Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Please help me with this ,i cant [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 08:58 AM PDT

Charles Wilson was a great artist who had a wonderful career. He (1) ____ lots of prizes before he was twenty. By the age of twenty-five (2)______ his own exhibition. He (3)______ the subject of TV documentary by the time he was thirty

  1. a)is winning b wins c)has won d)won
  2. a) has had b)had had c)wouldhave d)will have

3)a)became b)has become c)had become d)become

How to hyphenate "corned beef filled"?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 08:07 AM PDT

"Tuna-filled" is hyphenated correctly, right?

If we were to fill something with "corned beef", how would we write "corned beef filled"? Where would the hyphen go?

Why do we use "than" when we are saying an amount desired is greater or lesser such as in "more than" or "less than"? [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:01 AM PDT

Why do we use "than" when saying an amount is greater or lesser amount desired such as in the phrase "more than" or "less than" when there is no comparison? is it an idiom that a separate meaning develops with the phrase?

The meaning of "pertinent activities" [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 05:34 AM PDT

I wrote this sentence:

The most appropriate solution is that parents should try to ascertain the subjects that engage their children and seek for providers of the pertinent activities.

Did I express myself clearly that the phrase "pertinent activities" refers to the activities that are relevant with "the subjects that engage their children".

Why is scissors /ˈsɪz.əz/ and not /ˈsɪz.ɜ:ʳz/?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 08:45 AM PDT

I am an English teacher, but have not studied phonetics much.

The sound əz is the same sound we find in "houses" "causes" "ages" "beaches". The dictionaries say that the word "scissors" contains the same sound – /ˈsɪz.əz/

However, I believe it should be this sound – ɜ:ʳz – which we find in "hers" "furs" "acres" "brothers" etc.

Am I missing something?

A word similar in meaning to "platitude", but that does not imply truth

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 09:19 AM PDT

I was under the assumption that the word "platitude" implied that a statement was untrue, but according to the Cambridge online dictionary:

a remark or statement that may be true but is boring and has no meaning because it has been said so many times before

The statement "There are other fish in the sea", seems to fit this definition, but the following does not:

"We can do anything as long as we muster the resources and believe that we can achieve".

If I want to fly like a bird, and I muster all my resources and willpower, my feet will remain very firmly attached to the Earth.

Is there a word or phrase that means that an aphorism is devoid of any truth?

What are the qualities of a good english teacher? [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 04:38 AM PDT

It's my first time using this site. I have a question that's been on my mind for awhile.

What do you think are some qualities of a good english teacher?

Context:

Currently I'm still pursuing my education at University. Over a period of time, I realized that I quite enjoy the process of teaching. My original goal was to teach philosophy or something related to my degree (Business Analytics) but my country doesn't really have any avenues for me to teach these subjects. My english skills have been pretty alright and I've managed to score good grades for english papers before coming to university ( I know that good grades don't mean that you will be a good teacher ).

I'm actually staying in Singapore and english is actually a primary language for most of us. However our language capabilities are nowhere near countries such as the US or UK. Currently I'm in the process of getting into my country's teaching course so that I can be a licensed teacher and teach in a Secondary school ( students will be between 12-16 years old ).

Although I'm sure that I will be happy if I choose this route as my career I'm afraid that I may be letting my students down by not being that good of an english teacher.

Any advice would be great!

PS: Sorry if this isn't the right page to ask this question. I'm not too sure where else I can find a community like this.

Should I write one month's rent, or should it be one months' rent? [migrated]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 04:17 AM PDT

Should I write one month's rent, or should it be one months' rent, when used in this context:

The rent is currently £XXX.00 per calendar month, payable monthly in advance, with the first months' rent payable direct to ...

Has vs Have vs had [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 04:12 AM PDT

For this sentence, should it be had/has/have?

The book captured the nature of grief in ways no other books has/have/had for me.

Transforming to or into something else [migrated]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 01:36 AM PDT

My doubt relies on whereas to use to or into in this specific sentence/sense: Transforming a pair of old shoes into the most awesome ones.

I want to ask about use of "use" or "using" [migrated]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 12:31 AM PDT

Sample sentence:

App to connect photographers with users who need photographers using/use website.

Question:

Are both options correct?

What's the word for something that's not measured but is also important [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 12:16 AM PDT

Something that doesn't show up in OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) but just as important. I'm thinking something related to soft skills but can't seem to pin it.

"Nineteenth hundred and sive" instead of "Nineteenth hundred and seven"

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 12:42 AM PDT

From the copyright page of Retana's Vida y escritos del Rizal (1907)

Se acabó de imprimir el 30 de Junio de 1907. — Inscripto en la oficina de la Propiedad literaria de los Estados Unidos, donde fué presentado el 22 de Julio siguente, de conformidad con la Ley al efecto de 3 de Marzo de 1905, á solicitud de W. E. Retana.

Published June 30, nineteenth hundred and sive. — Privilege of copyright in the United States reserved under the Act approved March 3, 1905 by

(signature of Retana)

Note that the phrase "30 de Junio de 1907" is translated to "June 30, nineteenth hundred and sive". Is "sive" here an old-timey way of saying "seven", or is this just a simple mistranslation?

Word for the state of being pathological

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 04:15 AM PDT

As much as one could refer to a pathogenic disease by its pathogenicity, could one refer to a pathological state by its pathologenicity? Is that even a word or could be a word?

agreement of the subject complement with the subject

Posted: 21 Sep 2021 07:58 PM PDT

A colleague of mine asked me, "Can we say 'My favorite food is hamburgers.'"

I said of course it is correct. But she said a native speaker says it is wrong. It should be "My favorite food is the hamburger."

I know there are some similar questions here answered before. in this post: Subject/Complement Agreement. How to describe problem with "The thing is the objects."

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It is what I think. I just want to see what you guys think here and now.

Can the word "rook" be used as a verb in chess?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 08:03 AM PDT

According to Merriam-Webster, the word queen can be used as a verb with the meaning "to become a queen in chess". I am wondering if the work rook can be used in the same way: Is it grammatically correct to use the work rook in chess to mean "to become a rook in chess"?

For example:

White has rooked his pawn to prevent stalemate.

Is this sentence grammatically correct?

What is being modified in a phrase like rock hard or water resistant?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:28 AM PDT

"The water-resistant shoes are great for rainy days." "The table is rock hard." In these sentences, I know "water resistant" modifies shoes and rock hard modifies table. Does "hard" modify "rock" and does "resistant" modify "water?" I am confused on this.

English tenses past or present [duplicate]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:25 AM PDT

He mentioned she liked flowers.

He mentioned she likes flowers.

Which is correct and why?

Formal synonym for "sick of [food]"?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 07:25 AM PDT

For example, if someone's boss caters Chipotle every week, is there a word or phrase to substitute for "sick of" that's more polite and formal when confronting the boss?

Origin of the term "level up"

Posted: 21 Sep 2021 09:52 PM PDT

The term "level up" is a current political buzz-phrase. The Tories have spoken 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 into 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 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
Or try this one.

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?

Do we need "on" in this sentence?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 10:03 AM PDT

In Steve Jobs's biography by Walter Isaacson, the author writes:

...another health issue that became increasingly problematic, one that medical researchers didn't focus on as rigorously as they did cancer or pain.

I feel like you need an additional on after they did:

focus on as rigorously as they did on cancer.

It wouldn't be necessary if there were no they did but maybe I am missing something?

Is there any standard terminology to describe how advanced a topic is?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 09:54 AM PDT

Background:
I have been searching for succinct language for referring to how "advanced" a topic or skill might be. I've found things like Integrative Complexity and the Model of Hierarchical Complexity, which seems to describe a school of thought, but falls short of providing consistent language for comparing examples within that school of thought. By "advanced", I am intending to communicate a greater amount of pre-requisite knowledge and/or a higher degree of complexity.

I toyed around with some terminology such as "Depth of Knowledge Required" at first, but it seemed lacking to me for some reason.

Question:
Is there a published set of language one could refer to in order to describe the concept of how advanced/complex a particular topic or skill is?

Edit:
An example application where this terminology would be helpful could be in determining what the appropriate course of action would be to introduce a concept/topic to another person. For clarification, how would I compare the following two examples:

Computational Genomics in general might require additional knowledge compared to biological taxonomy

Non-linear dynamics involves many more pre-requisites than does algebra.

It's not that either option can't be complex or involve high level work, but to engage with the topic for the first time one clearly would be more difficult to approach than the other.

Is there a collective word for the different "alphabets" used by different languages?

Posted: 21 Sep 2021 09:52 PM PDT

As I believe "alphabet" refers specifically to the latin a-z, is there a term that collectively refers to all collections of writing characters. ie, if I had a list that contained the entries "Latin, Kanji, Cyrillic" etc, what would that list be called? A single word is preferable, as I need the term to describe such a list in software I'm writing.

Note the answer is not "language" - eg English, French, German etc are all languages, but all use the Latin alphabet. On the other hand, Japanese is a language that can be written using Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Latin 'systems'. It's a hypernym for these 'systems' I'm after, not the languages.

Term for person who puts the good of others before himself to an unhealthy point where he suffers greatly

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:09 AM PDT

"You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm".

If you wanted refer to the kind of person this quote talks about, what name/term would you use?

I am looking for a single word that would describe this personality, something along the lines of "giving your lunch money for a hungry friend is for the good, but giving your rent money for a hungry neighbor is for the ~word I am looking for~".

What does "why yes" mean?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 07:07 AM PDT

In this chat on github I found:

A. I made some changes. Please review.

B. Awesome, thanks!

A. Why yes, of course

What A means in his last sentence?

In general, is "why yes" a stronger "yes"?

"Fill in" or "enter" the text fields

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:00 AM PDT

In the documentation file I am working on right now, I have to inform user about filling some optional and mandatory text fields.

Which verb better describes the "putting some text in the field" - "fill in" or "enter"? Here are two examples:

  1. In the newly opened Add Currency window (see Picture 4) fill in Name and Short Name fields and put a check mark next to Default currency checkbox (if required).
  2. In the newly opened Add Currency window (see Picture 4) enter Name and Short Name fields and put a check mark next to Default currency checkbox (if required).

Thanks in advance.

What does "cat in the hat" mean? [closed]

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:59 AM PDT

I have seen this idiom recently. Cat in the hat. What does it mean?

For instance, Memphis performer Key Glock in his song Mr Glock raps:

I'm on my Memphis sxxt, these bxxxxxs coming in a pack, uh These nxxxs pxxxy cat, straight cap, Cat in Hat, yeah https://genius.com/Key-glock-mr-glock-lyrics

Who ''coined'' the term “scare quotes,” and why is the word “scare” used?

Posted: 22 Sep 2021 06:41 AM PDT

I have seen this term used frequently and I had never heard of it until a few months ago. I am wondering if most readers of general newspapers and magazines (where such a term is often used) are aware of its meaning and understand why it is called a quote-unquote "scare" quote.

In British English, should it be "licensee" or "licencee"?

Posted: 21 Sep 2021 11:39 PM PDT

We all know that "license" in American English is "licence" in British English. But what about the person to whom the licence is given?

Various dictionaries show the 'c' version, e.g.:

Additionally, I can see other resources in my own country using this spelling, e.g.:

But managers in my own company (in Australia) claim to have done "a lot of research" on the subject and decided to use the 's' version. This seems wrong to me, but I would like a better answer to the question before I decide whether to request a change or just change our spell checking to allow their spelling.

Why is a transportation by road called a "Shipment" but a transportation by seaways called "Cargo"?

Posted: 21 Sep 2021 07:55 PM PDT

I was just reading an article concerning a product trade and transports between countries and came through these words that made me wonder about their differences.
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