Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- Adverbial adjectives
- What’s a word for the (process of finding) balance between two ends of a spectrum?
- How would I punctuate and space initials with only the first name in Full?
- What does this phrase "in the wonkery of development" means in the sentence? [closed]
- Present Simple vs Present Perfect
- How is “in but few” used in this sentence?
- Does easily mean weakly? [closed]
- Synonym for “Contagious” -- not disease-related [closed]
- what does "back up" mean in this context:
- The word "freeze" to mean stopping motion -- modern or old usage? [closed]
- If an apple is bad and there are 5 apples (of the same type of the apple mentioned before) that are bad, then which of the below sentences is correct? [closed]
- Using the word "hedonistic"
- What licenses the omission of an article in a countable or singular noun phrase?
- Is there a more British way to talk about tackling problems?
- What is the origin of 'riding a gravy train' idiom?
- Which is the correct phrase to use? On the app or to the app
- What should I use instead of "From my Knowledge"
- Past simple and past progressive. Taught vs. was teaching [closed]
- Don't knock it till you try it vs. Don't knock it till you have tried it [closed]
- Word for "to make something productive"
- What is the grammatical topic of this shortening technique?
- Is there a term for "neutral" in the vein of "pros and cons"
- Damage vs Harm in this context
- Using far away for depth [closed]
- Can 'operation' be accepted?
- "Not to want someone doing something." What shade of meaning is attached to using the gerund rather than infinitive?
- Timeseries or Time series? [closed]
- What website will give me the frequency of a word in the English language?
- Is it true that etymology is the leading tool to understand the correct use of words?
| Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:52 AM PDT Continuing from this question about a cloze reading test, in the construction
is there any name for what's going on with the adjectives here, being used effectively adverbially? Also, some of the posts to our question wrote it off as dialectical. Are there any particular dialects more likely to use this construction? or is it colloquial across most varieties of English?  |
| What’s a word for the (process of finding) balance between two ends of a spectrum? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:54 AM PDT I'm looking for a word that fits into "An exploration of the mechanical–organic _______" (in the context of a typeface design). Some words that crossed my mind but didn't fit the bill: Or maybe the phrase above would sound better (and accept a word easier) if rephrased?  |
| How would I punctuate and space initials with only the first name in Full? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:10 AM PDT How would I punctuate and space initials with a first name instead of the first initial? - My exact case is J.P.D. McDermott (congruent fake name). Which of the following is correct?
My intuition tells me that the first one is correct, however, this has just confused me and it does not seem clear what the right version would be. We deliberately want the first name written out in full and not the other two names. If it is of any importance, the name will be printed on a certificate and is likely to be on display. Thanks in advance!  |
| What does this phrase "in the wonkery of development" means in the sentence? [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:43 AM PDT I've read an article and I could't grasp the meaning of this sentence.. "If you're at the ventures you think the foundation is slow, doesn't get it, is mired in the wonkery of development," Can anybody explain to me, especially the phrase in the wonkery of development ?? Full context: The Gates' foundation has made reassuring statements that nothing will change. It will continue with its $50 billion endowment and important range of issues. But because each co-founder has a separate project — Gates Ventures for him, Pivotal Ventures for her — there is anxiety within the foundation that it may no longer be the dynamic center of their work. "If you're at the ventures you think the foundation is slow, doesn't get it, is mired in the wonkery of development," said a former foundation staff member . Thank you first !!  |
| Present Simple vs Present Perfect Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT I watched a video on Youtube on the channel "CineFix" and in that video I heard this phrase:
The usage of Present Simple here is against everything I've heard about this tense I would say:
However, is it possible to use Present Simple in this case, when we use a point or a length of time, like "We are friends for 20 years"?  |
| How is “in but few” used in this sentence? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:20 AM PDT Sentence taken from Tchaikovsky's textbook of Harmony, page 55 (middle of the page)
What confuses me is "in but few cases". Is this sentence indicating: (1.) "The following" are the effectively employable cases? Or (2.) These are the cases where it cannot be effectively employed?  |
| Does easily mean weakly? [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:01 AM PDT It should mean that, both contain the word little and both mean soft or softly  |
| Synonym for “Contagious” -- not disease-related [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:33 AM PDT Synonym for "Contagious" not disease-related Let's use this sample sentence: "With the children, I hope my enthusiasm for learning is contagious". The word does not have to sound super smart, and if a phrase comes to mind, please share it too.  |
| what does "back up" mean in this context: Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:50 AM PDT
I didn't find anything by googling. is it maybe "up toward" that comes together and not "back up"?  |
| The word "freeze" to mean stopping motion -- modern or old usage? [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 06:17 AM PDT I hope people find this an interesting question. One important aspect is the fairly modern (19th century) understanding that heat is motion of molecules -- there was a time when heat was considered a substance and even that cold was and the notion that cold was the absence of heat I don't think was entirely accepted. So from the modern understanding of heat meaning motion, the usage of "freeze" in the context of a cop in a movie telling a suspect not to move makes sense. On the other hand, was molecular motion what people had in mind when "freeze" was used in this way? I guess an equally plausible origin is simply that one of the few machines people even in the fairly distant past had familiarity with, the water pump, would stop moving in freezing weather. It seems too sophisticated for the physics understanding of temperature to have influenced the usage of the word but very interesting indeed if the term only started being associated with suspended motion fairly recently.  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2021 04:11 AM PDT If an apple is bad and there are 5 apples (of the same type of the apple mentioned before) that are bad, then which of the following sentences correctly describes it.
Tks in adv Joe  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:20 AM PDT I was reading an article online and saw this statement:
I am new to the word hedonistic, I Googled it and see this
When I am reading this statement it says boring, hedonistic, and wasteful. I see boring and wasteful gives negative meaning but hedonistic give positive meaning then why hedonistic is combined in between. Is my understanding wrong here?  |
| What licenses the omission of an article in a countable or singular noun phrase? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 03:35 AM PDT Specifically, the term market in the following sentence is often referred to as "the market". But here the article has been omitted. What licenses such usage?
Source: Novus Ordo Seclorum  |
| Is there a more British way to talk about tackling problems? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 05:16 AM PDT I can see that the Cambridge Dictionary is at least aware of the use of tackle meaning "come to grips with a problem" and I can see that the Sunday Times has used it on occasion. It still seems so connected to (American) football that it shouldn't be the most idiomatic way for a Brit to express the idea. Is there any better or more common way to express this idea in British English? or do Brits just use the exact same phrasing but whilst imagining rugby or (field) hockey instead?  |
| What is the origin of 'riding a gravy train' idiom? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 08:21 AM PDT 'Riding a gravy train' idiom means getting a job or other source of income that generates abundant money with little effort. However, what is the origin of this phrase and why it makes sense at all? Is there something about gravy or about trains that may shed some light here?  |
| Which is the correct phrase to use? On the app or to the app Posted: 11 Jul 2021 04:00 AM PDT The context is "What kind of a book can be added on the app/ to the app?" When I typed the sentence "What kind of a book can be added on the app?" on Grammarly it was autocorrected "What kind of a book can be added to the app?"  |
| What should I use instead of "From my Knowledge" Posted: 11 Jul 2021 06:01 AM PDT I'm trying to find a word for a summary about bullying, and speaking up . Since I know how it feels, what should I use instead of "From my Knowledge" According to the article "Stomp out bullying!" by Jennifer Dignan they state,
 |
| Past simple and past progressive. Taught vs. was teaching [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 06:30 AM PDT Can some one explain this to me. This is the sentence in question:
This uses the past simple. I would like to know why, and whether I use past continuous:
 |
| Don't knock it till you try it vs. Don't knock it till you have tried it [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 07:02 AM PDT
vs.
Are there any differences in meaning of these two sentences? The first one is the simple present tense, while the second the present perfect tense? Or, it depends on the context to use one of them? Thank you for the help.  |
| Word for "to make something productive" Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:06 AM PDT I'm looking for a verb that means "to make something productive" or "useful". Example: If someone is wasting their time by doing something that's not productive, I might say "Spend your time [more] productively". In the above sentence, I want to replace "spend productively" with a single word, so the new sentence would be "____ your time" where ___ is the word I'm looking for. Is there a word (verb) that fits the above description?  |
| What is the grammatical topic of this shortening technique? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:20 AM PDT Extracted from an English cloze test:
The answer is 3 because the key said find troubling stands for find it to be troubling, but I don't understand why it stands for that. I want to know what grammatical topic is related to this sentence.  |
| Is there a term for "neutral" in the vein of "pros and cons" Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:05 AM PDT Pros means positive aspects Is there a word to fill that blank?  |
| Damage vs Harm in this context Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:34 AM PDT
In this FCE multiple-choice cloze I need to pick between harm and damage. From the research you can find in the hyperlinked sources, both words can be used metaphorically. However, why does only the latter work? (At least that's what it says in the key)  |
| Using far away for depth [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:16 AM PDT I was filling this cloze test from a book (the bolded words are answers):
Here are the choices for the blank:
I chose underground as the answer because it seems very logical and I don't suppose it will cause a grammatical error; however, the book says the correct answer is away. I can't find any way to relate far away to depth. Are there any? or is the book incorrect? Any help would be highly appreciated.  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:58 AM PDT This is a comprehension cloze question for 11 year olds:
Was told that 'transplant' and 'procedure' can be accepted but 'operation' cannot because patient won't be cut. Is it really so?  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2021 09:10 AM PDT On page 137 of First Certificate Trainer by Peter May (Cambridge Books for Cambridge Exams), the last paragraph in Test 4, Use of English Part 2 (a cloze test on a short text entitled Safe camping), reads:
Why not the structure "(not) to want someone to do something"? Why not "You don't want a hungry bear or other animal to suddenly appear in your tent"? (Or "suddenly to appear in your tent", or "to appear in your tent suddenly"… it is not the place of the adverb I am interested in here.) The structure "(not) to want someone doing something" is found in the Cambridge Dictionary online, with the example sentence "I don't want a load of traffic going past my house all night, waking me up." But no explanation is given as to when one structure should be used, and when the other.  |
| Timeseries or Time series? [closed] Posted: 11 Jul 2021 03:32 AM PDT This might be a simple one, but I'd like to have your opinion/authoritative statements: I write a thesis in a technical modelling context, where a mathematical model operates on a discrete set of timesteps (or time steps?). Paramaters/Variables that are defined over this set are then called timeseries (or time series?). A Google battle yields the one-word expressions as clear victors, but dict.leo.org does only like the two-word expressions. So which one is to be preferred? Or is there even a difference in meaning between both variants? Conclusion: after a temporary confusion from a third option "time-step", I settled for the two word versions for both words.  |
| What website will give me the frequency of a word in the English language? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 06:43 AM PDT Is there a website that will give me a frequency of a word in the English language? I am looking for some thing like this: I would type in the word, and it would give me a frequency rating. I have seen one before that had something like 80,000 words, but I just can't seem to find it anymore. Update: I think the problem with these frequency lists is that they are not accurate enough, because some words are also used as Proper Nouns, and that skews the numbers. For example, the word "bracken" is rarely used in its original meaning "fern", but it is frequently used as a last name. If you take that into consideration, then you can see a more accurate number.  |
| Is it true that etymology is the leading tool to understand the correct use of words? Posted: 11 Jul 2021 04:07 AM PDT In discussions about the meanings of words I often find participants bring up the etymologies as though they are conclusive deciding factors. On the other hand there is concept of the "etymological fallacy" as discussed in Wikipedia.
Which is true? Or is the truth somewhere between? If words change over history how relevant is their origin to their current meaning? If the etymology of a word is a trump card which can settle debates about correct usage of words, does this mean words cannot in fact change over time?  |
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