Thursday, August 12, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

What is the word for base-64?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 09:46 AM PDT

The base-2 numbering system is called binary.

The base-8 numbering system is called octal.

The base-10 numbering system is called decimal.

The base-16 numbering system is called hexadecimal.

How should the base-64 numbering system be called?

(A word of Latin origin like the above would be nice.)

When to use only Past Participle with by (something like this: past participle + by + noun ) in ACTIVE VOICE?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 09:50 AM PDT

  1. The number of car trips made by Ravi increased.

  2. The number of car trips were made by Ravi increased.

Q1. According to me, my first sentence is in Active Voice-Simple Past. Am I right?

Q2. I know that the second sentence is wrong due to were, but I am don't know when to include were in such kind of sentence. How to handle such kinds of statements Please, help me.

Q3. Are there any other ways to write the same statement (first)? If possible give examples.

Thanks, for your response.

"Comprehend" vs "Interpret" vs "Understand"

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 09:41 AM PDT

What is the difference between "Comprehend", "Interpret", and "Understand"?

Ods-plutra-nailes

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT

In Archie Armstrong's Banquet of Jests (1641), there's some doggerel about a Welshman. Besides some fantastic evidence of past rhymes (e.g. steale / gaole), there's an expression I'm not sure of. I've transcribed the relevant part.

On a Welchman Arraigned

On a Welchman Arraigned.
A Welchman having broke a house to steale
Some Cheese, is caught: his Worship scornes the Gaole.
Ods-plutra-nailes wil you not take her word?
Her great Gran-father was a Prittish lord.

What does "ods-plutra-nailes" mean? Is it perhaps a euphemized "God's nails", with an infixed expletive? Or am I on the wrong track?

Pragmatic difference between two structures like that vs like it that

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 08:46 AM PDT

Is there any pargamtic difference between the following sentences?

  1. The children like that the clown performs in a circus.
  2. The children like it that the clown performs in a circus.

What's the correct syntax "before puzzled stopping", "before, puzzled, stopping" or "before stopping, puzzled"?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 08:08 AM PDT

Jake felt the officer's hand let go of his arm. He took a few steps forward before puzzled stopping.

This is how I wrote it originally. I'm wondering if it has correct syntax and/or is grammatical. Here's the other options.

Jake felt the officer's hand let go of his arm. He took a few steps forward before, puzzled, stopping.

and

Jake felt the officer's hand let go of his arm. He took a few steps forward before stopping, puzzled.

The first two options are more to my liking, because it for some reason has the order I want. It may simply be an effect of me coincidentally choosing that order first though. There may not really be any experience-wise difference for the reader between having puzzled be the ultimate or penultimate word in the sentence. For some reason though, I feel like it being the second-to-last word builds more suspense and compliments the following shock-factor sentence (he is shortly thereafter bashed in the back of the head). This, however, is leaning in more towards a Writing.SE question, so I'll leave it at that (thinking there may perhaps be a few linguistically defined sentence properties that are shown to build more suspense in the reader).

How to describe for a CV, creating a web application from scratch and leading it to monetization?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 07:52 AM PDT

I came up with something like:

"Founded a web application from stage zero to full successful monetization",

but I guess it doesn't sound right. better ways to describe this in few words?

Does Shakespeare use examples of metonymy in Macbeth act II scene I?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 07:51 AM PDT

A Metonymy is a figure of speech where an object's name is replaced with another name that is closely connected with it. I'm wondering if there are some good examples in Act II Scene 1?

"Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel"(Act I Scene 2, Line 19)

is a great example, as they are not talking about the mineral "steel" but Macbeth's sword.

While I know there are different kinds of metonyms (like "part of a whole", "whole for part", "container for content", "material for object", "products", "places", etc…), I'm not able to find such examples in Act II scene I.

I have found the following devices but I guess they are rather metaphors than examples of metonymy:

"A dagger of the mind, a false creation…"

"That summons thee to heaven or to hell…"

In the following verses I am not sure if they could be examples of metonymy:

"A heavy summons lies like lead upon me"

"Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?"

"Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses"

What examples of metonymy are there in Act II Scene I? Are there any at all here?

Can you use single quotation marks / apostrophes to emphasise words? [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 06:28 AM PDT

I often see people emphasising words. For example: This smartphone is very 'smart'. I was taught in a highschool education website called Education Perfect that apostrophes are only used for possession, contraction, and for quotation within quotation. Never for emphasis, which would normally be bolded or made italic.

But I so often see people using singe quotation marks for emphasis or just when they think it looks better than a double quotation mark. Example: In his article, "It's time to tackle urban sprawl", published on 'The Urban Developer' website, Anthony... blah blah blah

I don't know the validity of Education Perfect so I'd like to ask if the so commonly used quotation mark for emphasis is actually valid? It annoys me to no end when I see high academic work that still do it

"Numbers": mass noun

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 05:34 AM PDT

Garner reads

Although enough modifies either count nouns or mass nouns, enough stamina, sufficient should modify only mass nouns, so the usage problem can be solved by making it sufficient numbers of.

There are exceptions to the general rule: sufficient (or more often insufficient) funds.

Mass noun: Also termed noncount/uncountable noun

Is numbers a mass noun? For the AHD, both numbers and funds are "plural only" nouns.

I lost my bag or I have lost my bag to report loss of bag at police station? [migrated]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 04:48 AM PDT

I learned that we should use present perfect while talking about things which happened in the past but which still hold. However, it sounds weird when I think about using " I have lost my bag" when I tell a police officer about the missing bag. I feel "I lost my bag" is more appropriate. I feel that using present perfect gives an impression that I have come to terms with the loss. Can someone enlighten me on this?

Are "open" and "opened" interchangeable? [duplicate]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 04:34 AM PDT

Are "open" and "opened" interchangeable?

Is it correct to use 'for-else' instead of or else [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 03:05 AM PDT

Is it grammatically correct to use for else instead of using or else?
eg: you have to do something for else you will die.
context: I'm writing a song and using for else will give a more dramatic effect when reciting.

Complete the article. Use a, the or no article (-) [duplicate]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 01:59 AM PDT

Would you like to explain the answer no.11?
I think No.11 need filling with "the" article, because it is the typical music. But the key is no article. I am confused

(s)............ name of the band was changed to The Beatles and it became one of (9)............ most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in (10)............ history of (11)..............popular music. They built their reputation playing clubs in (12)............ Liverpool and (13)..............Hamburg in (14)............ Germany over a three-year period from 1960.

"They are" or "that they are"? [duplicate]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 04:07 AM PDT

It's clear they are honest.

vs.

It's clear that they are honest.

Is there a difference? Is one more correct than the other?

NEGATIVES WITH COMPARATIVES [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 12:54 AM PDT

This listening question is confusing me

(woman): Have you gotten over your cold yet?
(man): I couldn't be feeling any better today.
(narrator): What does the man mean?

a. He's feeling terrific.
b. He felt a lot worse today.
c. He's not feeling too well today.
d. He's a bit better today.

The correct answer is (a) which means that the man feels wonderful today. The sentence "I couldn't be feeling any better today." gives me the opposite meaning, that he can't feel any improvement today.

Can you explain it?

If this sentence means that he feels wonderful, what sentence implies that he can't feel any improvement today?

What's the most appropriate - Futuristic vs Futurist? [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 05:29 AM PDT

What is the best way to describe a new Movement (of artists) as advanced and modern, contemporary, but in a more attractive way?

Which should I use?

  1. Futuristic Art Movement
    or
  2. Futurist Art Movement

I wouldn't say the art is "futuristic" but this movement of people and their approach is advanced. Hence the choice of "futuristic": to describe these people and their advanced approach.

And it should refer to the modern world - and not last century's "futurism".

(By the way, if you have another good way to say it, except for contemporary/advanced/modern/new, etc. Id love to hear. but so far I think "futuristic/futurist" is the most attractive description)

"Hair no more streaked with grey than was becoming" – meaning & grammar [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 04:10 AM PDT

I was reading Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, where on page 191 I found this line:

William began to be aware of his housemaster's wife during his last two terms at St. Paul's. She was a good-looking woman, a little slack around the stomach and hips perhaps, but she carried her splendid bosim well and the luxuriant dark hair piled on top of her head was no more streaked with grey than was becoming.

Now, my problem is with the bold part of the passage. What is the meaning of this comparative sentence? We know that the hair is dark. And we don't know how it was becoming. Is it right to analyze that there was no trace of grey in her hair? Or is it slightly grey?

Please help me analyze the meaning grammatically.

How conservative was Old English about the verbal paradigm(s) of 'to be'?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 06:05 AM PDT

Premise: English has no cognate to the Germanic verb sein "to be" which is known by comparison with other Germanic languages.

Question: Does the relative chronology of the word "sin"](https://www.etymonline.com/word/sin) permit dating it to pre-written times (before ~800AD)? Then could it have lead to the verb being avoided (the noun sin being somewhat taboo)?

English shares most of the paradigm of "to be" with Old Saxon and Frisian, and has innovated are perhaps in tandem with Norse.

In particular, moods like the hypothetical subjunctive may be shunned, especially in the etymologist's domain where the tend not to speculate. All the more, I am surprised to find etymonline concur however tentatively:

sin

[...] probably ultimately "it is true,"

[...] from PIE *snt-ya-, a collective form from *es-ont- "becoming," present participle of root *es- "to be."

Is this use of "sin" as a copula new?

Also, as a side question, when did the dental leave the English word (cp. Ger. Sünde)?

How to mention an uncertain object/thing in English?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 02:03 AM PDT

I want to know how to mention an uncertain object, like X country.

e.g. I want to go to a certain country no matter where it is because I just need to go out right now.

I found a Question on this website. It seems I can use a certain country to infer a country that is not specific or particular but it's just a country in the context.

  1. Is it correct?
  2. Or I should use a country instead?
  3. Or there's no comparable usage in English?

More example in other languages,

In other languages, such as Japanese or Mandarin, we use あの or 某個 to refer to an object that's not a specific one but belongs to the group of the object. That is to say, あの or 某個 often implies the object that the speaker mentioned has specific meanings in the dialogue.

Thanks.

"Since" being used in conditional sentences

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 09:04 AM PDT

I've come across this line in a movie:

Ever since she got her test results back, she'd get mad whenever someone asked her about it.

I've known about how "since" can only be used in present/past perfect tense but in this case, it's a conditional sentence.

Is it true that "since" is usable here? If not, how else should the sentence be rewritten?

Can "what" mean " what role" in this sentence?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 05:02 AM PDT

I'd like to know if "what" could convey the meaning of "what role" in the sentence below as "what role others expect from us" is mentioned.

As a flight attendant, my uniform can imply both what role others expect from me and what I should play

Are both sentences correct? "He is sleeping now." and "He sleeps now."

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 07:32 AM PDT

If so, is there any difference in meaning and the field of use? Can "He sleeps now." be considered grammatically wrong?

A single word for "too expensive" [closed]

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 03:12 AM PDT

I have to decide between software A and B and both of them are $100, but software B is worth less than its asking price. What can I say instead of:

Software B is expensive

Definite Article with Prepositional Phrases

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 02:18 AM PDT

I am trying to learn how to correctly use articles in English. It is a bit hard for me since I do not have this concept in my native language.

I am confused by two rules: the first rule is to use "a" whenever you introduce things, while the second one is to use "the" with prepositional phrases. I am wondering how I can identify when a prepositional phrase makes a noun definite.

For instance, which article shall I use in the next sentence?

I am working on a(the) Web application to assess (the) current performance of traffic companies.

I came up with a(the) solution that was based on my previous experience to solve our current problem.

On one hand, I mention the Web application for the first time. On the other hand, you know what Web application I am talking about (to assess the current performance of traffic companies).

Thanks in advance!

Opened vs open?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 09:10 AM PDT

Is there are rule when to use opened vs open? I always get confused even though I've been speaking English as the dominant language for more than half my life.

E.g.

  • Is the door open(ed)?
  • Which file do you have open(ed) in your editor?

How to interpret the meaning of "I am surprised that..."?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 07:42 AM PDT

When somebody says "I am surprised that...", does it mean to express not only surprise but also some level of disappointment or disapproval?

If somebody uses that expression when speaking with me, I feel somewhat annoyed and guilty. It feels like there is some subtle expression of disapproval and even annoyance on the part of the speaker that they can't openly express.

Would a native speaker of English interpret this expression the way I do? Or would it depend not only on the expression but also on the manner of expressing it?

Why are "batsmen" becoming "batters"?

Posted: 12 Aug 2021 06:30 AM PDT

Flapping my ears near other people's conversations, as I am wont to do, I have noticed that the people we used to call batsmen have (it would seem) turned into batters. Does anyone know why this should be?
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