Monday, August 9, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Should I write 'Mechanical Engineering Graduate' or 'Mechanical Engineering graduate'?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:38 AM PDT

Mechanical Engineering graduate looking for work... is how my personal statement starts.

Should I capitalize the word graduate or leave it as it is?

Is the progressive aspect slightly more relaxed, less formal and more friendly?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT

I've just read in a book about linguistics that the progressive aspect could be slightly more relaxed, less formal and more friendly; is that right?

What does "May your death only ever be written" mean?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:45 AM PDT

It was written by a mystery novel writer. She signed this on her book to show appreciation to the detective who solved a real crime and proved that the writer wasn't the murderer.

She was supposed to/had to/was to fly to Brussels

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:20 AM PDT

Before posting this question, I honestly tried to find the answer to my question on this website, but failed. Therefore, I've decided to create a new 'conversation'. Will you consider the following sentence, please:

"I phoned her yesterday afternoon to find out if we could meet in the evening, but she said she was supposed to/had to/was to fly to Brussels and didn't know when she would return." [=she said she was flying to Brussels]

I've read in various sources that "was supposed to" tends to be used for arrangements or something expected that didn't in fact take place (e.g. He was supposed to fly to Berlin but his flight was cancelled). As for the expression "had to", judging by all the examples I've come across so far, it looks like it's always used only for completed actions (e.g. We had to return home because of heavy rain).

Would you mind telling me if it's correct to use "was supposed to/had to/was to" in my example (in which the action/arrangement is not completed)? Besides, I was wondering if it was correct to use Past Simple instead of Past Continuous: ".... she said she flew to Brussels ...".

I'd be very grateful to you for your help.

Any good structured English dictionary dataset? [migrated]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:54 AM PDT

I'm a NLP researcher and am looking for a English dictionary dataset to train a language model? Any suggestion? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) right meets my need, but it seems that they rarely reply to anyone's demands. So is there any subsitution? At least containing words, senses and corresponding quotations(more than 2 is better). Thanks a lot!

Do “because so-and-so claims that” and “claiming that” have the same meaning?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:46 AM PDT

First, I would like to give an example.

She filed a complaint to the committee because she claims that her personal information was leaked.

She filed a complaint to the committee claiming that her personal information was leaked.

So, do "because she claims that" and "claiming that" have the same meaning? Why or why not?

Thank you in advance.

A verb for having items appended

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:16 AM PDT

I am proofreading a document and the following sentence came up:

Unless the data is appended only, then we can assume the temporal sampling has changed.

What the writer is trying to say, is essentially the following:

Unless the modification made to the data only included appending new data, then we can assume that the temporal sampling has changed.

Is there a verb that I could use to describe the original data set only having data appended to it?

Something along the lines of:

Unless the data is only (suffixed, verb to describe adding data, ???)

The way it was written sounds as though the original data was appended to something else.

I hope that the question is clear. If possible I'd prefer a single word, however the most important thing is that the sentence is clear, so if need be I will simply rephrase it.

what does "on the bins with" mean here?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:13 AM PDT

Barry comes to clinic with Gerald, who does not read or write, but Barry was on the bins with Gerald for years, and he tells me that he and the rest of the team look out for Gerald and always will, so one or the other of them will bring him to clinic as long as he needs to come, to which declaration Gerald does not reply, being overcome, but bangs his fist on his knee and wipes his eye with the back of his hand.

This is Lucy Pollock's The Book About Getting Older.

I tried to find an idiom 'on the bins with' but couldn't find any. Is it a kind of informal term for something? If so, what does it mean?

"More involving" or "more involved"?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:08 AM PDT

Isn't the word "involving" sometimes used as synonym for "more difficult"? An intellectual problem could be harder to solve than another one and I think people say sometimes that one problem is more "involving" than another. Or do they actually use "involved" instead and I don't realize? I'm not a native speaker, so my intuition is not very good for this.

More directly, should I write

"This will be much more involving than the previous operation."

or should I write

"This will be much more involved than the previous operation."?

"To make them offline available" or "available offline"? [migrated]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:57 AM PDT

"Use xy to make them offline available" or "Use xy to make them available offline"?

Verb + Object + Noun Phrase (is the noun phrase an object complement?) [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:51 AM PDT

I was writing some material earlier for my job, and I typed this:

'You may have watched the films a thousand times before ....'

In this sentence, is 'a thousand times before' an object complement? Or is there a missing preposition after 'the film'? Alternatively, could it be the direct object, making 'the films' an indirect object?
This question may sound basic, but my mind drew a blank. I know that it's a correct sentence, so I'm curious as to what is happening here.

What would you call an "almost-closed" roller shutter?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:05 AM PDT

We are designing a user interface for the roller shutter managers. We are considering the outdoor rollers that have tiny holes between the blinds. You can shut the roller with the holes visible (so some of the outside light still sneaks into the room), or close it fully, enabling you to feel as if you were a mole.

holes

In order to provide comfortable use of the roller shutters, we have to ask users to give us the time required to shut the roller to the state "with the sunlight peeking through" and the time required to shut it completely. We are going to use these as fields' captions in the user interface, so they should be as short as possible.

We have not agreed on how to state these questions. The best we've got is "What is the time to shut with unsealed blinds?".

Therefore, I have three questions for you:

  1. What would you call the state of roller shutter covering the whole window but with the "holes/rays" visible?
  2. What would you name the time required to achieve this state?
  3. What would you name the time required to close completely?

Is it ok to use convicted as an adjective in this sense?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:06 AM PDT

The word "convicted" is generally used as the following:

"A convicted criminal"

"He was convicted"

However, I wanted to show that someone did something with conviction, in a form like this:

"He did so with convicted purpose."

Is this usage incorrect?

Use of the verb "to refrain" to mean "to stop"? [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:37 AM PDT

Here is a verse from the song "The Reign" by Stryper:

Cars, mansions and planes  Income that never refrains  The more you receive, the less you believe  In His name.

It seems like the word "refrains" here is used in the sense of "stops". But the dictionaries do not give such a definition, so I wonder how it can be used there. Any ideas?

Thanks!

The use of "respectively" with "of"-phrases [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:24 AM PDT

Is the following correct (the use of respectively with "of"-phrases)? What are the different valid ways of writing this.

In Chapters 1 and 2, we discuss the questions and answers, respectively, of this book.

What is the difference between deceptive and deceitful [duplicate]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:16 AM PDT

They look very similar to me, most likely the same.

deceptive

likely to make you believe something that is not true [source]

making you believe something that is not true: [source]

something that is deceptive seems very different from the way it really is appearances can be deceptive: [source]

deceitful

behaving in a dishonest way by telling lies and making people believe things that are not true [source]

behaving dishonestly in order to trick people [source]

dishonest or hiding the truth: [source]

"In the platform" or "on the platform"?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:06 AM PDT

I don't mean such platforms as Netflix, Youtube or social media platforms. If this is a marketing automation platform (in other words - software), can we say "in the platform"?

In the HubSpot Marketing Automation platform, you can set up such automation workflows as a welcome email, abandoned cart emails or onboarding workflow.

"The car has a problem that emits harmful gas." Sounds unnatural, but why? [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:41 AM PDT

Okay, I've come across this sentence and I find it quite unnatural.

The car has a problem that emits harmful gas.

I know this sentence can be written better, but I wonder why "has a problem that emits" sounds so unnatural.

Is there a grammatical explanation behind this? Or is it just me? Thanks.

How to choose an article in an 'of'-phrase? [migrated]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:29 AM PDT

I have a question about articles in so-called 'of'-phrases. According to this thread, nouns followed by a modifier are usually accompanied by the definite article (if only they aren't concrete mass nouns and plural nouns). Yet, I frequently see that some phrases can also be accompanied by the indefinite article a/an, like for instance in the example from this guide:

This is a picture of my family.
I got a discount of 10 percent on the purchase.

It seems to me that usual rules that guide the usage of the articles do not always work here. Can anyone give me any advice on how to choose an article in such situations, please?

What’s the word for someone who mistakenly thinks everyone cares about what they do? [duplicate]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:04 AM PDT

Some people say things like "I'm gonna do this, and I don't care what you all think!" but no one cares about what they do anyway. What's the word for that person?

I've considered self-centred and insecure, but I feel those are too broad for such a specific thing. I tried looking it up, but it would give me answers for different things in relation. Compound words and phrases are fine but I would prefer a single word.

What do you call the hand gesture of waving to a baby?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 06:43 AM PDT

The gesture I'm trying to find a word for consists of holding your hand out with palm facing the person (usually a young child) and fingers spread out, then bending your fingers inward to close your hand in a fluttering motion (not a grabbing motion), then repeating.

It's like an alternate wave, I guess? I've looked through the list of hand gestures on Wikipedia and haven't been able to find it. The closest are 'wave' or 'grabby hands', neither of which really convey the meaning and the gesture.

Sample sentence: She made a ___ gesture toward the young child.

Edit: updated with fluttering motion

Wondering if there is a word that defines "insults that you take as a compliment"?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:58 AM PDT

For example a person insults someone, the victim of the insult understands that they have just been insulted but instead takes it as a badge of honor and turns into a compliment for themselves

What is it called when you chain verb phrases together? [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:15 AM PDT

What is it called in the following sentence? "We'll show you pictures of it, tell you stories about it."

Antonym of "target"

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 04:20 AM PDT

I am looking for antonyms (nouns) of "target". Here, I meant target in the sense

"something that one hopes or intends to accomplish" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/target)

or in my words

"something that one aims to hit".

So my antonym would be "something that one aims to miss". So for example, when I am have a shooting target, that would be the outside of the middle, e.g. where the straw is.

I mean something I want to avoid. It is more of a "binary situation". Let's say I have a bunch of mushrooms some of which are tasty and some are poisonous. The tasty ones are my target and I want to hit them (= get them on my plate), but the other ones I want to avoid = make sure they are not on my plate. You could also call the target my "positive target" and the other one my "negative target", but that would be confusing for non-technical readers. And my readers are very non-technical.

How would you pluralize a quote? [duplicate]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 02:07 AM PDT

For example, how would I format this following sentence properly?

The others agree a little more heartily with "yeah"s and "it would"s.

onomatopoeia for taking a deep breath before speaking

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:06 AM PDT

I'm writing a comic, and a character is about to ask another character for help, but it's taken her a lot of effort to be able to ask for help. So, before she finally asks she takes a deep breath and inhales before speaking. And I cannot think of what kind of Onomatopoeia you would use for taking a deep breath other than just writing deep breath. And that seems so lame.

Does anyone have any advice on how I could handle this problem?

Abbreviation of "Street"

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 05:05 AM PDT

I know that Street is abbreviated as St. But does the t in St represent the first t or the last t in Street?

Drive is abbreviated as Dr, which means it could be the first t, but Road is abbreviated as Rd, which means it could be the last t, if we were following the same pattern.

(Please note that this question is not opinion based. By looking at the patterns of other common abbreviations we can conjecture as to, or even deduce, the origin of St.)

Which is correct, "be proceeded" or "be processed" (used in business letter) [closed]

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:08 AM PDT

Which usage (be proceed/be processed) is correct in the following sentence? (This is written in a business letter) Are there any differences between these two words? Thanks a lot!

  1. Please be noted that your order won't be "proceeded" until we receive your confirmation.

  2. Please be noted that your order won't be "processed" until we receive your confirmation.

"Parishioner" vs. "congregant"

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 03:26 AM PDT

I've always thought that the words parishioner and congregant meant the same thing and could be used interchangeably within the context of someone who attends a place of worship. Are there any differences in meaning between these two words or appropriate usage for each?
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