Monday, September 20, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Can 'then' be used 'than' in english?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 11:01 AM PDT

I am not sure if this regional english (probably british) or obsolete english. here is the quote that I am refering to but I found this multiple times not just here.

soul in this world and the world to come and he does not see the glory  of the schichenah.(Zohar Vyeshev)```        Why is it `then` instead of `than`? This is very confusing.

How do I frame this juxtaposition sentence?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 10:17 AM PDT

How would you say something like "I've gone to an equal number of swim meets where I lost and meets where I have won" in a grammatically correct way (preferably in the shortest way possible, too). Should I say "I've attended just as many swim meets where I lost as I have those where I have won"?

The differences between settled down (in/at) or sitting at or seated at, which is best? [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 09:34 AM PDT

I would like to better understand the meaning and use of "settle down", "sitting at/on" or "seated" at...

For instance, is it correct to say :

They are all settled down in the living room.

Could you use to "settle down" in a sentence like :

The two friends are settled down at a table. or She is settling down on her chair.

Is it better to use :

They are all sitting in the living room.

or

The two friends are sitting at a table.

When can I use "seated" and how exactly ? What's the difference with "sitting at/on" or "settled in/down/at" etc. ?

Thank you !

How do you use "so much" in a sentence? [migrated]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 08:38 AM PDT

I am a non native English speaker. As far as I know, "so much" means a lot of something. However, I heard a conversation that went like this:

Person 1: "They can clean so much"
Person 2: "Yes, it wasn't like it used to be".

From hearing the conversation, I assumed that "they can clean so much" means they can't clean the way they used to in the past. Is that correct? Does that mean using "so much" in a sentence can also be when you want to say that a certain quantity is limited?

Quickest or Fastest? [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 08:16 AM PDT

What's the difference between quickest and fastest?

What's the right word for the phrase below?

Those seats fill up quickest/Those seats fill up fastest.

Origin of the term "level up"

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 09:03 AM PDT

The term "level up" is a current political buzz-phrase. The Tories have spoke much of how they are going to do this to deprived areas of the UK, and today it came out they're even renaming a department of the government 'Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities' (formerly housing and local government).

Prior to this intrusion in politics this is a term that I only ever encountered in video games. It always struck me very much as a word stolen back into English from Japanese-English. Interestingly however checking up a history of the term I do see that it has a history going back quite some way.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22level+up%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%22%20level%20up%20%22%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2C%22%20level%20up%20%22%3B%2Cc0

Does anyone have any insight into the actual history of the term and how it was originally used?

Was it at all similar to its current video-game influenced usage?

What is a single word for power-to-weight ratio?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 08:06 AM PDT

I am looking for a word that captures the spirit of power-to-weight ratio, but in a mostly non-technical sense.

The spirit I refer to is something like efficiency, productivity, bang-for-buck, or even return on investment, but also perhaps frugality and prudence.

Ideally there will be both noun and adjective forms.

The connotation should be unambiguously positive ("frugal" is too close to "penny-pinching"), and also intrinsically positive, so that additional qualifiers are not needed (for example, "efficiency" must be qualified as either "high efficiency" or "low efficiency").

"Efficiency" and "prudence" together come closest, but is there a single word capturing both?

Example usage in sentences:

  • "The word of the new camera tripod makes it attractive for professional fieldwork"
  • "Environmentally conscious consumers are increasingly demanding word products that minimize waste without compromising performance"

Origin of the phrase "dotting the i's and crossing the t's"

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 07:18 AM PDT

I know what that phrase means, but I would like to know how this phrase may have been originated.

Here's what I think (I am no expert, far from it):

People used to predominantly write in cursive style during the time when this phrase was coined. As you know in cursive writing one would first write out the whole word (which is the bulk of the actual writing) with a single touch-down of the pen, and then "dot their i's and cross their t's" (which can be considered as final touches). Thus, the phrase "dotting the i's and crossing the t's" was coined to refer to any final touches to something which is almost complete but needs some fine tuning.

Is that how the phrase was coined?

Not everyone is made for this. Neither is every bike [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 06:00 AM PDT

context: I want to say that not everyone is made for mountain biking. And not every bike is made for the sport either. So don't just buy a random bike, get a proper one. can someone help please?

Does grammar become tricky when ‘she is’ becomes ‘they is/are’? [duplicate]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:25 AM PDT

Hilary Mantel said recently that she had been 'misgendered' in a university publication by being referred to as 'they', not 'she'. She says she was not singled out; all other alumni were similarly referred to as 'they', not 'he' or 'she'.

From La Republica

"I recently found myself 'misgendered.' I received a university publication, with news items relating to alumni, where I was referred to as 'they,' not 'she.' My books were 'their books.' I wasn't singled out – the other alumni were similarly treated."

"I thought, 'Being a woman means a lot to me. My sense of it has been tested. I have thought deeply about it. I value it, even though it has meant struggle and pain. I do not want my womanhood confiscated in print. It is not right to deprive an individual of identity on a whim, and make him or her into something neuter, plural. I have not given my consent to become a grammatical error.'"

So my question is: where it's known that 'they' is being used for the singular, which of the following is now considered grammatically correct: "They are a graduate"? Or "They is a graduate"?

Causes becoming "numb"?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:25 AM PDT

In the following sentence I want to use the word "numb" in a metaphorical way: "All causes became numb" Meaning, causes couldn't help the person who ended up in a certain situation. Is it possible to use this word like this?

The content is religious and contains lots of metaphors... A summary of the well-known story of Jonah: He was cast into the sea and swallowed by a large fish. The sea was stormy, the night was turbulent and dark, and in an allround hopeless state, the supplication: "There is no God but You, Glory to You; surely I became one of the wrongdoers!" swiftly became his means of salvation. The following unravels the astonishing mystery of this supplication: Under those circumstances all causes became numb. For to rescue him in that state, there was a need for an Entity Who could subject the fish, the sea, the night and the sky to His Command.

Can you replace an em-dash with a comma?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 08:01 AM PDT

If I were to say something like

This is something that is revolutionary—that will redefine our society.

Can you use a comma instead of an em dash? In all cases? What are the rules?

What is the difference between an action noun and a collective noun? [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 02:40 AM PDT

Someone was feeling happy (state A), and then he is feeling sad (state B). Then, we can call it both "a series (collective noun) of states" and "a change (action noun) of state."

I wonder what difference exists between "a series of states" and "a change of state."

What is a saying for "a bookish inexperience preaching the experienced"

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 04:10 AM PDT

Like Preaching to the choir means to speak for or against something to people who already agree with one's opinions.

What is saying when an idealist, bookish inexperience, fresh-out-of-college employee/group of employees (like a department) is/are put on the helm (and given enough power) and they start to preach the experienced, practical, seasoned employee/group of employees (the other department) about te following:

1.) the ideal procedures and protocols that should be followed like obsession with standardization (even if these procedures are redundant to subject matters) 2.) Bring in ideas that are new and fresh for inexperienced but the organization (experienced Departments) have been tested and failed before. 3.) Bring in Over the top ideas that are simply laughable if exchanged in business circles but are given serious time of the day.

when they themselves lack experience of how the market, the industry or the world works.

Note: If you are thinking how could this be happening, this might occur in combination of nepotism, cronyism and/or in Laissez-faire or seagull management style

These inexperienced department who have power over the others departments but have zero experience with the other department's work flow, still just because they have been given power they preach the more wiser departments.

Do I need to pronounce exactly every sound of English in IELTS? [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 01:31 AM PDT

The problem is I just finished learning the 44 sounds of English and I'm concerning about words that I know may have been pronounced wrong before I learnt the 44 sounds. Does it affect much and if it does how do I improve and fix it?

How to understand the `on behalf of` in this sentence?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 01:24 AM PDT

How to understand the on behalf of in this sentence?

Work is some processing that Boost.Asio has been requested to do on behalf of the application code.

I can understand "On behalf of the department I would like to thank you all. " indeed.

Can I use "Says you!" In reply to a compliment or an insult?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:00 AM PDT

I've heard speakers using that very expression ("Says you") in response to a compliment, which makes it closer to saying "Look who is talking" or "You're the one who deserves it". A quick search, though, only led me to the meaning "that's only your opinion" in an expression of disagreement or denial.

Why are the "sequence of tenses" rules not observed in some special cases? [closed]

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 06:10 AM PDT

An excerpt from an article on Yahoo: "The disappearances of two top Taliban figures from public view have prompted a spokesperson to deny that one of them had died, multiple outlets reported".

In the books on English Grammar the Present Perfect tense is described as involving a span of time from earliest memory to the present, i.e. the situation is expected to extend to the present moment (depicts some indefinite event(s)) or depicting past actions the effects of which continue up to the present time. Thus it makes Present Perfect appropriate to also introduce a topic of discourse or be used in the news (as it is in the pattern).

But in the pattern the action (of prompting) is implied to be finished before a definite moment in the past (before outlets reported). So abiding by the rules of "sequence of tenses" it should be put in the Past Perfect tense: The disappearances of two top Taliban figures from public view had prompted...

Is using Present Perfect here being an exception to the rule? If so, what are other exceptions when the "sequence of tenses" principles can or shall be not observed?

Comma after "perhaps" at the end of the sentence

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 10:00 AM PDT

Which one is correct?

  • I. "This is the worst day in this month, perhaps the worst in my life."
  • II. "This is the worst day in this month. Perhaps the worst in my life."

Should we offset the adverb perhaps with a comma from the independent sentence preceding it if it bears an emphatic meaning like this?

What do you call a "hidden" shape denoted by a dashed line?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 01:47 AM PDT

Is there a word (or short phrase, preferably two words) that describes a shape which is not visible, but whose presence is indicated (e.g. in an illustration, by a dashed line)? Particularly, an object that is behind the viewer?

So far, the closest words I've come up with are: silhouette, phantom, occlusion, overlay.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

example

Here, the objects (conceptually, skylights in a map of a warehouse) are represented by a dashed line, but an umbrella in a video game that turns transparent when the player walks under it would be another example. (Note that the helpful red arrows are only pointing to two of the four such objects. This is because I am lazy, not because the ones on the left are somehow different.)

"Would there be an availability" vs "Is there an availability" for appointment scheduling?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:07 AM PDT

It's my understanding that the first is a more formal version of the second phrase however I'm not quite certain that's the case or that they mean the exact same thing.

The state of not knowing and/or ignoring each other

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:42 AM PDT

I'm looking for a word that expresses the state of not knowing and/or ignoring each other.

In a blog post, I've found the term Principle of Mutual Oblivion. This is supposed to be a rule in software engineering that states that two things should not know each other (to be more precise: Two modules at the same level of abstraction should not know each other).

The word oblivion feels strange to me here. I know two meanings of the word oblivion:

  1. the state of no longer being known (to sink/fall into oblivion)
  2. to be unconscious, sleeping, or otherwise unaware of everything around (to drink oneself into oblivion).

Wiktionary, MacMillan, and Merriam-Webster support this.

Can oblivion be the noun that precisely corresponds to to be oblivious to something (in the sense of completely ignoring or not knowing something specific)? It seems to me that it is meant in that way here.

If oblivion is not the right word in that context, what's a better word? In the concrete case, it doesn't matter if the word expresses willingly ignoring something specific or the lack of knowledge of something specific. But it should not express being completely unaware of everything. It should also be a neutral term. I came up with ignorance, i.e., Principle of Mutual Ignorance. Is that better?

What is the correct term for 'misleading' investigations?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 05:04 AM PDT

I am looking for the more common and correct term used when someone tries to misdirect investigations on a crime that has been committed .

For example,

a murderer who tries to create false evidence so that possibly someone else is suspected of the crime they committed.

I think that "mislead or misdirect " investigations can be used, but is there a more precise term used in these specific cases.

N.B. I am not referring to "alibi".

What if we met tomorrow? vs What if we meet tomorrow?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 02:13 AM PDT

I just asked a friend: "What if we met tomorrow?" My girlfriend called me out on it and says it should be: "What if we meet tomorrow?" In my head both sound fine, but I know I couldn't say: "Could we met tomorrow?", so I'm starting to doubt myself. It does seem strange to use the past tense "met" to describe a future event, so is it technically wrong?

Thanks in advance :)

Is there something incorrect about the phrase "fall back asleep"?

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 04:19 AM PDT

A quick Google search shows that the phrase seems to be in relatively common usage, but for some reason I find the construct very awkward.

I would say "fall asleep" the first time, and then "fall back to sleep" if awakened.

Saying "fall back asleep" sounds wrong to me in a similar way to "(I tripped but am) back running". Is something wrong with the tense? A case of "coming back to the present"?

What is the difference between a "category" and a "type"

Posted: 20 Sep 2021 02:30 AM PDT

Is there a difference between the terms category and type? I can't seem to figure out when I should use one over the other.
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