Thursday, September 9, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"Remain a work in progress."

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 10:13 AM PDT

I want to have "Remain a work in progress" engraved on my iPad. Is it grammatically correct?

Constructions of the form 'He has committed I don't know how many crimes.'

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:51 AM PDT

What is the grammar (or syntax, if you will) of constructions of the form of the below sentence?

He has committed I don't know how many crimes.

In this sentence, for example, what is the grammatical role of the clause 'I don't know how many crimes'. Is it the object of the verb 'committed', and what type of clause is it?

using "taught" and "learned" in sentences [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 07:50 AM PDT

Please let me know the flaws in the following two sentences, I cannot understand what is the problem, especially in the bold portions, if these sentences are correct, please let me know:

" Doing research under Dr. Jacob's supervision taught me how to work under pressure. I learned this important life skill when I had to submit a research paper within a week "

Do I have to use "about" after "learned" in the 2nd sentence?

I intend to use these sentences in my formal writing.....

Thanks....

What is the difference between using "could" and "will" in a sentence? [migrated]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:03 AM PDT

I have constructed 2 sentences using "could" and "will." What's the difference in meaning between those 2 sentences?

I hope that today I will finally win a medal.
vs.
I hope that today I could finally win a medal.

What is the difference between a 'fire door' and a 'burning door'?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 09:16 AM PDT

I have a question about the English word "fire".

Does fire have many meanings like flames or strong emotion, doesn't it?

But, it does not have the meaning same as "fireproof " or "fire-resistant", right?

So why does the word "fire door" mean "fire-resistant door"? When I read the word "fire door" for the first time, I thought that means "burning door".

The same question can be said to the word "fire department ". Is that burning department? No, it's the department for firefighters.

Firefighters is the word which mean the people who fight the fire!! I can understand that well.

But, fire door… I have no idea why it means fireproof door.

Can someone please explain why this isn't correct? [migrated]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:14 AM PDT

My classmate argues that "Studying British girls is smart" is grammatically correct because "[Eating] {apples} is [healthy]" is correct. They are using "Studying British girls is smart" to mean "British girls who study are smart".

'Car repair vendor' or 'Repair car vendor' [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 04:25 AM PDT

'Car repair vendor' or 'Repair car vendor'. Which is correct?

Usage of "tamped" in relation to gasses and non-solids? Also, looking for alternatives to "compressed"? [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 04:51 AM PDT

I have a question for the usage of the past participle, tamped, in relation to gasses and non-solids. Take the example sentence that describes gas escaping from a bottle:

"Tamped gas bursts from the bottle."

Or perhaps:

"Tamped-up gas bursts from the bottle."

My understanding is that tamped is more often used in relation to solids, as in soil or coffee that has been packed down. But I am wondering if either of these sentences makes sense?

Another alternative I have thought of is pent-up, as in:

"Pent-up gas bursts from the bottle."

(One might ask, why not just use compressed? But, to be honest, I just feel like the word compressed doesn't have much "oomph" to it.)

Schedule problem

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 05:10 AM PDT

I've had my professor's text, as follows:

Select which you would like to come to: the first (= Class A) or second (= Class B) day/time-slot available on your weekly schedule.

Here is the question. I have two classes per week. (Mon & Fri) I will have my first class ever next Friday. But in a week, Monday comes before Friday right?

Can anyone tell me your thoughts? Class A is Monday or Friday?

Solve these Tag questions [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 01:11 AM PDT

Question Tag:

  1. He's read in the classroom for his attendance, ……..?

  2. He's resigned from the post, ………?

  3. He's a bard for a long time, ……?

  4. He's his work done at office, ……?

  5. I've my assignment done at college, ……..?

  6. He's spilled over all the works, ……..?

  7. He's reading the book the other day, ……..?

  8. He's seldom a good human being, …….?

  9. There's little water left in the jar, ……..?

  10. There're few students attending the class, ……..?

  11. So you're a doctor, ……..?

  12. You ought to come in time, ………?

  13. One should help other people, ……?

  14. One of the teachers remained absent yesterday, …….?

  15. One of the dusters remained lost for a long time, ……..?

  16. The Registrar hit the cake for all delegates, ………?

  17. He'd fried rice for lunch those days, ……..?

  18. I've boiled eggs for breakfast everyday, …….?

  19. They need come here in time, ……..?

  20. One of the participants left the meeting in time, ……?

  21. Ram as well as his friends came to help us, …….?

  22. Ram along with his mates should work hard for exams, ……?

  23. Ram accompanied with many other people may turn up any time, …..?

Using "and" at the end of list which has another item with "and" inside [duplicate]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 01:38 AM PDT

I have a list like this.

His topic of interest are GIS, automation and image and data fusion.

Here, the last item name "image and data fusion" is a single item. Is my writing correct?

What do you call concrete structures protecting beaches?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 01:09 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).

When does an adjective become a noun? [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 06:00 AM PDT

E.g. the use of the word "agile" on its own in place of "agile software development" or "lean" on its own in place of "lean management"?

OP is thinking of instances like: "Agile has really helped us with getting products out the door in a timely fashion" or "According to the principles of lean we need to identify and map our value stream" (Thanks Jim)

Are these examples of adjectives becoming nouns or of something else?

Thanks in advance

How does the word "today" make sense?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:51 AM PDT

So I'm currently reading a book from the 1930s (Lost Horizon), where some language conventions are quite different than the language conventions I am used to today.

One thing piqued my interest: The words "today" and "tomorrow" are written as "to-day" and "to-morrow". This immediately made me wonder where exactly those words came from.

I could make sense of "to-morrow" pretty quickly after seeing the definition of "morrow" in the dictionary:

  • archaic: MORNING
  • the next day
  • the time immediately after a specified event

However, "to-day" makes little to no sense to me:

The dictionary states that "day" roughly means "the time of light between one night and the next."

If we go by that definition, "to-day" or "today" roughly means "by day" and doesn't specify the day like "to-morrow" or "tomorrow" do.

Is there an explanation why that is?

Is there a word for this concept (related to awareness)?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 10:00 AM PDT

Let's suppose that I have the following sentence:

"The population is extremely aware of subject X".

What would be the best (formal) way of conveying the same idea with the following way:

"X is a topic that ...... by the population".

In "aware", the intended meaning is of being watchful (but not necessarily wary).

exponential blow-up in �� or exponential blow-up with ��?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:16 AM PDT

Continuing http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/123509/exponential-in-terms-of and How to indicate that a function is exponential? (nonetheless different from them), let us speak about a particular quantity, let us call it the number of gizmos, which depends on the number of thingums, doodahs, and hickeys. Mathematically, we have a function 𝑔 (gizmos) which is represented by an expression with variables 𝑡 (thingums), 𝑑 (doodahs), and ℎ (hickeys).

Now, let's assume that know (𝑎(𝑡,𝑑))ʰ ≤ 𝑔(𝑡,𝑑,ℎ) ≤ (𝑏(𝑡,𝑑))ʰ, where 𝑎 and 𝑏 are some integer-valued expressions with values exceeding 1 and depending on 𝑡 and 𝑑, but not on ℎ.

Moreover, let us assume that this characterization of the number of gizmos is rather unenlightening to experts (e.g., because 𝑎 and 𝑏 are very far apart or unknown (only their existence is known) or because unresolved conjectures were assumed; explaining the real reason would lead us astray).

Referring to the above characterization, I wrote:

The above characterization does not reveal too many details about the exponential blow-up in ℎ from a theoretical viewpoint.

My English proofreader corrected this to

The above characterization does not reveal too many details about the exponential blow-up with ℎ from a theoretical viewpoint.

The teacher said "with" would be a little more idiomatic than "in". I find blow-up with strange but cannot prove or disprove the teacher's point. If I were forced to use "with", I'd rather say "exponential blow-up with respect to ℎ". Is the teacher right™ or wrong™?

I welcome answers from mathematicians who are native AmE speakers and have an excellent command of English.

How would you describe a car kicking up clouds of dust as an adverb of a car heading somewhere?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 03:24 AM PDT

I am trying to translate a sentence from Turkish to English. I'm almost satisfied and it is something along the lines of

A black car kicking up clouds of dust was seen heading to the city from a distant road.

However, in Turkish, the act of "kicking up clouds of dust" is an adverb of the verb "heading", so it qualifies the verb and not the car itself. In other words, the way the car moves along the road is by kicking up clouds of dust, so it is heading to the city by kicking up clouds of dust. Do you think there's a way to make it into an adverb? Or maybe a phrasal verb that catches the essence of those two actions, both heading somewhere and kicking up clouds of dust? The verb "heading" is not mandatory, it can be "arriving", "coming" or something else that matches the meaning, and the meaning is the car is going towards the city and is arriving/about to arrive at its final destination.

The best I can come up with is

A black car at a distant road was seen heading to the city by kicking up clouds of dust.

but using "by" to connect those to actions seems like cheating and makes me feel I'm thinking in Turkish and not in English.

For the curious, this is the original sentence (maybe it helps)

Uzaktaki yoldan siyah bir otomobilin tozu dumana katarak şehre geldiği görüldü.

Skill to Hindcast

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 04:32 AM PDT

I wonder whether it's correct to say hindcastive, similarly to what we do with predictive to denote the ability to predict. If not, what would be an equivalent term? possibly:

  • retrodictive (in the OED)
  • back-casting
  • retrospective forecasting

NB: the term isn't even listed in the OED, unlike in Webster's, but it's known in scientific literature.

Example sentence:

2002 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 583 18/1 Not merely a prediction as to the future course of the illness, but..a retrodiction of what had already taken place.

and hence

1932 H. H. Price Perception vii. 201 Any perceptual act is bound to be among other things a prediction,..and in the same way it must be 'retrodictive' as well.

Thanks!

Idiom for knowing someone so well you can tell what they're thinking going to do by small indications

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 08:57 AM PDT

I'm trying to think of an idiom for knowing/ predicting what someone is thinking or about to do because you know them well.

The saying is actually Chinese or Cantonese 你翘一下尾巴我就知道你在想什么了 and roughly translates to "I'll know what you are thinking if you raise your tail".

To illustrate with a situation, it would be something involving two people. One person reacts to something, say they look up and see rain clouds and then the other person knows that the first person will want to go back to get an umbrella. Because they saw them look at the cloud and know their thinking, they were able to guess what they would do.

Another example, someone is eating salad and makes and looks around the table, then the other person hands them the salt. Because they know them so well they knew what they were thinking.

What's the origin of metaphor "to give someone ammo"? [closed]

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 06:21 AM PDT

In last decade I often encounter this phrase used as "giving the opponent an argument in debate" while discussing an unfolding drama or conflict.

While I understand the meaning, I wonder how it come to be? Is it just a colloquial metaphor coming from idea that you need "ammo" to shoot or it got a literary source. The problem arose during performing formal translation of text, which should have been proof-readed. Proof-reader used local offically approved dictionary which contained only one meaning for "ammo": supplies for firearms or artillery. In result figurative translation was refused as illegal. It could be accepted if errata to dictionary would be approved, but it cannot contain slang (don't ask me why).

If only "ammo" used in such meaning, the whole phrase might be slang or argo. If ammunition (literary form) got such meaning, my question is what proof of such could be used, with a source. The problem is that translation requires formal proof acceptable by regulation authority.

The meaning of "upon one"

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 05:05 AM PDT

What is the meaning of "upon me" in the following excerpt of one of Whitman's poems? Dictionaries don't help in this case.

Strong upon me the life that does not exhibit itself, yet contains all the rest,

What I guess is he means "the life that doesn't exhibit itself is strong and sits by me".

Plain language phrase for a group whose members are not interchangeable

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 04:06 AM PDT

There is a well known part of speech called "adverbs". However, many adverbs are not grammatically interchangeable with each other. From Wikipedia:

Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that the term "adverb" has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.)

Adverbs as a "catch-all" category

  • She gave birth naturally.
  • Naturally, she gave birth. different meaning of "naturally"
  • Perry is very fast.
  • *Perry very won the race. only some adverbs can go in this position
  • The sock looks good there.
  • *It is a there beautiful sock. only some adverbs can go in this position

What can we call groups like this?

Adverbs are not always grammatically interchangeable because they are ____. This means we have to classify this word group into specific subgroups before they can be truly useful.

I'm looking for a generic term, not one specific to linguistic terminology. Noun, adjective, it doesn't matter. Feel free to completely reword the example sentence as long as the phrase is relatively simple. It would be good if the phrase could also be used as a label:

Adverbs (____)

Heterogeneous has the meaning I want (not all the members are the same, but some can be; different from all members being different), but neither it nor any of its single word synonyms are plain enough for me:

I think it's unlikely a single word will get the meaning across in a way that most people would understand, so a phrase seems more likely. The best I can come up with so far is "uneven group":

Adverbs (uneven group)

Adverbs are not always grammatically interchangeable because they are an uneven group.

Used to and would

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 06:05 AM PDT

Is the verb "work" a state? For example, the sentence "I used to work as a doctor." is grammatically correct but is "I would work as a doctor." also correct? It doesn't sound weird, is it because it is used as unreal present? The sentence "He would work from 4 am to 7 pm when he was an accountant." is grammatically correct, so does that mean the verb "work" becomes dynamic when it is used in that sentence? Someone please explain, I'm confused.

Is the tense of the latter part of the sentence correct?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 03:08 AM PDT

"He couldn't foresee devoting himself to anything other than that passionate desire, even if the fire eventually burns him down." Is 'burns him down' correct? The speaker is okay with the fire burning him down in the future if that is the consequence of following his passion.

Usage of "elder" and "eldest" in degrees of comparison

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 01:05 AM PDT

If one has two elder brothers, is it OK to say "My eldest brother is this and the second eldest is that"?

Is the phrase "I just sucked it out of my thumb" used in American English?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 06:47 AM PDT

I was born and raised in South Africa. We frequently used the term "to suck out of one's thumb", implying that an answer was just a wild guess or the notion had no evidence but was rather just surmised. At best it was the product of a personal thought experiment.

Is the phrase used elsewhere? I live in the USA and almost never hear it. Do Americans understand it? Can they figure it out or will they conjure up graphic literal images of my thumb in my mouth?

Can you use two "and"s in a coordinate noun phrase?

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 05:01 AM PDT

For example,

I like chocolate, vanilla, and lemon and orange ice cream.

Indicating "lemon and orange" is a combined flavor, as an item in the list needing an initial and.
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