Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

How can I highlight the significance the last item in my list of examples?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 10:28 AM PDT

I am in the middle of writing a paper, and I want to highlight the importance of "learning" in the following sentence.

Nowadays, we use our mobile phones for different purposes: communicating with friends and relatives, transportation, shopping, and learning.

Is there any way to attract readers' attention to learning in this list of examples?

To be honest, I was thinking about says "and more prominently learning", or something like that but then I think that the most prominent application of mobile phones is for communication. Any suggestions for me? Thank you

Allow higher values “for” (vs “than”) entry counts

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 09:55 AM PDT

I got question reading a journal...

Studies have shown that occupancy count can be used to complement entry counts and allow higher values for such entry counts.

I'm so confused of the phrase I marked above. Does the 'for' in the phrase mean 'than', so it means that 'occupancy count values are higher than entry counts'? Or it just mean that 'the occupancy value enables entry counts to have higher values'?

cf) entry count: number of aircraft entering an airspace in one hour.

occupancy count: number of aircraft within an airspace in 5 minutes. (=number of aircraft on the frequency in 5 minutes (e.g. 20 aircraft at the same time)). An aircraft is considered to be on the frequency from the time at the airspace entry point until it reaches the exit point.

Proper term for colloquial Manglish "open order"

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 09:09 AM PDT

In Malaysia, there is a colloquial phrase in Manglish called "open order", which often used when a seller opens a list of slots for buyers to place in order to purchase the former's merchandises, most commonly home-made food or grocery items, which will be delivered directly to the buyers at a specific time slot.

Unlike the other type of online ordering activity where only the buyer and the seller have the knowledge of the order between them, in an "open order", the order is open for people to view and add their purchase requests to the list, although such people are commonly restricted to groups of people who know each other such as members of group messaging Whatsapp or Telegram. This "open order" activity, however, is not new and has been around for as long as I can remember in my teenage years (more than 20 years ago) when such a list was written on a piece of paper and passed around among my boarding school dormmates to purchase burgers for supper.

Searching online for "open order" returns results that touch on investment trading so I'm wondering if it is a misuse of that phrase to refer to the scenario that I elaborated above. If so, what would be the proper English term for it, if any?

N.B.: the order being open for other people to view the list of participants is a key characteristic of an "open order" where sellers specifically desire the publicity that comes from the participations. Potential buyers will also have, for the lack of better words, the "peer factor" from looking at the other buyers joining the list.

'the numbers of A and of B' or 'the number of A and of B'? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 07:17 AM PDT

I want to abbreviate 'the number of A and the number of B'.

(e.g. A is 'bananas' and B is 'apples'.)

Which one is correct?

  1. The numbers of A and of B
  2. The number of A and of B

Please help!

Cook the vs cooked the

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 10:06 AM PDT

How are they different in pronunciation? In other words, how can one recognise the difference purely by sound?

taking discretion a bit too far [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 06:32 AM PDT

What does "that is taking discretion a bit too far" mean?

For example in this sentence:

She told me the truth after a year or so.Isn't that taking discretion a bit too far.

Does it mean being extremely cautious? When and where it is supposed to be used?

Should it be 'Key to this is' or 'Key to this are'? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 04:20 AM PDT

In the second sentence below, should it be 'Key to this is' or 'Key to this are'? I believe it should be is but English rules suggest it should be are.

Complying with these principles equips organisations with the ability to make the most of their information. Key to this is modern technology, cloud computing, and data.

Which one is correct, wear or have worn? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 03:06 AM PDT

I usually _____ a blouse and jeans at home, but today I have put on a new dress

Should the blank be wear or have worn?

When is a person deemed to have graduated? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 04:59 AM PDT

I was under the impression that in British English, a person is deemed to have graduated the moment the diploma/degree is conferred to him, i.e. during his graduating ceremony, and not when he receives his final results. During the time between him acquiring his final results and his graduating ceremony, that person is considered to be a graduand.

However, I have been hearing a lot of people who have gotten their final results, but have not yet had their graduating ceremony, describe themselves as "graduates". I looked at the dictionary definitions and was given the following, which seems to prove me wrong:

  • graduate (noun) - a person who has successfully completed a course of study or training, especially a person who has been awarded an undergraduate or first academic degree.

  • graduate (verb) - successfully complete an academic degree, course of training, or (in North America) high school.

  • graduand: one about to graduate; a candidate for a degree

In the first two entries, I am taking "successfully completed" as covering both a person who has passed his exams (got his results but has not been awarded the degree yet) / a graduand, as well as somebody who has the actual degree conferred to him during a graduation ceremony.

Can anyone please kindly confirm whether " to graduate" covers both the act of passing all exams and to go through the graduation ceremony, both in terms of the actual dictionary definition as well as modern day usage?

There were a king with a large jaw... or There was? [migrated]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 12:22 AM PDT

I am reading the novel 'A tale of two cities'. In the novel, the sentence goes like this: There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face. My question is why there were is used here. Shouldn't it be there was? Thank you.

Why 'We'll be landing' and not we'll land'? [duplicate]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 07:26 AM PDT

Good morning, in this sentence:

Ladies and gentlemen we'll be landing in New York, JFK, in about 20 minutes...

Why not "we'll land"? - Why in general the future progressive instead of the simple one?

Does a noun phrase used as an adjective require a hyphen? [duplicate]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:43 PM PDT

I've got this phrase: On a crisp, hot-chocolate afternoon. I'm not sure if hot chocolate requires a hyphen. It would add clarity (a hot-chocolate afternoon, as opposed to a hot and chocolate afternoon) in this case, and I don't think it's grammatically unacceptable to use a hyphen, so I probably will use one, but I am curious about the general case. Is it required to use a hyphen when using a noun phrase as an adjective?

How does "_ and I"/"_ and me" rule change when inside brackets?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 03:35 AM PDT

This question was specifically motivated by the Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iitXhgif_lo which has the title "How one little boat (and me) held up miles of London traffic".

At first, knowing that, without the brackets (i.e: "How one little boat and me held up miles of London traffic") the use of "and me" would be a mistake and you should use "and I" because the pronoun is still part of the subject of the sentence, I thought the use in this title was also a mistake.

However, I then checked the sentence against Microsoft Word's grammar checker and Grammarly, and I found that, while without the brackets, the error was detected, with the brackets, no errors were found (obviously grammar-checking software is never foolproof, but I find it usually works quite well in simple cases such as this).

After thinking about it more, the part is brackets is not really a part of the main sentence, and so I guess the "me"/"I" is not actually doing the verb, but it still sounds odd to me.

Both Grammarly and Word also seem to accept "(and I)" as well, so I wondered, is one of them more correct? Is there a difference in meaning between the two? Are Word and Grammarly completely wrong?

Do any authorities on the American English lexicon report that it is rude to say "damn it"? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 09:26 AM PDT

When used as an expletive:

"Damn it, I love ice cream."

Is it rude to write it or say it in the USA?

What is the word for cute/juvenile features? [closed]

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 08:05 AM PDT

I'm struggling to find the word on google or reverse lookup that has to do with cute features, such as small arms, big eyes, basically the juvenile look nearly every animal has that elicits a care response in adults.

It might sound something like neurism or eural, it's on the tip of my tongue.

Edit for mods that closed this for off topic: needed it for a poem where the sound of the word actually is important.

Do I need to use a comma before "but" in these examples?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 08:03 AM PDT

  1. Pull you in, but don't you get too close
  2. Love you now, but not tomorrow
  3. Wrong to steal, but not to borrow
  4. Pull you in, but don't you get too close

Hours or the hours?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 09:06 AM PDT

I would like to ask a question. Which sentence is correct?

Yes, we can change hours Or Yes, we can change the hours

Is only one answer correct or both are depending on the context?

genitive pronoun vs. possessive pronoun

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 12:06 AM PDT

Is there any difference in English between:

His books

The books of him

?

It would seem not. For example:

Bob read his books.
could mean: "Bob read his [own] books." or "Bob read [some other male's] books."

Bob read the books of him.
would seem this couldn't mean: "Bob read his own books.", but only that "Bob read [some other male's] books."

This is reminiscent of Latin's difference between suus (possessive adjective: its/his/hers) and eius (genitive pronoun: of it / of his / of her).

Bob legit libros suos.
could only mean he read his own books

Bob legit libros eius.
could only mean he read someone else's books

single word or phrase when one of the department manager tries "blur the lines of responsibility"

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:10 PM PDT

While in an organization when a department works only for their objective rather than organization as whole, it can be generally called as silo mentality (with Negative connotation).

However what would be single word or phrase when one of the department manager tries blur the lines of responsibility between departments. i.e. does other work for them with/without their consent (usually with intention of brownosing other frivolous/ slacker but apparently powerful managers) such that their staff remain free of work.

As opposed to silo mentality the word or phrase would be "Responsibility blurring mentality". But is their any in actual usage.

Why can't we say "sign in into"?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 03:02 AM PDT

When it comes to the sentence Sign in to your account, I understand why it is more proper to say sign in to as opposed to sign into. Sign in is a phrasal verb and to is the preposition.

However, I cannot find the proper explanation as to why it's improper to say sign in into your account.

My partner and I are both engineers, so his argument is that when you sign in, you are in fact going INTO an account. This just does not sit right with me, but I cannot put into words why.

Also, would the sentence Sign in to mywebsite change anything? Sign into mywebsite? Sign in into mywebsite?

Would do that or would have done it?

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 04:08 AM PDT

Is there a situation in which following sentence is correct?

"You could have mentioned you would do that"

If so, then in which context is it right? I mean, if the sentence is started by "could have" then the next part should contain "have" after "would" in this case? Is this a rule or does it all depend on the situation in which you're using it? And if so, please present me the right context.

Does extraposition work in "I made happy my friend who..."?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:08 PM PDT

Can we use extraposition rule in the situations like below?

"I made my friend who came here last week happy"

Can it be like this?

"I made happy my friend who came here last week"

The reason being

Posted: 10 Aug 2021 02:31 AM PDT

  1. The beaches are empty these days, the reason being that people are increasingly worried about high levels of UV radiation.

  2. The beaches are empty these days. The reason being is that people are increasingly worried about high levels of UV radiation.

  3. The beaches are empty these days. The reason is that people are increasingly worried about high levels of UV radiation.

I have 2 questions. Firstly, is example 2 correct as some native speakers claim. Secondly, is 'the reason being' always part of a non-finite participle clause as it is in example 1?

Why does 'swings and roundabouts' mean 'gains and losses that offset each other'?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:05 PM PDT

I know "swings and roundabouts" means "gains and losses that offset each other", but I can't understand. Any story behind this?

Does "staff" take a plural verb?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:25 PM PDT

Which one of these two statements is correct?

Our staff do ...

Our staff does ...

And is staffs ever correct?
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