Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- What is the effect of using dashes between each word in a sentence?
- What is the meaning of the sentence - "I was living my own metaphor" [migrated]
- How do I use a conjunction to join two clauses directly after a list of terms?
- Is there a word for an object that you don't recognize outside of a specific depiction of it? [closed]
- What is the one-word synonym for "less crowded" in English?
- How to figure out about if country is a place or thing [closed]
- Is this joke really ironic or is it just a joke? [closed]
- Usage of the phrase "I haven't seen anything like this in my entire career" [closed]
- Is there a term for someone who takes a long time explaining simple things? [duplicate]
- Meaning Of "A Town That Still Feels Hundreds Of Years Old"?
- Confused about the construction of a sentence [closed]
- Do these statements convey different information or are they essentially the same . If they are different please clarify their usage. Thanks [duplicate]
- What is the meaning of “awe”? [closed]
- Yourself vs By yourself/On your own
- Meaning of "It is also a mile high up in the sky."
- What's the correct form of the word "esoterics", it being a subject? [duplicate]
- Looking for an appropriate idiomatic phrase "the joy in competing" or similar
- An appropriate word for a mathematical object
- Why should we go ahead? [closed]
- What is the modern equivalent of "caitiff"? [closed]
- What would make grammatic sense: DC current or just DC, when describing type of current?
- Is it incorrect to use things you have a pair of in the singular like “this pants is, this glasses is, this scissors is”? Can I do it anyway?
- What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences? Is there any at all? [closed]
- Ways to convey a sense of attentiveness and responsiveness to something beyond your control?
- Thematic comparison of 'collaborative' vs 'collective' in literature or culture
- What do you call a person who is guided by someone or something else in a mentor/assistent manner?
- Meaning and interpretation of Bilbo's "half as well" quote
- Usage of the slang "a man Friday" in English conversation
- "Magic" versus "magical"
- "Where do you get off...?" Origin
| What is the effect of using dashes between each word in a sentence? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:38 AM PDT In The Bluest Eye, there is a quote:
When reading, I was a bit confused and curious as to Morrison's choice of dashing between each word. Could someone, perhaps, elaborate on this choice? In context, the quote is being said by African-American adults towards an African-American little girl, with the location being Ohio.  |
| What is the meaning of the sentence - "I was living my own metaphor" [migrated] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:21 AM PDT I just started reading the book "The Alchemist". In the beginning, the author is talking about how no one was buying his book. He writes - "But I never lost faith in the book or ever wavered in my vision. Why? Because it was me in there, all of me, heart and soul. I was living my own metaphor." Here, what does it mean when the author says that he was living his own metaphor.  |
| How do I use a conjunction to join two clauses directly after a list of terms? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:13 AM PDT I am trying to offer a choice between two options, the first of which has several sub-options. I'm unsure how to express this in a grammatically correct and clear manner. What I have currently is basically
The two main options are "access" or "create", and "access" has options "one, two, or three". Does this structure make sense as written? If not, how can it be improved for clarity?  |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:06 AM PDT I was messing around on the internet when I saw a picture of an eraser on a white background, and it took me a good few seconds to realize that this eraser, without any kind of visual context, was an eraser, I just thought it was some sort of random shape. Is there a word for items like this?  |
| What is the one-word synonym for "less crowded" in English? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 09:39 AM PDT This is really funny! I've been searching about this for a while now. I think it should be a very frequent word that I can instantly recognize upon hearing but no words come to my mind. Let's say there is a park which is very crowded on the weekends and not so much on workdays. How would you describe the park in those days that not too many people go? How would you fill the sentence "The park is [blank] today!"? My problem with "less crowded" is that it's not really the actual word but rather we're trying to convey the meaning by using its antonym. It's like calling a well-lit place "not dark." It is true but there is already a direct word for that meaning. Upon searching I found some other words that could fill the blank like "secluded" or "solitude." But I feel like "secluded" is a place that is always empty of people. Not a place that is less crowded from time to time. You cannot say the park is secluded today! That sounds ridiculous to me! There are also words like "vacant" that seem like overkill. I guess there are no people (or maybe a handful of people) in a vacant place. I have a unique word for this in my own native language and when somebody asked me for its equivalence in English, I really couldn't figure it out.  |
| How to figure out about if country is a place or thing [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 08:26 AM PDT I can not figure out if country is a place or thing.  |
| Is this joke really ironic or is it just a joke? [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 08:58 AM PDT Most jokes are not meant to be taken seriously nor literally. But that doesn't automatically make it irony, even if the definition of irony is "saying one thing and meaning another". Example. Y is making up a story (lying). It is very obvious that is not true, but Y wants the audience to think that it's true. Y: Yesterday when I was at the restaurant and said this …, it ended with them dying of laughter and I didn't have to pay for my food" X:"Yes, it's true. I was there, believe it or not. Everybody in the restaurant was giving a standing ovation and the waitresses were shouting and dancing." The exaggeration implies that X's statement is not true and is said to show how unrealistic Y's story is. When someone asked if she was serious she replied "I was being ironic". Was X really ironic, or was she just making a joke? Another example could be: A: there are several countries in the world that do not have any food at all, so you have to finish your plate. B: What country doesn't have any food? C: Africa Is C also ironic? He obviously knows it's not true, and the joke relies on stereotypes and wrong terminology. If that is irony, isn't most punchlines ironic (if it's not a pun and that kind of thing) ?  |
| Usage of the phrase "I haven't seen anything like this in my entire career" [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 07:08 AM PDT I was having a discussion with a friend on how the phrase "I haven't seen anything like this in my entire career" should be used and who would be the appropriate person to use it. My opinion was that this ideally should be used by a person who has had long enough experience in a field, else it sounds pompous and a little ridiculous. Also the whole point of making this statement would be to either emphasise how ridiculous the situation was or how great a job someone had done. By my friend had a different opinion , stating that anyone could use this expression and it does not necessarily mean to highlight how great or how bad the situation was, instead it could be simply used in place of "I've never seen anything like this before" just to express that the person hadn't experienced or seen this before as in the thing was new, and not to express any particular reaction to the situation. What would be the situation or person to use that phrase?  |
| Is there a term for someone who takes a long time explaining simple things? [duplicate] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 08:57 AM PDT Is there a term for someone who takes a long time to explain simple things, but goes through the complicated ones very briefly? We had a refresher course on a software we already use, the presenter took a long time to go over some basic forms that everyone already knew how to use, but explained the tricky stuff very briefly. At the end of the meeting the presenter got flooded with questions. I've seen this before. Is there a word / term /phrase for this? (Edit) Some comments from the participants:
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| Meaning Of "A Town That Still Feels Hundreds Of Years Old"? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 05:45 AM PDT Given the example:
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| Confused about the construction of a sentence [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 05:11 AM PDT Today I came across this sentence: "He talks clear and witty." Is it a grammatically correct sentence?  |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2021 04:45 AM PDT Statement A:
Statement B
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| What is the meaning of “awe”? [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 04:42 AM PDT According to Oxford dictionary:
My question: How do one have feelings of respect and slight fear at the same time? What cause this feeling?  |
| Yourself vs By yourself/On your own Posted: 07 Sep 2021 04:57 AM PDT I'm confused with this sentence:
So my book says the correct answer is "yourself". Is it grammatically incorrect to use "By yourself/On your own" in the sentence? If these two options are both correct, is there any difference between them in this case?  |
| Meaning of "It is also a mile high up in the sky." Posted: 07 Sep 2021 03:45 AM PDT Given the example:
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| What's the correct form of the word "esoterics", it being a subject? [duplicate] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 01:14 AM PDT What noun would one use to define the whole area of esoteric related matters? In some dictionaries, it is "Esoteric" or "Esotericism", in others - "Esoterics" or "Esoterica". Which of them are the most appropriate? For example, an "Esoterics and Parapsycology Training Centre" (a centre where they study such subjects as parapsychology and esoterics). Which that be correct: esoteric or esoterics? Or "a diploma in Esoterica". How should the correct version sound?  |
| Looking for an appropriate idiomatic phrase "the joy in competing" or similar Posted: 07 Sep 2021 06:27 AM PDT I'm looking for an idiomatic phrase that lies between "the thrill of victory" and "the agony of defeat", in the competition itself, enjoying it for its own sake -- something like "the joy in competing" (which gets a few thousand Google hits, but not loads.) Otherwise I could go with something like "competing for the sake of enjoyment". Does anything else come to mind?  |
| An appropriate word for a mathematical object Posted: 07 Sep 2021 04:53 AM PDT I am looking for a word to call a mathematical object. This object is the intersection of infinitely many sets (indeed balls), to distinguish this object which is a set we need to give it a name. I would appreciate any suggestion.  |
| Why should we go ahead? [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 12:16 AM PDT "Go ahead" has been used for a long time as a form of giving permission. For example in an instructional setting the instructor explains a task, then says "Now go ahead with the task". Or in the context "Can I ask you a question?" "Go ahead". In the past years I've been noticing this expression to gain ground. US content creators and instructors nowadays hardly ever seem to do anything or instruct others to do, they go ahead. As in "I will now go ahead and open this application. Then I will go ahead and create a new file. Next I'll go ahead and create a heading" and so on; you get the picture. I don't remember this being nearly as prevalent in the aughts. So what's the deal - just adding fluff to increase the length of the video?  |
| What is the modern equivalent of "caitiff"? [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 12:09 AM PDT Even though words such as scoundrel, caitiff, or dastard aren't exactly archaic, you don't hear them much in today's conversation. Not much. That said, the all-encompassing asshole is too general, I think, in the sense that it can mean a whole lot of different things. Is there a contemporary term for a despicable person hellbent on committing base and/or dishonorable acts?  |
| What would make grammatic sense: DC current or just DC, when describing type of current? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 09:27 AM PDT I am writing about currents like AC and DC types. AC stands for Alternating Current and DC stands for Direct Current. Would it make sense when writing if i wrote like this: "I am going to use DC current" or "I am going to use DC"? It sounds grammatically wrong when saying "DC current", because i am repeating current twice in an expanded form of DC. But when saying just "DC", it also sounds wrong, because I'm not describing what DC is. Can you please tell me which is the correct form? Thanks for your time.  |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2021 05:28 AM PDT I myself always use the singular for things that comes in pairs such as pants, glasses, scissors and the like because I am referring to whatever I am talking about as one singular unit not two units. That is, my preference for:
Over:
Because to me the glasses as in one singular pair of eyeglasses used as one unit counts as not two but just one single physical object. I realize this might not be correct, but to me feels more logically accurate. Does this sound wrong to native speakers? If it does, can I do it anyway?  |
| What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences? Is there any at all? [closed] Posted: 07 Sep 2021 02:48 AM PDT What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences? (Assume that his first game at the club is not in the distant future.)
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| Ways to convey a sense of attentiveness and responsiveness to something beyond your control? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 04:56 AM PDT What are metaphors or English sayings for conveying a sense of attentiveness and responsiveness to something? I am particularly interested in something akin to "emotion surfing" as it conveys:
I want to find a metaphor (that isn't overused) to convey staying in contact with something in an attentive way so that you "get something out of it" like a surfer rides a wave. It's important that there is an element of "going with the flow" because struggling against it is as futile as trying to control waves on the ocean. It would also be helpful to capture a sense of temporality in the same way that ocean waves perpetually rise and fall.  |
| Thematic comparison of 'collaborative' vs 'collective' in literature or culture Posted: 07 Sep 2021 05:02 AM PDT I'm trying to brand a product with either the word 'collaborative' or 'collective', but I am having trouble imagining what the well known thematic usage is with either word. I've always seen them used interchangeably. The definitions seem pretty similar:
My guess is that someone with a literature or world history background would be able to help me parse the difference or nuance I'm trying to identify.  |
| What do you call a person who is guided by someone or something else in a mentor/assistent manner? Posted: 07 Sep 2021 08:57 AM PDT If a tourist is guided through a city by a tour guide, what would be the term to use to refer to that tourist as a function of the guiding? Best I can come up with is guided one, but that sounds a bit bland. Are there any better terms for this? I'm looking for a term that can be used in a context where the term is the only thing that indicates guidance. some context about the guidance: The guide has a subordinate role, providing sensory information and advice to the person being guided. The person being guided is less a follower and more a master, but I don't want to use the term master because that feels too much like slavery. It's also not really a student/teacher relationship, because the information flows the wrong direction for that. Essentially, the guide has a role somewhere between mentor and assistent, and it's that role that I want to reflect in the term. example:
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| Meaning and interpretation of Bilbo's "half as well" quote Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:27 AM PDT In The Lord of The Rings, Bilbo says the following to his assembled guests at his eleventy first birthday party:
What is the meaning of this quote? Is there more than one way to interpret it?  |
| Usage of the slang "a man Friday" in English conversation Posted: 07 Sep 2021 01:42 AM PDT Our Boss was talking with someone and he said,
Does the Boss mean the clerk typist is the person who he/she trust? And can I use this slang for a woman?
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| Posted: 07 Sep 2021 07:41 AM PDT Two-part question. We say magic wand and magical creature, and swapping the adjectives sound wrong, even if they are technically right.
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| "Where do you get off...?" Origin Posted: 07 Sep 2021 10:30 AM PDT I remembered a phrase this morning "Where do you get off...?" (last entry), which is similar to "Who do you think you are...?" or "What gives you the right to...?" or "How dare you...?". Due to its scarcity in my favorite online dictionaries, I wondered if the phrase was new. But it's been used as early as 1913. Wanting to know its origin I found this discussion with several good ideas, including "Where do you get off...?" being:
But the discussion is informal. Is there formal evidence for what the original implication of "Where do you get off...?" was?  |
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