Saturday, May 22, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Can you come up with an antanaclasis where the same word is repeated at least three times in a row, each time with a distinct meaning? [closed]

Posted: 22 May 2021 08:48 AM PDT

The sentence should make sense, in the sense it would be reasonable to say or write.

Here is my example, uttered by a shoe factory supervisor: How long will the last last last?

Using and before comma when listing things [duplicate]

Posted: 22 May 2021 08:29 AM PDT

I know that comma + and is used when joining to independent clauses, but what about when listing (enumerating) items in text? More vividly, consider two examples below. Which one sounds more natural (and legitimate)?

", and":

Most tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft employ programmers without requiring them to have university degrees.

"and":

Most tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft employ programmers without requiring them to have university degrees.

What is the diffrence between ”You should eat apples." and "You should eat some apples?" [closed]

Posted: 22 May 2021 06:58 AM PDT

What is the diffrence between "You should eat apples." and "You should eat some apples?" I

what is the difference between "reservation" and "advance reservation"?

Posted: 22 May 2021 08:46 AM PDT

Aren't they both have meaning of 'pre'?

I'm Korean and there's same problem in Korean. But there's no clear answer so I came here

please let me know plz

Catenative verbs without "to"

Posted: 22 May 2021 08:07 AM PDT

Here's a well-liked comment under a YouTube video, complimenting the creator:

This man is an absolute joy to watch do literally anything.

Although YouTube likes is not an indicator of grammatical accuracy, it got 600+ likes in 2 hours. The grammar isn't immediately jarring but the consecutive verbs "watch do" stood out to me. I looked up catenative verbs followed by bare infinitives but that wasn't satisfying -- most of the examples refer to a single person, for example

I helped pack her bags.

I can't go watch the movie.

However, in my example, the audience (or at least the commenter) is doing the "watch[ing]", while the YouTuber is "do[ing] literally anything".

Is it or is it not grammatical? Why? If so, how would you make sense of it? If not, how would you rephrase it without changing the meaning?

which form is correct, suggest [closed]

Posted: 22 May 2021 04:29 AM PDT

An average improvement of 10% and 15% has been observed for A and B, respectively. or An average improvement of 10% and 15%% have been observed for A and B, respectively.

"machine" meaning in economics

Posted: 22 May 2021 03:33 AM PDT

The creation of the mortgage bond market, a decade earlier, had extended Wall Street into a place it had never before been: the debts of ordinary Americans. At first the new bond market machine concerned itself with the more solvent half of the American population.-The Big Short by Michael Lewis-

I searched the internet for the meaning of "machine" and wasn't sure if the following is the appropriate one.

... 3. [COUNTABLE NOUN] You can use machine to refer to a large and well-controlled system or organization.

[Collins Dictionary.com ]

Can you tell me what it would mean in this paragraph?

Why is a person with psychological problems called unbalanced?

Posted: 22 May 2021 04:35 AM PDT

A person with psychological problems can be called unbalanced.

Unbalanced

  • 1.1 (of a person) emotionally or mentally disturbed. (The Online Oxford English Dictionary)
  • If you describe someone as unbalanced, you mean that they appear disturbed and upset or they seem to be slightly mad. (The Online Collins Dictionary)

Balance is a motionless state when opposing forces are equal and mutually annihilate each other.

But what is the connection between balance and mental state? What is the analogy? Why do people come to mind to compare a state of mind with a motionless state when opposing forces are equal?

Interestingly, such comparison exists not only in English but also in Russian (неуравновешенный) and French (déséquilibré).

Is there a word for pleasing numbers?

Posted: 21 May 2021 11:57 PM PDT

Similar to how euphonic describes words that sound pleasing, is there a word for numbers that feel pleasing and comfortable? Like 12:34, $20, or 7.17? I ask because it seems to be an important concept in marketing, storytelling, and even culture.

I can think to construct eunumeric, which I find euphonic too, but I've never seen that anywhere. :)

I want to find dictionaries for word forms [closed]

Posted: 21 May 2021 11:13 PM PDT

I takes exams in word forms regularly and it's so hard (an example: lip → bilabial). What dictionaries do you guys suggest? Thank you, i'll greatly appreciate.

Does "rent out" only refer to when the owner offers something for others to pay to use, or also to when the user pays the owner to use something?

Posted: 21 May 2021 11:43 PM PDT

I'm a gen-X native Australian English speaker and am listening to a YouTube video by a millennial native Australian English speaker in which he uses "to rent out" to refer to the person paying for the use of a service or infrastructure.

As a language nerd it sounded wrong to me, but I'm not certain, and checking various online dictionaries hasn't resolved it though some other online forums seemed to have some support both for my feeling, and that both are right. The third possibility is that this is a recent change in English usage in the last 20 to 30 years.

My instinct is that the owner offers it "out" so "out" fits for the owner providing it. But when I thinking about it "out" seems to have some similar usages to "up" in phrasal verbs indicating completeness or totality, in which "rent out" might be similar to "eat up" indicating the person is paying for use of the entire thing, not sharing with other renters.

Since I trust the contributors to this site more than other English forums I'm interested in your expert opinions and insights. Which use/uses is/are correct? Has it always been this way or is it undergoing change?

Here's the exact quote from the video:

Worldcom didn't build landline cables or cellphone towers, but instead would rent out this infrastructure from other companies.

(Emphasis added by me.)

Stating a proposition correctly [migrated]

Posted: 21 May 2021 05:34 PM PDT

Theorem 1 states that "Under the assumptions H1, H2, H3, ... and H10, it holds that ...".

I want to write a theorem using fewer assumptions (all those included in Theorem 1, without H6). What is the best way to write it?

I thought of "Under the conditions of Theorem 1, except H6, it holds that ...", but I'm not sure if it is acceptable.

Can you give me feedbacks?

Thanks in advance.

Why appear, appearance are spelled with "ea", but apparent, apparently are spelled with "a"? [closed]

Posted: 22 May 2021 01:44 AM PDT

For the word appear, the verb and noun are spelled with "ea", but the adverb and adjective are spelled with "a", why do they have different vowels given that they have the same root?

Verb: appear, noun: appearance

While

Adjective: apparent and not appearent?

Using "and" with Paired Adjectives

Posted: 22 May 2021 04:00 AM PDT

I thought the following rule was set in stone: don't use 'and' between a pair of adjectives preceding a noun:

http://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/stonebrink/ESL022/Paired%20Adjectives.htm#:~:text=bag-,Using%20%22and%22%20with%20Paired%20Adjectives,called%20coordinate%20%26%20cumulative%20adjectives

However, someone in the comments on the following question disagrees, saying: it's not a hard rule, it's a matter of style, and here are some examples to back it up.

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/284703/implied-plural-before-vs-implied-singular-after

I thought to get confirmation and a second opinion.

EDIT 1

It can probably be generalized to a list

Is it better to list adjectives, with an "and"?

EDIT 2

Thanks for confirming what @Lambie said. I have to admit that

It involves a technological, theoretical challenge

didn't sound so good, or at least

It involves a technological and theoretical challenge

sounded better (in the first place).

Moreover, the link that I supplied does say in the beginning that there are exceptions such as a black and white shirt.

Is it correct to say 'someone other than they two'?

Posted: 21 May 2021 08:15 PM PDT

Here's the full sentence:

Sarah was upset that someone other than they two knew where the treasure was.

I don't even know how to phrase this question, but the phrase in italic sounds wrong and I don't know what it is that is wrong. I've tried to enter this phrase into Google and noting pops up to kind of direct my research. Is this correct, and if it isn't, what's the best way to rewrite this sentence?

Is "giffy" (meaning airborne salt spray) a real word?

Posted: 21 May 2021 11:06 PM PDT

My mother (from Charleston, South Carolina) uses the word "giffy" (spelling unknown; hard g sound) for airborne salt spray that gets all over cars, windows, and (in extreme cases) power lines when you have a windy day near a body of salt water. [Actually the day doesn't have to be locally windy if you are near the surf, which can put salt spray into the air using the strength of winds far away.] Unfortunately my google-foo was insufficient to prove that this word, with this meaning, actually exists.

Is this term used outside my immediate family, and/or does it have an obvious heritage from better-known terms?

Is this meaning of "bogged down" correct?

Posted: 21 May 2021 09:09 PM PDT

I am reading through a composition with the following sentence:

Children rarely get to spend quality time with their parents as both are bogged down with their own demanding schedules

Dictionary meanings:

Merium Dictionary: to cause (something) to sink in wet ground

Cambridge Dictionary: to be/become so involved in something difficult or complicated that you can not do anything else

But the author gave meaning for bogged down as : having to do several tasks

Is the above meaning completely correct? My understanding is although doing several tasks is important, it is "you can not do anything else" should get more focus.

could you share your thoughts and post it as answer, rather comments? Thanks

Can "downstairs" in the phrase "From the street downstairs" be an adverb?

Posted: 21 May 2021 04:25 PM PDT

Vicki woke. Elizabeth was still sleeping, with her face to the wall. Her hair, flattened in the night, had formed matted curls which reminded Vicki against her will of what can be seen inside vacuum cleaners or the ripped seat of railway carriages. From the street downstairs, out the raised-eyebrow windows, rose a screeching of metal. Vicki slid out from under the pink quilt and went to the window, but the tram had launched itself again and was away, its little flag fluttering.

Does "street downstairs" mean: the rooms on the ground floor in a house. and "street downstairs" is another word for "ground floor"?

Or

Is "downstairs" here as an noun and "From the street downstairs" mean: from the downstairs that is towards street?

Can "downstairs" here be adverb?

Is "arts" (a subject in schools) a singular noun?

Posted: 22 May 2021 09:27 AM PDT

When used as subject, is the word arts considered a singular noun or a plural one?

  1. Art is my favorite class at school this term.
  2. Arts is? my favorite class at school this term.

Why can't we just say we're taking or studying art in school? Why do we ever say arts as though it were plural but then use a singular verb anyway?

Does the answer vary by locality, such as in the United Kindom or Ireland, Australia or New Zealand, the United States or Canada, India or Singapore, or South Africa?

How do I introduce a quoted clause within an independent clause?

Posted: 21 May 2021 04:27 PM PDT

How do we introduce a quoted clause within an independent clause? For example, when talking about why we say, "John passes away or passed away." How do we write it in a sentence?

My sentence starts off as the following:

  1. We normally say "John has passed away or John passed away." Or I should write it as follows?
  2. We normally say, "John has passed away, or John passed away," rather than "John passes away."

Do we use a comma before John, or colon, or do we write it as in sentence #1?

This type of + plural ( reason)

Posted: 22 May 2021 07:08 AM PDT

As we all agree on, types when plural, always comes after "of" a plural noun.. Like types of cars : meaning different classes of cars. My question here is : when I want to address one type of the "types" of cars, why should make "car" not cars to be this type of car, not cars?? Another example : we have different types of students, but this type of students is the hardest to deal with? As here I address one type of "different types " as the prepositional phrase "of students"works as an adjective for types or"type"

Adjective /Adverb modifier

Posted: 22 May 2021 05:05 AM PDT

"The decision affects people at large/in general" what role does the phrase 'at large/in general' perform here? Are they used as adjective modifier of noun 'people ' or adverb modifier of verb 'affects'.Thanks

When should "only" come before a verb phrase?

Posted: 21 May 2021 07:03 PM PDT

I'm really struggling to understand when and how to use "only" as an adverb — and how its use is impacted by verb phrases. The following post on English StackExchange doesn't really clarify it for me: Correct position of "only". I understand that placing "only" in different places modifies the meaning of the sentence, but when should you use the word to modify a verb phrase?

In a Quick and Dirty Tips post, the writer states that the stress can be a deciding factor but that "…it's still better to put 'only' as close to the word or phrase that it modifies…" My confusion arises from the phrase part. For instance:

  1. Gary realized that he was wrong only after he had left.
  2. Gary only realized that he was wrong after he had left. ("Only" before verb phrase)

In other words, Gary thought he was right about something, but realized at a later stage that he was actually wrong.

Which of the two sentences conveys the correct meaning? Can both be correct? English isn't my first language, and this type of construction is really difficult for me to understand.

What is difference between timetable and schedule?

Posted: 21 May 2021 10:22 PM PDT

I'm building an application, that shows schedule/timetable for university students.
I'm confusing, what is the correct word for it: schedule or timetable?
How should I name it?

Here is the result of GitHub search for different queries:

Word for an object that alters the course of your life?

Posted: 22 May 2021 03:06 AM PDT

When learning about people, either through biographic readings or in person, I'm very interested to learn which "object" has had the single greatest effect on them. For example, what has made an indelible mark that changed their life, or "altered the colour of [their] mind", or imputed unto them a goal or a passion they've been chasing ever since. I suppose a person can have more than one of these objects, but we usually have only one for any given context.

These type of objects are usually books or music albums, and I want to know which of them are esteemed in this way, because those are exactly the objects I want to add to my personal collection.

I liked "lodestar" for a bit, but it implies an everlasting guide that one can reliably call upon, or to extend the metaphor, implies something that one still necessarily believes in.

What does "pave the path for" mean? [closed]

Posted: 21 May 2021 05:49 PM PDT

what does "pave the path for sth/sb" actually means? and if possible, please provide some alternatives with the same meaning as well.

Is there a word like cardinal or ordinal but for the “single, double, triple” series?

Posted: 21 May 2021 09:21 PM PDT

The words one, two, three, and so on are the cardinal numbers.

Similarly, first, second, third, and so on are the ordinal numbers.

Is there a similar term for the words single, double, triple, and all the rest?

"__ like so much fine china" phrase

Posted: 22 May 2021 01:20 AM PDT

I sometimes see this kind of usage of "like so much":

Her flawlessly crafted facade hides a real person that's usually breaking like so much fine china in order to keep up the deception.

Similarly:

In staking out the line between poem and prose, [Danielewski] treats our traditional lexis like so much Silly Putty.

Seems kind of archaic / quaint to me. What does it mean exactly?
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