Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

" do as I told you" VS " do what I told you (to do)"

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:19 AM PDT

  1. Do as I told you.
  2. Do what I told you to do.
  3. Do what I told you.

All the above sentences seem to tell the same meaning. (1) is commonly used with no problem; Both (2) and (3) were heard or seen previously,but one of them (content clauses) seems incorrect.

Not everything is about you

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:47 AM PDT

What does it actually mean when people say "Not everything is about you." when they use it?

Can you use "partake" without any preposition following it?

Posted: 18 May 2021 09:58 AM PDT

Can you use the word "partake" without a preposition following it? Here's the sentence (slightly modified) that I've been grappling with:

The company's product line is expected to generate billions in economic impact by 2024, and there's a huge opportunity for developers to partake.

I did find one example online ("For those who partake, have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day.") but didn't think it answered my question. What I want to know is, is it grammatical to use "partake" without a preposition in the sentence I posted? I think it sounds wrong, but I need to know if, in fact, the word requires a preposition (for proper English)?

(Not) do subtle

Posted: 18 May 2021 09:10 AM PDT

DO1 (v.tr.) 1c. To perform the tasks or behaviors typically associated with (something), especially as part of one's character or normal duties: That talk show host just doesn't do subtle.

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=do

Is subtle an adverb here? Or rather do is a copulative verb?

Tautology of modifier

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:32 AM PDT

Could surprising action be an example of tautology? Surprising is the action and action is modified by surprising which means the same with action.

I mean, can I say 'surprising action must be avoided' instead of 'surprising must be avoided'

What does "Dibs on his wings" mean?

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:24 AM PDT

When I watched "how I met your mother" season 5 ep15, Robin said: "Dibs on his wings" when she saw Barney was on TV, showed his phone number for any girl to call if that woman wanted to sleep with him. What does Robin mean when she said that?

PS: Is there any mistake in my grammar?

Attachment of importance to an old rivalry by the "losing" side

Posted: 18 May 2021 07:13 AM PDT

I am looking for a word that denotes a continuing attachment of importance to an old rivalry by the "losing" side in that rivalry. I think it represents a kind of nostalgia (in disguise) for that rivalry.

Once upon a time two similarly powerful sides were engaged in a serious rivalry. Since then, one side has "won" and has largely moved on, while the other has "lost" but continues to attach much more importance to the rivalry. Here are some examples:

  • The American south compares itself with the north much more often than the other way around.
  • French speakers may more frequently emphasize the importance of their language, whereas English is a much more global language now, and English speakers do not really engage in such comparisons.
  • Russia often continues to view the US as a competing rival whereas the US has largely moved on.

Does the word 'Vinculation' exist?

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:02 AM PDT

My main language is portuguese and I'm stuyding English.

I've searched inside Cambrigde Dictionary and didn't find it. But searching for the word itself, I find texts/articles using this word.

- Word used as bond/link synonym. To express the idea of attach something to another.

So I'm here to get help to learn if this is a real word or not.

ps: There is the word in Portuguese/Spanish Vincular / Vinculação.

Use of "would" to depict uncertain future

Posted: 18 May 2021 09:24 AM PDT

Consider the following scenario:

  1. A clinical trial that was initiated in Jan 2021 is currently recruiting participants.
  2. The estimated enrollment of the trial is 50 participants.
  3. It is not always sure that all the participants will be enrolled in a clinical trial – the study can decide to reduce the number of participants during the study.

In that case, if I have to report the trial information in a report, can I use "the trial would enroll 50 participants" to depict an uncertain future event? Moreover, will the use of "the trial is estimated to enroll 50 participants" depict a higher level of uncertainty than the former?

Given the option, which one would you prefer to depict a situation with all the uncertainties involved in a setting of technical report writing?

Using "to" as a function word to indicate the result of an action or a process

Posted: 18 May 2021 06:45 AM PDT

I encountered a sentence as follows:

To the audience's consternation, the corpse began to speak.

A bit of googling, brought about this result for the definitions of to from Merriam-Webster:

b—used as a function word to indicate the result of an action or a process:

to their surprise, the train left on time

I know the meaning of the sentences but my questions are:

  1. Is the phrase beginning with to (up to comma) a prepositional phrase?
  2. Is it a valid observation to say that the phrase beginning with to (up to comma) is modifying its adjacent noun (like an adjective)?

Even so or Even then?

Posted: 18 May 2021 06:51 AM PDT

"Even so or Even then" Do these two mean the same thing? Or if not, which one is correct?

Statisticians vs. stochasticians?

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:32 AM PDT

A person who does statistics is a statistician. What is a person called who does stochastics (or stochastic modelling)? Searching for "stochastician" yields almost no results (< 1000) compared to 19 million results when searching for "statistician".

How is the prefix ‘trans’ pronounced in Modern RP? [closed]

Posted: 18 May 2021 05:29 AM PDT

How do you pronounce 'trans' in modern RP? Do you pronounce it as 'TRARNS' or 'TRENCE'?

Word order of locations

Posted: 18 May 2021 05:08 AM PDT

Is there a rule in the English language that governs the order of location specificity?

Once my English lecturer stated that in English locations are written from the smallest level up to the highest. This would make these correct:

Magenta street, Rome, Italy

Institute of Biosciences, Life Sciences Centre, Vilnius University

And not these (or any other permutation):

Italy, Rome, Magenta street

Vilnius University, Life Sciences Centre, Institute of Biosciences

I have looked at several links, but there are no explicitly stated sources or any references to rules of the language. These are the following:

But why finest to coarsest, and not coarsest to finest? If it is a rule, I would like to see some links or references, so I could cite it while proofreading texts.

What is the correct sentence? [closed]

Posted: 18 May 2021 04:30 AM PDT

1)Is there any way to check whether my letter has been received?

2)Is there any way to check whether my letter was received?

3)Is there any way to check if my letter was received?

I sent a letter a few moths ago. Now I want to ask them whether they received it or not.

With "being" vs without "being"

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:30 AM PDT

Here are two sentences:

  1. The training examples get labels 1 or 0 based on the tactics being useful or not for the proof state.
  2. We take the inspiration from the paper and implement an online version capable of incremental optimization.

My English teacher told me that for the first sentence, either "tactics being useful or not" or "tactics which are useful or not" is fine. However, "tactics useful or not" is awkward in her opinion.

For the second one, she said we could use "an online version capable of incremental optimization" instead of "an online version which is capable of incremental optimization".

Why in the first case, we cannot ignore "which is" or "being"?

Words that means A is intractable to solve using B

Posted: 18 May 2021 07:26 AM PDT

I would like to ask for a way to say that something is very difficult to solve using something else. I think it may be understandable to say, for example, the malady A is intractable to the treatment B. However, I feel it's not correct somehow. Could you please help me on this?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Why does ou change to o when adding the suffix -ous in words such as ‘humorous’?

Posted: 18 May 2021 08:03 AM PDT

Background

I realised today that humour when made an adjective by adding the suffix -ous, loses its -ou- spelling to -o-. There are some other words which have a change in spelling, such as miracle → miraculous (presumably from Latin influence (mīrāculum), or mischief → mischievous (probably to represent the change from unvoiced to voiced pronunciation between vowels). But there is no change in pronunciation to argue the case for a change in spelling in the word humorous, as noted in the Oxford Dictionary:

humour
Pronunciation /ˈhjuːmə/

humorous
Pronunciation /ˈhjuːm(ə)rəs/

Yes, the schwa is bracketed, but the schwa is a weak vowel in any case, and it is in both cases on an unstressed syllable; one would expect it to (have the option of) be(ing) lost when concatenated with suffixes and/or words. The dictionary further comments that:

Usage
Note that although humor is the American spelling of humour, humorous is not an American form. This word is spelled the same way in both British and American English, and the spelling humourous is regarded as an error

Here is a list of some examples:

  1. With schwa omittable:
    1. dolour, dolorous – /ˈdɒlə/ → /ˈdɒl(ə)rəs/
    2. flavour, flavorous – /ˈfleɪvə/ → /ˈfleɪv(ə)rəs/
    3. humour, humorous – /ˈhjuːmə/ → /ˈhjuːm(ə)rə
    4. rancour, rancorous – /ˈraŋkə/ → /ˈraŋk(ə)rəs/s/
    5. odour, odorous – /ˈəʊdə/ → /ˈəʊd(ə)rəs/
    6. rigour, rigorous – /ˈrɪɡə/ → /ˈrɪɡ(ə)rəs/
    7. savour, savorous – /ˈseɪvə/ → /ˈseɪv(ə)rəs/
    8. vigour, vigorous – /ˈvɪɡə/ → /ˈvɪɡ(ə)rəs/
  2. With schwa non-omittable:
    1. clamour, clamorous – /ˈklamə/ → /ˈklamərəs/
    2. clangour, clangorous – /ˈklaŋɡə/ → /ˈklaŋɡərəs/
    3. glamour → glamorous – /ˈɡlamə/ → /ˈɡlamərəs/
    4. tumour, tumorous – /ˈtjuːmə/ → /ˈtjuːmərəs/
    5. valour, valorous – /ˈvalə/ → /ˈvalərəs/
    6. vapour, vaporous – /ˈveɪpə/ → /ˈveɪpərəs/

Questions

My main question is:
Why isn't the -ou- spelling preserved when adding -ous to humour and similar words?

From this follows some sub-questions:

  1. Is this in some way a rule in British English when adding specific suffixes? (Talking about spelling rules in English is a challenge, I know.)
  2. Are there etymological reasons for this, or perhaps etymological fallacies?
  3. And finally, why is it that the schwa is optional for some of these words, but not all? (My suspicion is that it simply is an error by the editors, but I look forward to learning whether there is a method behind the madness.)

Finally, my question is regarding contemporary English, not older variants, such as with e.g. 'behavioral' (q.v. the comments).

Notes

These questions are tangential:

  1. Root pronunciation change when adding suffix
  2. How come 'ou' was reduced to 'o' in the US?
  3. "ou" versus "o" in spelling words like "color"/"colour"

There's no dessert like this vs. There's no such dessert as this

Posted: 18 May 2021 09:24 AM PDT

I was wondering if the following statements mean the same.

  • There's no dessert like this.

  • There's no such dessert as this.

It seems obvious to me that the second one could mean something like: There's no such thing as this in the world of desserts or I've never seen it in the world of desserts.

The first one, however, sounds ambiguous to me because it could not only mean the same as the other, but also mean like: This is the best dessert I've ever enjoyed.

I know "like" implies comparison. Does the first sentence sound ambiguous to you too or does it only have one meaning?

What is the term for a special service a firm provides to secure a sale?

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:34 AM PDT

Is there a standard word to describe something a seller does to secure a sale, particularly an add-on service or package? Like when a car dealer adds a package for new wheels or detailing or a dedicated service support line as encouragement to close soon. A "closer"? "Sweetener"? "White glove"? Value-added service?

Does the idiom/phrase "place is your swamp" exist or is it worded differently?

Posted: 18 May 2021 04:04 AM PDT

So I was talking a bit with a person and a joke came up about collecting treasure in the desert and how there's only sand, and so I stated "I mean, if your into collecting sand then the desert is your swamp."

If I were to say what this phrase means, then I'd define it as "a place where you belong due to its affinity to your liking and your requirements" or more specifically "a place where you would like to be because it has what you need.")

And he was so confused by this, so I looked it up and could not find anything. Is this an actual phrase people use or is there a different phrase that basically has the same meaning in a sentence but is worded differently?

That aside, any other information regarding this phrase/idiom, any tips regarding the way I wrote or anything I did wrong are much appreciated, thank you for your help.

How to describe two numbers are different and has difference of 2?

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:49 AM PDT

For example, I want to describe that 2 and 4 has a difference of 2. Is this a correct sentence? What about "2 and 3 is different by 2"?

One word to describe 'living in the moment'?

Posted: 18 May 2021 06:33 AM PDT

Title says it all - I am looking for a single word to describe 'living in the moment' or 'appreciating the now'. Something similar to 'Carpe Diem'.

I've used a thesaurus, but only can find multiple word answers.

A simple sample of how I would like to use it:

"Enjoy your life through _________"

Less "aggressive" synonym for "left the company"

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:34 AM PDT

I am looking for a single word that you would use when someone has left a company. This can be because the person quit, they are fired, retired,...
I was thinking about Discharged but that seems like it only means fired. I thought of other words like Out of service but that just feels like it's a machine.
Is there a single word that I can use to describe this status?

I really need it to be a single word.  I want to use it like a kind of "stamp" to add over the person's profile picture in our intranet.

Word for not just taking credit for someone else's work, but believing that you're also the hero

Posted: 18 May 2021 06:07 AM PDT

So, there's taking credit for someone else's work, and then there's a kind of credit taking that is merged with ego in certain way, and I'm trying to find out if there's a word for this.

It's when, say, a team of people do 99% of the work to get something done. Then someone else comes along, drops the last 1% in to make everything fit together, yet the person who only contributed the 1% walks away convinced that without them nothing would have been accomplished. It's the ego that you not only took credit, but believe that you swept in at the last minute, like a hero, and miraculously saved the day. However, the reality is closer to being in the right place at the right time, but if you hadn't shown up that last 1% still would have fallen into place, it just would have been someone else.

So ... is there a word for that specific kind of credit taking, combined with the ego that makes one believe they were the hero?

Alternative phrase/word for 'Up to this point'

Posted: 18 May 2021 06:29 AM PDT

I'm looking for a way to rephrase the following sentence:

Up to this point, Rosemary's 'maternal instinct' had remained dormant.

The phrase I'm looking to replace is: Up to this point

Where does the basketball term 'dagger' originate from?

Posted: 18 May 2021 10:09 AM PDT

Today someone made a comment on the Warriors NBA basketball team, specifically talking about Curry, talking in light about his "daggers". Specifically, they said, "When Curry shoots those 48% daggers, it's hard to not curse him under your breath." Curious about the definition, I looked it up.

The meaning of dagger, in basketball lingo is:

  • a made shot in a pivotal part of the game, a shot that silences the a rowdy crowd or puts the team ahead in the closing moments of a game

My question is, what was the earliest usage of this term? I can't seem to find any information online on where the term has started, and I'd love to understand the history behind the term dagger.

"Authorization" vs "Authorisation" - I'm in some real dilemma [closed]

Posted: 18 May 2021 09:59 AM PDT

I'm writing a professional business-related project summary, whereby half of the clientele is in the U.S while the other half of the same business is in the U.K. - and I don't want to disappoint either.

Question is - what shall I use between "Authorization" and "Authorisation" that doesn't make me look like I'm suffering from Dyslexia to one of the two sides?

How do married gay couples address each other?

Posted: 18 May 2021 05:18 AM PDT

I know that non-married lovers address each other by saying "This is my girlfriend/boyfriend." I know that married couples address each other by calling "my wife/husband".

I also know that gay lovers who are not married (yet?) address each other by saying "my boyfriend" (for gays) and "my girlfriend" (for lesbians).

But if they are married, how do they address each other?

And how do we describe them? I mean if they are gays, are they "husband and husband" or "husband and wife" (one of them acts like the wife)? And if they are lesbians, are they "wife and wife" or "husband and wife" (one of them acts as the husband)?

I know they can be referred to as a gay couple or gay lovers from here, but I couldn't find the answer to address each of the two.
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