Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- Word for "someone with no responsibilities assigned to them"?
- Gerund for Curious [closed]
- Are these sentences grammatically correct? Can anyone Polish them up for me? [closed]
- What do you call a person [closed]
- Looking for a list of malapropism by frequency of occurrence [migrated]
- Please is polite but can adding it seem impolite or impatient [closed]
- how to get a good grade at ielts listening? i cannot grasp the correct answer in the dialogue.And is there any forum about ielts test? [closed]
- Is there a word or phrase for Walking slowly while tracing the surrounding with hands?
- You cound't have found better? [closed]
- What is the pronunciation of pre- in predict and prejudice, How do they differ? [migrated]
- When should we use "US" "U.S."? [duplicate]
- How might greedy ever be a synonym of parsimonious?
- Why does the demonym "Canadian" appear irregular? [closed]
- Can 'outgrow' be used to metaphorically mean 'overcome'? [closed]
- A and B + noun or nouns? [closed]
- Can we rebuke something?
- How does a blind person understand a commentary on telly?
- "Something's wrong" vs "Something wrong"
- What do you call someone that gives you an answer to a question that doesn't explain why they dislike something?
- Good daughter penalty?
- Word for the “fakeness” of extravagant places
- What would you call the organization which was issued the certificate?
- Which sentence is correct? Which tense is better to use? [closed]
- Something proved "sound" ultimately, not beneficial...in line with my skills and goals. Is there a word for this?
- Adjectival form for "made out of energy"
- Proper use of ‘case-in-point’ at the start of a statement
- What is the opposite word to “straight man” in comedy?
- "Nice to see you, to see you nice!"
| Word for "someone with no responsibilities assigned to them"? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 11:11 AM PDT ConceptWhat is the word for someone who has no responsibility? I am meaning a situation where someone lacks anything to be responsible for. Adjusting Google/Oxfords' meaning of "responsibility" to try and make the concept more clear: The state or fact of having no duty to deal with anything or of having no control over anyone. Specifically I am looking for an adjective that describes a person. Like responsibility, it should reflect one's duty or state not one's desire. But unlike responsibility it should not imply a moral obligation nor a lack thereof. Example UsageExample sentences using a phrase:
With a made up word "aresponsible":
Antonyms TriedWhile checking Cambridge's Thesaurus for antonyms "be responsible for" gave no results, "be responsible" only gave the word "innocent". Innocent seems to mean a lack of knowledge or a state of being wrongfully accused. Innocent does not convey my idea properly. A lack of responsibilities can be know or not known, and has nothing to do with accusations. Another common suggestion is "irresponsible", from wiktionary.org's antonym list for example, but it comes with the assumption that responsibility is being neglected or there is a lack of ability to handle responsibility. Someone without responsibility could very well be aware and capable of it, but not have any and may never be obligated, expected, or assigned any in the future. This does not mean they are an irresponsible person. I will try to source to the best of my ability: (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/responsible#English 8/13/2021) (https://www.google.com/search?q=responsibility Original Google/Oxfords' definition of responsibility, "The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone." 8/13/2021)  |
| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 10:28 AM PDT I'm looking for a gerund, a noun formed from a verb by adding ing, that can communicate the idea of being curious. It's stupid, so please don't make me explain why I need this. Words like 'understanding,' 'exploring,' and 'collaborating' are insufficient.  |
| Are these sentences grammatically correct? Can anyone Polish them up for me? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 09:23 AM PDT
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| What do you call a person [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 08:44 AM PDT What do you call a person that can simplify complex concepts for others to understand  |
| Looking for a list of malapropism by frequency of occurrence [migrated] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 07:18 AM PDT I am interested in cataloguing the most common malapropisms in current spoken English. Examples would be mistakes like tenet/tenant, pundit/pundint, specific/pacific, etc. Does anyone know of a resource or site that lists these by frequency?  |
| Please is polite but can adding it seem impolite or impatient [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 09:18 AM PDT Example: I send my boss or co-worked the following message without please:
In an effort to be polite, I'll add please:
To me, this can come off as actually being less polite and or impatient. Does anyone agree? Take 3:
I add the thanks on at the end (early) as a way to 'soften' it. Is that better?  |
| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 06:20 AM PDT I think I cannot follow the speed of the dialogue. Or sometimes I think I will be bothered by inrelated sentence. It really wastes the time of listening. Do you have some advice in it？My listening grade is 6.0, and I want to raise it up 7.0. And is there any forum about ielts test? I would like to exchange my ideas with different friends.  |
| Is there a word or phrase for Walking slowly while tracing the surrounding with hands? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 11:08 AM PDT So the scene goes like this, she comes of the dark and is unable to see things at once. So she slowly walks while tracing the surrounding with her hands. Is there a exclusive word for such an act?  |
| You cound't have found better? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 06:09 AM PDT Is a phrase in the title correct? I want to point out to someone that they've found the best possible option.  |
| What is the pronunciation of pre- in predict and prejudice, How do they differ? [migrated] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 07:34 AM PDT I cannot distinguish the pronunciation when they have the same latter. Can you provide the studying material for me?  |
| When should we use "US" "U.S."? [duplicate] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 04:37 AM PDT From my understanding, the dot "." standing behind a word means abbreviation. For example, "e.g." stands for "exempli gratia". So, I think if we want to write the abbreviation for "the United States", we should use "the U.S.". But I saw that some paper using "the US" rather than "the U.S." A quick search in Google Scholar
Could you please explain to me this confusion?  |
| How might greedy ever be a synonym of parsimonious? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 07:32 AM PDT thesaurus.com puts 'avaricious' at the top of its list of synonyms for 'parsimonious', and 'greedy' a little further down. To my mind, an essential sense of parsimony is self-denial. The only way I can imagine 'greedy' as a synonym would be via the idea that lack of generosity to others might be accompanied by self-interest. I think 'stingy' could be used to describe this pair of traits. But surely 'parsimonious' implies frugality in general, and 'greedy' would be more an antonym than a synonym?  |
| Why does the demonym "Canadian" appear irregular? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 11:25 AM PDT In particular - Given that people from America are Americans, why are people from Canada not *Canadans? I'm in search of a historical and etymological answer, addressing questions such as the date and context of the first usage of the demonym, whether there was any variation in the form used initially, brief description (if such is possible) of usage of "-ian" versus "-an".  |
| Can 'outgrow' be used to metaphorically mean 'overcome'? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 03:48 AM PDT I have this gut feeling that 'outgrow' can be used here, but the definitions seem to be completely different. "Growing up without a father has affected many aspects of my life, but I later learnt how to outgrow my weak points. " "Growing up without a father has affected many aspects of my life, but I later learnt how to overcome my weak points. " Thanks.  |
| A and B + noun or nouns? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 01:52 AM PDT As the title, I am not sure of it. For example,
Assuming there is one blue and one red cup. Thanks!  |
| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 02:37 AM PDT I wonder if we can say rebuke something or not? According to the dictionaries, it seems that we can only rebuke someone but not something. I want to say something like "rebuke greed" in a formal text. I am confused. The definition from Oxford Dictionary:
The definition from Cambridge Dictionary:
The definition from Longman Dictionary:
The sentence, I want to use rebuke in:
In case this usage is wrong, could you please introduce me another suitable substitute? Thank you  |
| How does a blind person understand a commentary on telly? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 01:45 AM PDT Good morning, I've just been reading (I've just read) a comment in my linguistics book about grammar and blind persons. The author says "use progressive tense in commentaries because only the speaker knows everything happening"; isn't it a bit strange?  |
| "Something's wrong" vs "Something wrong" Posted: 13 Aug 2021 01:38 AM PDT I need this to provide a warning message in my software. "Something's wrong" seems more appropriate to my ear, but I have seen people using "Something wrong". Are they both correct?  |
| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 06:25 AM PDT So just to give a bit of context, I was talking to one of my friends over text about mechanical keyboard switches and which type of switch colour to get. When I told him to get brown switches because I own a mechanical keyboard with brown switches and they are good and I liked it, he told me that his other friends said not to get brown switches. So being curious to know why they didn't like it, I asked him why his friend thought of not getting brown switches. This is how the conversation went: My friend: My friend told me not to get brown switches. Me: Why? My friend: He said every time people talk about brown switches then they put this emoji 🙄 Me: What is that supposed to mean? My friend: Means they don't like it. What do you call someone when they don't give a reason to why they don't like something but just give something that is irrelevant that doesn't benefit the person trying to understand why they don't like it. Or maybe what kind of answer is that?  |
| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 12:26 AM PDT What is the meaning of "good daughter penalty"? Eg. The impact of "motherhood peanlty" and "good daughter penalty" on gender pay parity is concerning.  |
| Word for the “fakeness” of extravagant places Posted: 13 Aug 2021 11:21 AM PDT When visiting Casinos, Vegas, Hollywood blvd, Dubai etc one is overwhelmed with marketing about how fabulous they are. But once actually there, something feels off. There's nothing specific one can single out to explain this feeling, but it just feels as though the surface-level extravagance is hiding something. Like the brilliance is only skin deep. Like pretty wallpaper covering a rotting wall. Is there a word for this? Dictionary and thesaurus searches only seem to show positive words like "grand" or "extravagant", or negative words that have a sense of obviousness eg "fake", "tacky". These words seem to describe either good or bad. There is no sense of an underlying, hidden, negative aspect. Ideally one could use this word in a sentence like: "Vegas is x", "Vegas has a sense of x", "Vegas makes me feel x". Thanks guys  |
| What would you call the organization which was issued the certificate? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 08:01 AM PDT Let's say I am writing some code which inspects the SSL Certificate issued to some website. There is the issuer which can be, for example, Verisign. What would you call the organization which was issued the certificate? I am looking for a 1-2 word name, such as "Issue-ee" or similar. So essentially I am looking for a way to say "The organization the certificate was issued to".  |
| Which sentence is correct? Which tense is better to use? [closed] Posted: 13 Aug 2021 05:02 AM PDT How to say grammatically correct that I had a problem, but then it's gone when I tried a recommendation:
or
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| Posted: 13 Aug 2021 02:00 AM PDT Although my path to radiology has been somewhat untraditional — I made the transition to nuclear medicine after transferring from radiology and, prior to that, training briefly in ophthalmology — my career decisions proved "enlightening" ultimately. I am trying to make the point that my decision proved "sound" ultimately or "correct for me" ultimately or "in line with my eventual interests, skills etc." I just seem unable to come up with the nuanced word for this sentence.  |
| Adjectival form for "made out of energy" Posted: 13 Aug 2021 04:02 AM PDT I need an adjective that can be made to describe the quality of a structure being made out energy. The term "energetic" I find mainly defined as something that is "abundant in energy", while the way I need to use it would describe even the state when the structure has little energy. Until now, I've been using the term "energetical", but it doesn't seem exist in the common use. Actual example: esoteric human sciences describe the human being as made out of several bodies - the physical body being merely the end product, the grossest manifestation of the condensation of energy. They describe more subtle bodies, amongst which exists the body made out of energy, with its specific anatomy (chakras - energy force centres, nadis (meridians) - subtle energy channels). I am prone to "create" the word 'energetical', since language is a living entity which is meant to evolve according to the needs - but first want to seek others' council in case an established solution already exists.  |
| Proper use of ‘case-in-point’ at the start of a statement Posted: 13 Aug 2021 07:03 AM PDT I'm writing an essay on globalisation and writing a point on how service jobs are harder to outsource, as compared to manufacturing jobs. At the end of my argument, is it grammatically correct to write Case in point: You can't serve your customer in XYZ mall from China. (I substitute XYZ mall with the name of an actual mall in the area of context) Is this usage correct? I'm trying to use case in point in a mildly sarcastic or humorous way. Thanks in advance.  |
| What is the opposite word to “straight man” in comedy? Posted: 13 Aug 2021 01:34 AM PDT The New York times (February 10) article titled, "Panic in the locker room!" written by co-ed columnist Frank Bruni begins with the following sentence:
To be honest, I didn't know "straight man" has another meaning related with sexual orientation until I was told by members now. But let's forget about that usage. According to CED, the straight man is the more serious of the two men in a comedy act, who is often made to look stupid by his partner. Merriam-Webster English Dictionary defines "straight man" a member of a comedy team who says things that allow a partner to make jokes." We have a Japanese word, "ぼけ役- boke-yaku" meaning "bonehead's role" for "straight man," and "突っ込み役- tsukkomi-yaku" meaning "offence role" for the partner who gives a spicy joke / repartee in turn in popular popular "Manzai" – two-man comedy, or sometimes even in daily conversation. What is the English word for the counter role of "straight man" as an English translation of "突っ込み-tsukkomi-yaku"?  |
| "Nice to see you, to see you nice!" Posted: 13 Aug 2021 11:15 AM PDT Look at this famous phrase used by a British talkshow host when saying goodbye to his audience:
Nobody in the UK (including my grandmother who was a frequent viewer) seemed to think it sounded strange... I think it's grammatically acceptable - due to some missing but understood elements of the sentence. Can you have a go at estimating what they may be?  |
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