Saturday, September 11, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

How to pronounce "TH" quickly?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:21 AM PDT

I know that how we should pronounce "TH" but sometimes when natives speaking fast, I think "TH" second sound pronounced like "d" than "ð". I'll be glad if you help me with how to pronounce "TH" when I should speak fast.

The meaning of "you can give in, you can give out but you don't give up"

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 08:45 AM PDT

I have taken a look at the definitions of all the three phrasal verbs but still not sure what the following sentence means:

You can give in, you can give out but you don't give up.

A bit more context:

Sometimes life is scary, sometimes life just seems very unfair. But you just gotta hang in there. I'll tell you what I learned down the streets Brooklyn New York. You can give in, you can give out but you don't give up.

It is from the end of this video: https://youtu.be/4oh5fEIpx-E

My guess is that it could means something like: You can be defeated, you can be exhausted but you don't stop trying.

or something like: You can be defeated, you can complain but you don't stop trying.

Nevertheless, I am not sure at all and I think I may be totally wrong.

Could you please help me understand this sentence?

Thanks!

How to replace "this is " in academic wrting [closed]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 06:40 AM PDT

I want to express the following statement in a more academic way

"This is a potential son preference in a developing country."

thanks !

What is the correct choice (make -do) a surprise? [migrated]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 07:03 AM PDT

If you want to surprise a person ,what will you say , I made a surprise or I did a surprise? I think make is the correct choice.

Correctly accenting my name [closed]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 06:26 AM PDT

I just want to know how my name should appear with accents. It's Adrien (usual pronounciation) Bischoff (bish-off) Dyson (usual).

Can somebody please help solve my conundrum?

Is ‘’the rises of” correct in this context?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 09:04 AM PDT

Recent economic crises have been followed by new rises of ecological narratives.

I mean to say that after each crisis there has been a new rise of ecological narratives. Is the rises (in plural form) is correct and idiomatic in the above context.

'Now' as a preposition or conjunction

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 05:54 AM PDT

In the below sentence, is 'now' a preposition or a subordinating conjunction? Most dictionaries (OED, Webster, AHD, etc.) say that 'now' is a (subordinating) conjunction in the sense of the below sentence, but I am aware that some prepositions can take clausal complements; thus I am unsure whether 'now' in the sense below is a preposition licensing a content clause as a complement,or a conjunction (since dictionaries are not known to be the best sources for checking parts of speech).

Now that we are all here, let us begin.

Most suitable term to describe a sequence of values and their timestamp

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 09:59 AM PDT

In my robotics project, a sensor produces values of voltage at irregular points in time. For instance

  • measurement1 = (3[s], 35[V])
  • measurement2 = (6[s], 32[V])
  • measurement3 = (7[s], 33[V])
  • ....

What is the most suitable term when referring to such a sequence. I cannot decide between series, signal, etc.

(I am looking for a term that is not specific to voltage, but that also covers sequences, where the values can be of any physical unit, for instance current, or length.)

Thank you!

what comes after "The problem is ..."? [duplicate]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 04:55 AM PDT

What comes after "the problem is...."? to infinitive or bare infinitive or gerund?

What is the difference between "Make" and "Get" when they come with an adjective?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:47 AM PDT

I see that people use both of them, but are there any differences between them? what do they mean exactly?

For instance:

I got him upset.

I made him upset.

What's the grammatical function of the following phrase in bold?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:38 AM PDT

We saw a blue sky for the first time in weeks, perhaps a good omen.

I'm not sure if the phrase in bold is called a reduced relative clause in grammar. Actually it modifies the whole sentence that comes before it.

in fright & with fright

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT

I'm quite confused by the usage of prep., so may I ask when I should use "in" or "with", since I read some sentences below

  1. The birds smashed into the top of their cages in fright.
  2. The steam pipes rattled suddenly, and Franklin jumped with fright. He was shaking with fright.

" In fright", " with fright", what's the difference between them, can they be replaced by each other? Thanks!

Same as vs. same with [migrated]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:01 AM PDT

Which is more correct:
a. Living under the same sky as you
b. Living under the same sky with you

And what's the difference if there's any?

Is there a word for 24 hours starting at midnight? [closed]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 05:31 AM PDT

I know that technically a 'day' means either 24 hours or the period of time between sunrise and sunset, and 'day and night' would be specifically 24 hours. A sidereal day is approximately a little less than 24 hours, and a nychthemeron is 24 hours - though it can start at any time.

Is there an equivalent of 'nychthemeron' that specifically starts at midnight?

Expression or term for winning a bet on bad odds

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:30 AM PDT

Say I was playing a game. The odds of winning were always 1:10. It would cost me €1 to play and if I won I would win €5.

Pretty terrible game, right?

However say recorded myself playing a winning round of game. "See? I place a bet, roll the dice, and win! Profit!"

Except it's not profit. Placing a €1 bet on 1:10 odds to win €5 is not profit. It's a short term gain. The quality of my decision here is not determined by its outcome.

Is there a word for this? An expression? an idiom?

"To comprehend x, it is necessary to understand y." Is this a dangling modifier?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 04:05 AM PDT

Because I often think of sentences in the "we must"-form, as in:

"To comprehend x, we must first understand y."

when I write things that demand I do not write "we," I instead often write sentences like this:

"To comprehend x, it is necessary to understand y?"

Is this a dangling modifier? Or is it wrong or ugly in some other way?

Verb tense confusion - how to correctly use past perfect in a past tense narrative

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:01 AM PDT

Okay, scenario: In a novel set in narrative past tense, there's a sentence, "We had become friends when nobody had liked him and it had seemed no one ever would." Is the past perfect being used correctly? Is "when" perhaps too ambiguous and unhelpful?

To my mind, there are three different times here: 1. the "now"; 2. the moment the boy and girl became friends; 3. the time when the boy had no friends. Put like that, the solution seems simple--use past perfect for the time when the boy had no friends because it occurred before the moment he and the girl became friends. E.g. "We became friends when nobody had liked him and it had seemed no one ever would."

However, because the novel is already set in past tense, I'm afraid using past simple for the moment they became friends, which is in the novel's past, would get confused with the "now," which is also written in past simple. So is it more appropriate to use past perfect for both past events, even though they didn't occur at the same time?

In that case, are all three hads necessary, or can it be used with only the initial verb (became) then understood to also apply to the two others (liked, seemed)? E.g. "We had become friends when nobody liked him and it seemed no one ever would." I swear I see that in novels all the time, but I can't find any sources to confirm it's a thing. Maybe that's a misconception on my part. Or maybe it's just super common to misuse past perfect.

Help :(

How to use comma with both ... and ...?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 02:02 AM PDT

In the sentence below, is the comma placed correctly? Why?

"Her performance was highly acclaimed, both for her rich and beautiful voice and for her powerful stand"

The project was completed "under" or "by" a company? [closed]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:02 AM PDT

The project was completed by Microsoft.

The project was completed under Microsoft.

Would it be correct to replace "by" with "under" in the above sentence?

I've seen sentences like these

The project was supervised under Microsoft.

Adjective for a person who enjoys taking care of their appearance

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 03:21 AM PDT

After a brief search over StackExchange I've decided to ask my own question.

I'm looking for a word to describe someone who enjoys grooming themselves or taking care of their appearance, but without the negative connotations of words like 'vain' or 'self-conscious'.

I've thought about some options already that I'm not very happy with:

Vain and self-conscious feel derogative, coquettish feels sexual or romantic and seems to describe the way someone behaves towards someone else, pretty/handsome or good looking seem to describe the way someone appears and not the way someone behaves.

Stylish and fashionable are close ones, but they seem to focus too much on clothing, and I'm talking more about grooming: combed hair, manicured nails, clean-shaven (especially a man), maybe with some makeup on (especially a woman), etc...

The context of what I'm trying to write would be something like this:

A woman who is the perfect blend of practical and ____.

Vain? Stylish? Fashionable? I'm not convinced... help!

Any suggestions?

Can the modal auxiliary verbs be considered to be in the present tense (form, not meaning)?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:34 AM PDT

According to Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, modal auxiliary verbs do not normally have past tenses:

The modal auxiliary verbs are will, would, shall, should, can, could, ought, may, might, and must. Their grammar is different from that of other verbs: for example, they have no infinitives, participles or past tenses [...] Modal verbs do not have infinitives or participles (to may, maying, mayed do not exist), and they do not normally have past forms.

So can each modal auxiliary verb be considered to be in the present tense (in form, not meaning)? Since the modal auxiliary verbs are finite and they do not have past tense forms (according to Michael Swan's Practical English Usage), each must be in a present tense form.

Or are will, can, may and shall the present tenses (in form, not meaning) and would, could, might and should the past tenses (in form, not meaning)?

What about the modal auxiliary must?

Repeating the definite article [duplicate]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 02:58 AM PDT

I have a question about repeating the definite article. At my job, we have to discuss various cost elements. In our reports, people never repeat the definite article, but I think it's necessary. Here are some examples:

  • The proposed and objective indirect costs are summarized below.
  • The proposed and the objective indirect costs are summarized below.
  • The variance between the proposed and objective indirect costs equates to $450,000.
  • The variance between the proposed and the objective indirect costs equates to $450,000.

I believe that the term "indirect costs" is a non-count noun -- you are discussing a set of indirect costs (i.e., there are multiple different indirect costs items, such as engineering overhead, material overhead, G&A, etc).

Failing to repeat the definite article seems to suggest that you are referring to one set of indirect costs when you are really discussing two different sets of costs (i.e., the adjectives "proposed" and "objective" are referring to two different sets of costs/subjects). That said, the meaning is likely still clear within the context of the overall document. Should the definite article be repeated in this case?

Use of "is" and "are" when referring to a singular noun or changing the grammatical number

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:04 AM PDT

I have seen the question Proper usage of "is" and "are" when specifying multiple nouns, but it is a different questions than what I am asking.

I have two examples (both from songs) of "is" being used that doesn't quite sound right when sung out loud. I would like to know if these songs are correct in their grammar, or not.

The first is the song "Are You Not Entertained?" by A Broken Silence. The line is question is:

Are you not entertained? Of course you is.

And the second song is "I Am Not Done" by Rob Bailey and the Hustle Standard. The line in question is:

This is not the pain talking, this is called facts.

I know these are specific examples, but they are pretty unique and I couldn't figure this out on my own.

Thanks for the help.

"The problem is he is stingy"

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 04:59 AM PDT

I have this sentence:

The problem is he is very stingy with his money.

But I feel it sounds weird or even wrong with the two ises so close. Is the sentence structure grammatical? If it isn't, how to fix it?

Turn "in to" or "into" a lonely lane?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:02 AM PDT

I have a sentence I'm writing where I describe making a turn, as I run, into an empty alleyway. Here is how I would like to say it:

I turn into a lonely lane...

The problem I find is that it may mean that I am changing my direction to run into a lane, or it may suggest that I am becoming a lane -- however unlikely that may be, realistically.

Is there a better way to write the sentence without disrupting the flow of my writing? (I understand that I can say, "I make a turn into a lonely lane..." but am afraid that that might cause some incontinuity.)

For example, could I say this?

I turn in to a lonely lane...

Is there a difference between "way of doing something" and "way to do something"?

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 01:22 AM PDT

Is there a difference between "way of doing something" and "way to do something"?

It is on purpose that I did not write "a way of doing something" or "the way of doing something" and "a way to do something" or "the way to do something"… because I feel this is where the answer lies.

Michael Swan's Practical English Usage (third edition, page 607) reads:

After way (meaning 'method/manner') we can use an infinitive structure or of … ing. There is no important difference between the two structures. There is no way to prove / of proving that he was stealing.

I, on the other hand, think there must be a difference, however slight… !

A word for "false self confidence"

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 10:04 AM PDT

Suppose a motorbike driver jumped above 2 cars in a show, and a crowd of girls gave him an applause. He then tried jumping over 100 cars, and lost his life halfway by falling into the row of cars.

What do you say to this state of feeling, this false self confidence that he wasn't aware of its falsehood?

When do you use "is being" in English? [closed]

Posted: 11 Sep 2021 08:48 AM PDT

When should I use is being in English?

For example, do you say "something is changed," or "something is being changed"?
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