Monday, September 13, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Enter is to entrant as exit is to *

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:38 AM PDT

A person who enters something is called an entrant.

What is a person who exits something called?

Is it a right sentence?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:15 AM PDT

I am a new English learner. Today when I was practicing writing, I wrote a line and got confused.

"Despite having many awareness programs, people often get caught sharing personal data which is misused indiscriminately to become benefited by."

I tried to say "personal data is misused indiscriminately by criminals to become benefited by it". But I kept the "criminals" and "it" hidden.

My questions are

  1. is the sentence correct?
  2. I did not use the pronoun "it" to point out "personal data". is it ok?

What's the meaning of the context? [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:17 AM PDT

I am watching and studying High Maintenance and I wanna know the meaning of every line below.
It's Season 1 episode 1.

Yes, queens!
Oh, my God, you're killing it. Work! (what does 'work' mean in this context?)
"Yes, queens."
Work. Yes.
It's like, "We get it, you have access to social media." (I don't get this sentence)
Okay, what about the one who said she used to roofie herself? (roofie herself?)
Yeah, we used to say that Planned Parenthood gave her a punch card.
Okay, that sounds like a Chelsea Handler joke.
I will Google it. (google what?)

Yes, baby, but I need some bobby pins,'cause y'all cleaned me out. (What is 'cleaned me out'? Is it a joke?)
I have three words for y'all! New Orleans spring break! (I don't know this sentence either.)

Could you please what each line does mean? :(

Infinitive and Bare Infinitive [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:09 AM PDT

Are both sentences grammatically correct?

  1. What we want to do with this information is promote more action.
  2. What we want to do with this information is to promote more action.

Are there rules that define the usage of infinitives and bare infinitives in a sentence like this?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

are leveraging and exploiting two interchangeable terms? [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:06 AM PDT

I am using leveraging in a sentence and i want to know if it is interchangeable with the term exploiting ?

Thanks

“Don’t you” usage: Is this sentence grammatically correct in the context of a song?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:45 AM PDT

So I wrote a song and this sentence fits perfectly with the measure, but I'm not sure if it's grammatically correct, could you please let me know if I should change it?:

"Don't you come to me and say you still love me"

What I'm trying to say is the person in the song is angry and doesn't want to her ex to reach out to ask for forgiveness.

Thank you!

Should I use "happy to know that" instead of "happy to hear that" in e-mail? [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:39 AM PDT

I am writing an e-mail and just got some news that I'm very happy to know. Normally, in conversation, I say "happy to hear that"; however, in e-mail, should I write "happy to hear that" or "happy to know that"?

Thanks,

What is the term for words that share an antonym but are not antonyms of each other?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:32 AM PDT

E.g. "prohibited" and "required".

They're not antonyms as far as I know and they're certainly not synonyms.

An antonym of prohibited is optional (but not required). This makes intuitive sense in isolation.

An antonym of required is optional (but not prohibited). This makes intuitive sense in isolation.

If we plot we know the opposites of prohibited and required are the same (optional), it also makes prohibited and required look like opposites in a sense, even if they're not antonyms:

Present Prohibited Required Not Required Not Prohibited Optional
Yes Reject Accept Accept Accept Accept
No Accept Reject Accept Accept Accept

Is this phenomena unique to this context? Does it have an established term? Maybe optional is weak enough an antonym of each that I've just "cheated" that aspect, but a relationship is there I'd like to know the name of.

The Mitla apartment, shouldn't it be the Mitlas'? [migrated]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 03:42 AM PDT

Stephen King writes:

Howard Mitla was sitting alone...
Violet Mitla, one of New York's...
The Mitla apartment was on the fourth floor...

I was expecting something like "The Mitlas' apartment". Is that a typo, or is that some kind of alternative grammar structure I am not aware of?

What is the meaning of a shell of its former self?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:03 AM PDT

What is the meaning of a shell of its former self ? Refer to the article https://www.infoworld.com/article/3632142/how-docker-broke-in-half.html, to quote

The game changing container company is a shell of its former self. What happened to one of the hottest enterprise technology businesses of the cloud era?

The reason I ask here instead of looking it up in a dictionary is because

  1. The dictionaries I use don't have it, e.g. longman does not have this expression https://www.ldoceonline.com/spellcheck/english/?q=a+shell+of+its+former+self https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/a-shadow-of-your-former-self?q=a+shadow+of++its++former+self only has "a shadow of your former self"

  2. I googled "a shell of its former self" but I can only find some useful information. I had thought if it is a common expression I should be able to get many google search results. The result I thought make sense is this one "It means that although the team still exists, it no longer has the talent, spirit, and community support that it once had." But I am not sure if that is an "authority" explanation.

  3. So I was wondering is this a common expression that people will understand ?

Thanks

Since I was or since I am? [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 03:19 AM PDT

I have been learning English since I was 7 years old.
I have been learning English since I am 7 years old.

Which sentence is correct?

Is it grammatically incorrect if I use "be" instead of "are" in the following passage?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:33 AM PDT

It is inevitable that their decisions are final.

I'm not sure if "inevitable" is a subjunctive adjective and if we can use "be" instead of "are" in the sentence above.

Is it correct to say " love and attachment to you " instead of " love for and attachment to you" omitting the first preposition? [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 02:43 AM PDT

I chanced upon a sentence in some religious text that goes like this,

Please instil in me love and attachment to you.

Shouldn't it be " ...love FOR and attachment to you? " since love and attachment should take two different propositions in this context?

Do kindly answer the following questions/ Please answer the following questions [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 02:37 AM PDT

When we use "Do kindly answer the following questions" and "Please answer the following questions"?

Article after 'added' or 'implemented' in software changelogs [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:05 AM PDT

I'm writing a document describing what has been added or changed in a new version of a software app. Among the changes are new features allowing the users to do certain things.

(1) Is it correct to say "Implemented an option allowing..." or should it be "Implemented the option allowing..."? (2) Is it better to say "Added a 'XXX' section where you can see..." or should it be "Added the 'XXX' section where you can..."?

Note: The features listed in the changelogs haven't been mentioned somewhere before by app's developers

Please grammatically analyze the structure of this sentence

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 01:44 AM PDT

I quote this from MakeUseOf site.

So, really, you'd be paying way, way upwards of the $70 price-tag games are going to be sold for.

I can't find out the structure of this sentence, and further more, don't know whether it's a sentence or not.

What I can do is..

  • You : Subject
  • 'd : auxiliary verb
  • be paying : verb(intransitive?)
  • way, way upwards of (adjective)

after 'of': 'the $70 price-tag games are going to be sold for.' should be a phrase, but this is clause. I couldn't figure the structure of this sentence out.

Is the word trackable used correctly here?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 03:28 AM PDT

I want to phrase a sentence to say that:

one could find easily the initial source location of an object.

Could we say that that object is easily trackable, in the sense of its original location?

Apostrophes in 'and' conjuntion [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 12:53 AM PDT

Which should I use:

  1. The apple and orange's seeds
  2. The apple's and orange's seeds

to be to remember

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 01:04 AM PDT

I was wondering if I could say "Something is to remember" For example:

This trip is to remember

Is it grammatically correct? If it is, which part of the sentence is stressed?

Sentence structure with an embedded question in a sentence

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:26 AM PDT

There are several instances where we embed questions in a sentence, but what is the conventional structure of those embedded question? For example,

  1. She asked if we still need a pen.
  2. She asked do we still need a pen.

Which one is right and why?
As far as I know option 1 is right, but what is the grammatical explanation for that? Please elaborate.

No one's ever observed what happens to waves of froth to spray in the center of hurricane [closed]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:46 AM PDT

I got this sentence from CNN:

No one's ever observed what happens to waves of froth to spray in the center of hurricane.

My question is, why have they used "to spray" instead of "which sprays"? What part of speech "spray" in this sentence is?

Determining the meaning of "Par Excellence"

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:54 AM PDT

In a translation test nearly impossible to pass, I am required to accurately translate a paragraph about a code editor, and I got stuck trying to translate the following:

[The software] is a performer par excellence

I was struggling to make perfect sense out of "performer par excellence" because I can't tell whether "Par excellence" means "best of kind" or rather "quintessential", which translates differently. Also, I am not sure whether "performer" refers to performance (of the software) and the assessment of it, or a general variation of "competitor".

I can't afford to mistranslate such a phrase as this will fail me, and I don't think I am allowed to post such a question either, but I got lost.

Looking up different contexts over several languages didn't yield any information.

A respectful alternative to the word "you" or "your" [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:45 AM PDT

I want to know a respectful and formal alternative for the word you or your . In my native language there are respectful words for you. But in English you doesn't seem to be respectful for calling elder people such as teachers or seniors.

Is there any alternatives. Forgive me if this has been asked before...

What do you call concrete structures protecting beaches?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:37 AM PDT

What do you call beach protective structures like the one in the picture?

enter image description here

I found a number of possible words but not sure which is most appropriate:
pier, jetty, wharf, quay, staith, groyne/groin, breakwater, seawall
(all credit to Wikipedia).

Update: The main function is to protect the beach sand from being removed by the waves. Also it is a nice wave and currents protection for swimmers. Often people jump from it in the water. Or just go to it as an observation point. Not on this one but on others, small boats sometimes dock. On one of them wake-surfing construction is installed. For the record this is in the city of Varna on the Black sea coast. July and August is the best time.

Update 2: it is not used for the purpose but it is equipped to dock small vessels. There is wooden protection on the inside part (which is mostly rotten and broken already) and some metal pillars where one can tie up a boat.

Is there a sense of "caravanserai" which includes an elaborate transportation - such as of a circus?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:17 AM PDT

The OED lists only one non-metaphorical sense of the word caravanserai - (from caravan - etymology Persian).

A kind of inn in Eastern countries where caravans put up, being a large quadrangular building with a spacious court in the middle.

This is endorsed by Wikipedia which provides much the same meaning.

However I have most often heard caravanserai used to describe a motley transportantion on a number of vehicles - such as of a circus moving from one place to the next. Of course a caravan was originally: A company of merchants, pilgrims, or others, in the East or northern Africa, travelling together for the sake of security, esp. through the desert. So the notion of transportation was inherent to the word's beginnings. Hence I am puzzled by the idea of caravanserai being a fixed building or settlement.

Consider the following use - which accords entirely with the way I have most often heard the word used in Britain- from Six Wives: the Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey (London 2003) p.230.

It was in any case a day of upheaval at Court as it was the beginning of the Progress. The whole courtly apparatus of 'portable magnificence' - the tapestries and cushions, jewels and plate, household utensils and the King's own clothes, bedding and travelling library, medicine chest and personal petty-cash - had been packed into their special bags, boxes and chests and loaded on to carts. The carts had been covered with bear hides to protect them against the elements and the great caravanserai of the Court stood ready to depart from Greenwich to the first port of call of the Progress: Waltham Abbey in Essex.

This seems to refer, as I would have expected, to the travelling body rather than to anything fixed.

Is participle clause commonly used in spoken English?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 03:00 AM PDT

I have never heard a native speaker use sentence with participle clause such as 'Thinking about her past, she cried bitterly.'; 'Bitten by a snake, she died.' in their day-to-day conversation although I see in writing.

What is the best word or adjective for someone who does not meet the deadline for delivery?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:03 AM PDT

I'm trying to write an article about computer programmers who often do not meet their deadline and are not committed to the contract deadline or due dates.

So, what is the best word or adjective for someone who does not meet the deadline for delivery?

Is the following correct?

Programmer's renege is real!

When do you use "this is because" in the present tense versus "this was because" in the past tense?

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:03 AM PDT

I found this from a blog where the writer used this is because:

Through the experience of the DSCE, I felt like my life goal had finally been achieved, but when I desperately pleaded with God to let me back into that state, I soon realized it was almost impossible to achieve on my own. This is because I had only become partially self-realized.

Shouldn't the author have used this was because because they were referring a past event? If not, can someone please explain the rule regarding when to use this is because versus when to use this was because?

"translation of" or "translation for"

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 03:59 AM PDT

What's the correct form? Examples:

  • What's the translation of "whatever" in Portuguese?

Or

  • What's the translation for "whatever" in Portuguese?

Are both correct? I've seen both in many texts (including this site), but I never know which one is correct.

Do you walk up or climb stairs

Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:45 AM PDT

Is it more correct to say "I climbed up the stairs" or "I walked up the stairs"?

Climb is defined as

go or come up a (slope or staircase); ascend.

Walk is defined as

an act of travelling or an outing on foot.

Both are theoretically correct, but is one more correct than the other?
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