, or maybe just regionally preferred (AE vs BE or the like).

The exact context is a good term for documents like standards or laws used as references or sources for technical specifications. The term references doesn't seem to be exactly right, because a reference can be anything, and a base/basic document might be a better hint towards the fact that the documents are referenced similar to a tree structure, i.e. the specifications cite a standard, and never the other way round.

"The place I was born" vs. "The place I was born in"

Posted: 15 May 2021 06:52 AM PDT

This is the place where I was born. [1]

I can omit where & keep the antecedent place :

This is the place I was born. [1a]

I can omit the antecedent place and keep the relative word where :

This is where I was born. [1b]

I can replace where with "preposition + which" :

This is the place in which I was born. [2]

I can place the preposition at the end :

This is the place which I was born in. [2a]

I can omit which from this sentence :

This is the place I was born in. [2b]

Do both the sentences, [1a] and [2b], sound good?

"Welcome" or "Welcomed" in British English or American [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 01:17 AM PDT

I thought about telling someone "You're most welcome, and accepted." Should I have said most welcomed instead of welcome?

"unaltered by" vs "unaltered in terms of" [closed]

Posted: 15 May 2021 04:02 AM PDT

Is it right to say that the tools are unaltered by typology ?

or is it better to say that tools are unaltered in terms of typology" ?

A colon or a comma in alternative questions

Posted: 15 May 2021 09:05 AM PDT

Which punctuation mark should be used before the second part of the alternative question? Should it be a colon or a comma?

Eg: What do you like best: pears or apples? or What do you like best, pears or apples?

Which of these two question has the correct punctuation?

All grammar manuals I looked through say nothing about using a colon in alternative questions.
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