Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"Fairly" can't be used with comparatives or negatives

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:00 AM PDT

Don't use 'fairly' in front of a comparative form, *the train is fairly quicker than the bus; in more formal writing, you use rather or somewhat.

https://www.wordreference.com/EnglishUsage/fairly

FAIRLY: (not used with a negative) 1. moderately 3. absolutely https://www.wordreference.com/definition/fairly

We don't use pretty in negative sentences: ✳The restaurant wasn't very/so/pretty good, really. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/pretty

What is the reason for this?

I'm trying to figure out which is correct; how old he was or how old was he? [migrated]

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:34 AM PDT

What is the proper way to write, "I asked how old he was" or "I asked how old was he."

Spacing in name abbreviations [duplicate]

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:29 AM PDT

Should the boy's name C.J. be abbreviated this way, as C. J. with a space, or as CJ without periods or spaces? I'm sure this is somewhere in the Chicago Manual of Style, but don't see it mentioned explicitly in 7.66, 8.4, or 10.12 which is where I'd think it would be located.

"The Project X" vs. "Project X"

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:48 AM PDT

Example:

"Please let us know if you're interested in the Project X"

vs.

"Please let us know if you're interested in Project X"

To me, the second sentence sounds better, without "the". Which is correct and why?

Is there a word or phrase for "promises that can't be kept"?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 10:13 AM PDT

I know that renege is a word that could suit in here. But as I understand, 'renege' describes the failure to keep a promise.

But, sometimes, we make promises that we know all too well that it can't be kept for long. Is there any word or a phrase for such promises?.

Historic Pronoun Use - Which / That

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:53 AM PDT

In the King James Version of the New Testament, which translators started work on in 1604 and which was published in 1611, the following appear:

Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. (Matthew 22:21)

In the same sentence, Caesar's things are referred to with the relative pronoun which; God's, with the relative pronoun that.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. (Mark 12:17)

Here, in both cases, that is used.

Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's. (Luke 20:25)

Here, in both cases, which is used.

I can see why either which or that could be used, and have no problem with seeing them used consistently.

What I don't understand is why both appear in the sentence (in Matthew) in which they perform an identical grammatical function. I wondered whether there might be a difference related to verb tense (are/be) but that doesn't seem to work.

Might there be a historical reason for this?

Source: Bible Gateway.

Difference between preterite and past participle?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:53 AM PDT

That a considerable economy has been effected in verb conjugation may be seen chiefly in the invariable negative form ain't, which serves to negate the present tense of both to be and to have:

He ain't there = He isn't there

He ain't been there = He hasn't been there

The preterite of to be takes the invariable form was (I was etc, but also we was etc), though the present tense remains, at present, identical with that of the verb in Bourgeois English (BE). In strong verbs, preterite and past participle are usually the same in form – as in I done it; I ain't done it – though the choice of form from the two available in BE follows a seemingly arbitrary procedure:

I seen it; I've seen it (BE past part.)

I done it; I've done it (BE past part.)

I ate it; I've ate it (BE pret.)

I swum; I've swum (BE past part.)

I forgot; he's forgot (BE pret.)

I wrote; he's wrote (BE pret.)

I fell; it's fell (BE pret.)

I drunk it; I've drunk it (BE past part.)

Considerations of syllabic economy seem to determine the preference for the shorter of the two forms available (wrote, not written; forgot, not forgotten), but there is no ready explanation of seen for saw and done for did in the demotic tradition embodied in Workers' English. It should be noted also that there has never been, in that tradition, any impulse to level strong verbs under weak forms (I eat; I eated etc); the ablaut transformation – as also in certain nouns – is rooted deeply in the language of the workers, and the rational weakening of strong verbs, desirable to the regularizing philologist, would find no acceptance among WE speakers, who would consider such formations as 'childish'.

- 1985 by Anthony Burgess

In these part of the book the author explains the rules in Workers' English and Burgeois English (These are two languages used in an imaginary conutry). In those languages the "government" tries to eliminate as many words as it can for "simplifying and rationalising" english in the country. There are no prior mentions of those languages in the book. The explanations start from here.

The first part I separated with a line is simple. I understand what the author says.

But in the second part I don't understan what does author mean by "choice of form from the two available" (emphasis in text is mine). What are two available choices? Past simple and past participle forms?

On the examples I see that when he uses past participle it is noted as BE past part. (as in I seen it; I've seen it ) and when he uses past simple it is noted as BE pret. (as in I ate it; I've ate it). What I don't understand here is: Are both I ate it and I've ate it in the preterite form (because he has written BE pret. in front of them)? Or what does he mean by BE pret. and BE past part..

What is the origin of the "...on the X" phrase?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 06:31 AM PDT

Example phrases:

  • "...on the regular"
  • "...on the daily"
  • "...on the down low"
  • "...on the DL"

I'm curious whether these have a common origin. (Maybe there are more examples I can't think of right now too.) Thanks!

What is difference between 'glad' and 'pleased'? [migrated]

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:39 AM PDT

I am studying English writing.

I am translated my language to English.

My book's answer is "I am pleased to meet you"

My answer was "I am glad to meet you"

Is this same sentence? Does it have same meaning?

If my grammer is poor in this question, please correct my sentence.

If you correct my grammer, it will be very helpfull.

Thank you

Proverb for weak individuals uniting their power and manage to defeat stronger opponent

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:25 AM PDT

I'm looking for an idiom or proverb describing a situation where (otherwise weak and insignificant) individuals/actors decide to join their forces to defeat a much stronger opponent, and they successfully manage to do so. A Hungarian equivalent would be "plenty of geese defeats a pig".

Correct verb to go to a website - open, surf, navigate?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:26 AM PDT

I work as a web developer, and often times have to instruct someone to open some page. I usually write "Navigate to https://example.com/something", but I feels a bit pretentious. On the other hand I want to use professional language, so I'm not sure about other alternatives like "open a page ...", "go to ...". What would be the correct verb to use in this case?

"Expect": + that-clause vs + to-infinitive

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:56 AM PDT

In 'I expect J will come', you are simply saying you think he will, but in 'I expect J to come' you will be annoyed or disappointed if he does not.

Instead of 'expect something will not' happen, you usually say you do not expect it will or do not expect it to happen.

https://www.wordreference.com/EnglishUsage/expect

Does the distinction in the first paragraph apply to the negative sentences in the second, or only for expect something not to happen ?

Term for staggered delivery approach (delivering service before total completion of the project)

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 04:33 AM PDT

If you go to a restaurant and tell them to bring whatever is ready first, what would be the business term for that?

Given a project, you are completing documents as you go - your client has asked you to send them as you progress through the project, what is the term for this delivery approach?

Does "manifest" mean the same as show and illustrate?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 04:59 AM PDT

When I describe the information of a graph, can I use manifest instead of show or illustrate? I am a bit hesitant because when I look up manifest in a dictionary, it says the meaning of manifest is

to show a feeling, attitude etc.

I am not sure. Can it be used in such a context?

What does "the continuity of rights under French law" means?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:50 AM PDT

An French student who wants to intern at our company gives us this document to sign, which include this question:

SOCIAL SECURITY PROVIDED BY THE HOST ORGANIZATION (within the framework of internship abroad)

(1) Healthcare insurance is a part of the continuity, when abroad, of rights under French law

(2) Healthcare insurance is derived exclusively from the continuity, when abroad, of rights under the French student regimen

While I understood every word of it, I have no idea what the whole sentence means and which one I should choose. I assume it means whether we provide insurance to the intern or not?

How can I avoid using so many "e.g." in my school writing?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 08:01 AM PDT

when I write a paper in my class, I use far too many "e.g." inside parentheses. The alternative is to use "for example" and "for instance" like 50 times and that's not better either. Somehow I feel better if I could use parentheses without the "e.g." in them, maybe it will look less messy but also confusing because it doesn't state these are examples...I don't know.

Here's a made-up example:

Some students rely on friends (e.g., for affection), classmates (e.g., for information), coworkers (e.g., for social support), parents (e.g., for financial help), etc.

What should I do?

p.s. I registered my account but this website keeps giving me error. I'm not sure if I'll be able to reply to this post, not sure who to contact.

Prefixed words in English whose abbreviations skip the prefixes

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 04:22 AM PDT

I was writing an article about certain abbreviations in German. Two of the terms being abbreviated were Verschmelzungsfunktion and Vertauschungsfunktion. Abbreviating both of them as V would have been ambiguous, and the author chose to abbreviate them as S and T, respectively, apparently by disregarding the Ver- prefix and going instead to the root forms schmelzen and tauschen.

I started to write "We sometimes do this in English also." Then I paused to think of an example, but none came to mind. I was surprised; I thought this was not unusual. That was several days ago and I still have not thought of an analogous English example.

To be clear, what I am looking for is:

  • A set of two or more English words that begin with some common prefix like "un-", "re-", "down-" or similar
  • The words should be abbreviated to the initial letters of their roots
  • The abbreviations should be short, most preferably single letters
  • Preferably, the example should be common and well-known, but even if not:
  • It must come with a citation, and not be hypothetical or speculative

Is this something that does happen in English, or am I just mistaken?

"Fairly/Quite": stresses for "not exactly small" and "almost huge."

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 03:54 AM PDT

When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress: He was fairly/quite big can mean anything from "not exactly small" to "almost huge".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quite#Usage_notes

What different phonological stresses is it referring to?

Is it the same situation as Wiktionary states for pretty ?

When particularly stressed, the adverb pretty serves almost to diminish the adjective or adverb that it modifies.

Is "not've" a valid contraction either in written or spoken Br/Am English?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 08:57 AM PDT

My English teacher has recently explained to me that this is an accepted way to write not have and gave an example:

Why that machine is not working? Oh, you may not've turned it on.

It seems awkward and I cannot really find the expression anywhere on the internet, but he claims you can actually hear it around England.

Is "from the freezer to the foil" an idiom?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:27 AM PDT

In the song "Steam" by Peter Gabriel, there is a line of lyrics:

Stir-crazy from the freezer to the foil

Is this an idiom I have never heard before, or just a bit of nonsense he strung together?

It's not even used as a rhyme, it's just a free lyric near the end.

EDIT:

In a comment, @BoldBen questions whether its actually even "foil" in the first place. Now I'm not sure! Maybe this is just a mondegreen!

When you do a Google search or Bing search on "Peter Gabriel Steam lyrics" you get a ready-to-read list of lyrics, credited to MusixMatch.com, and those show "from the freezer to the foil". Here's a link to the lyrics on the site: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Peter-Gabriel/Steam

Likewise MetroLyrics.com says "foil":

https://www.metrolyrics.com/steam-lyrics-peter-gabriel.html

On one web site the lyric is given as "from the freezer to the boil":

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/13042/

On another web site, the lyric is given both as "from the freezer to the foil" and as "from the freezer to the boil", for two edits of the song. It's highly unlikely that the lyric was changed, it seems certain that one of them is incorrect.

Radio edit, "freezer to the foil":

https://genius.com/Peter-gabriel-steam-radio-edit-lyrics

Main song entry, "freezer to the boil":

https://genius.com/Peter-gabriel-steam-lyrics

Okay, let's go to the source. Here's the YouTube video for the song, cued up to the part (at about time mark 4:55) where Peter Gabriel sings that line:

https://youtu.be/Qt87bLX7m_o?t=294

I'm still not sure which one it is! I have literally thought for decades that it was "foil", but listening to it now it sounds closer to "bowl" than anything.

There's a following line (at about time mark 5:06) where he sings "coming to a boil" and the word "boil" is clearly enunciated, which argues against this word also being "boil"... why would he pronounce the same word two ways? But the second time he sang the word "bubble" over and over and maybe that changed how much emphasis he put on the 'b'?

Arguing for "boil": The technology used for this song to equalize the levels on singing tends to over-emphasize white noise, causing an 'S' sound to be amplified into a bit of a hiss. You can clearly hear this on the often-repeated "steam" in the song. An 'f', as in "foil", can get amplified as well, to a lesser degree. On the mystery word I don't hear anything boosted at the start of the word.

Also, arguing against "boil", it's not a hard word to rhyme and it's surprising if Peter Gabriel used "boil" as a rhyme for itself. But there's this "freezer to the ???" lyric and then "coming to a boil".

But doing web searches for "freezer to the foil" finds nothing but references to this song, so I'm now convinced it's definitely not an obscure idiom, but either nonsense Peter Gabriel made up or a mondegreen for "freezer to the boil".

If it is "boil" that means that the song follows "freezer to the boil" with "coming to a boil", which is kind of repetitive, but it's kind of free verse at the end rather than the neat rhymes of the main song.

How did penthouse come to mean "luxury apartment "?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 08:52 AM PDT

Originally a penthouse referred to a modest, small building attached to a main one:

  • pendize, early 14c., from Anglo-French pentiz, a shortening of Old French apentis "attached building, appendage. Modern spelling is from c. 1530, by folk etymology influence of Middle French pente "slope," and English house (the meaning at that time was "attached building with a sloping roof or awning").

Even Jesus' hut was once described as a penthouse:

  • Originally a simple structure (Middle English homilies describe Jesus' birthplace in the manger as a "penthouse");

But at the beginning of the 20th century the term changed its connotation radically, and from a modest house, it was used to refer to luxury apartments on the top of buildings.

  • meaning "apartment or small house built on the roof of a skyscraper" first recorded 1921, from which time dates its association with luxury. (Etymonlyne)

I couldn't find other information on the evolution of the term, so I'd like to ask:

  • how could the term "penthouse" be chosen to refer to luxury apartments given its original connotation?

  • did the change in meaning happen in the early 20th century with the construction of skyscrapers, or did it happen before?

Irregular verbs: the history of the suffix “-en” in the past participle

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:07 AM PDT

Recently I've been helping my home students learn the past participles of some irregular verbs, in a "new" way. Basically, I show that sometimes the suffix -(e)n is added to the PRESENT stem. For example:

Base (infinitive) Past Base + (e)n suffix
arise arose ARISEN [arise+n]
be was/were BEEN [be+en]
blow blew BLOWN
draw drew DRAWN
drive drove DRIVEN
eat ate EATEN
fall fell FALLEN
give gave GIVEN
grow grew GROWN
know knew KNOWN
mistake mistook MISTAKEN
rise rose RISEN
see saw SEEN
shake shook SHAKEN
take took TAKEN
throw threw THROWN

In group 2, the -n suffix is added to the PAST stem, when it has the single "o" (Yes, I realise it's not an infallible rule, if it were, the past participles of arise, rise would be similar to CHOSEN, i.e. arosen and rosen. And the past participle of drive, should be droven.)

Base Past Past + (e)n
break broke BROKEN [broke+n]
choose chose CHOSEN
freeze froze FROZEN
speak spoke SPOKEN
steal stole STOLEN
wake woke WOKEN

In the third group, the letters t and the d are doubled before the -(e)n suffix. This "rule" seems to work well.

Base Past Base/Past + (e)n
bite bit BITTEN [bit+t+en]
forget forgot FORGOTTEN [forgot+t+en]
hide hid HIDDEN [hid+d+en]
ride rode RIDDEN
tread trod TRODDEN
write wrote WRITTEN

In group 4, the suffix changes to -ne if the verb in the PRESENT stem ends in "o"

Base Past Base + ne
do did DONE [do+ne]
go went GONE

I read that the past participle inflection, the -n suffix, goes back to Germanic. Is it, therefore, safe to say that all the verbs listed above are of Germanic origin?

The frequency of the -en suffix seems to suggest that there was no such thing as irregular verbs in Old English and today the "regular" verbs that end in -(e)d is a relatively recent development of the language.

Questions

  1. Did more past participles use to end with -n?
    For example, (a) come––>came––>comen, (b) drink––>drank––>drinken
    (c) hold––>held––>holden. Why did it change?
  2. In group 4, were the past participles of do and go ever doen and goen respectively?
  3. Did been and seen use to have two syllables? Were they ever pronounced "be•en" and "se•en"? Etymonline has nothing about their historical pronunciations.

What is this famous example of the absurdity of English spelling?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 05:10 AM PDT

A long time ago I read about this funny example posited by some relatively well-known author who spelled a word (I forget the word) in the most difficult way possible, but in a way that was totally congruent with orthographic rules from other words of English.

It was a simple word, like "fish" but he spelled it like "phystch" or something similarly absurd. It's a pedantic example, but sort of funny, too. Thanks

Should I use more than one interrogative pronoun in a sentence?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 03:51 AM PDT

I have to say " who came when, where, how"

how should i write it, can I use when/where/how in a single sentence?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advanced.

Usage of Some: Does "some" require a plural or singular verb? [closed]

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 04:20 AM PDT

Usage of Some: Does "some" require a plural or singular verb?

Origin of "cracked the sh**s"

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 04:43 AM PDT

I heard someone use the expression "he cracked the shits" today which is universally recognised (at least in Australia) to mean "lost his temper".

It struck me that it is a strange expression and the origin is not obvious. It is often used in a context where a threshold of frustration has been reached and the person "cracks it" or loses control and responds angrily, so this may be part of it. Perhaps "the shits" is just tacked on as an intensifier.

I'm pretty sure I've only heard it in the context of Australian English. Is this expression known and used outside Australia, and does anyone have a better explanation of how it might have arisen?

Should there be a space between name initials?

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 09:43 AM PDT

In writing authors' initials in research papers (either in the author by-line or the bibliography), should there be a space between intials?

  • R.P. Feynman
  • R. P. Feynman

What's the preferred way of writing it?

New Oxford American Dictionary describes "the" as an adjective

Posted: 25 Aug 2021 06:29 AM PDT

When I look at the definition given from the Mac OS X Dictionary, I read the following definition. (I have set American English as interface language, and the dictionary used is then the New Oxford American Dictionary.)

the /ði/ /ð(ə)/ /ði/ [called the definite article] adjective

  1. denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge: what's the matter? | call the doctor | the phone rang. Compare with a.
    • used to refer to a person, place, or thing that is unique: the Queen | the Mona Lisa | the Nile.
    • informal denoting a disease or affliction: I've got the flu.
    • (with a unit of time) the present; the current: dish of the day | man of the moment.
    • informal used instead of a possessive to refer to someone with whom the speaker or person addressed is associated: I'm meeting the boss | how's the family?
    • used with a surname to refer to a family or married couple: the Johnsons were not wealthy.
    • used before the surname of the chief of a Scottish or Irish clan: the O'Donoghue.

I have never thought of an article as adjective.
Is normally an article defined as adjective?
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