Monday, October 4, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

What’s the word for this video experience?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 10:16 AM PDT

Sorry for the vague title but it's going to take some explaining to try and get the point across.

So, Christians and religious people in general (I'm not bashing them or their religion this is just a good example) like to say that the earth is perfect for us like how we are the perfect distance from the sun and our body's are so complex and there's plants everywhere etc so there must be a god that created all this for us to be here but in reality we are only here because this is the only environment that we can live in. If our planet was different we would be able to live on it and therefore wouldn't experience it. So we are only experiencing this "perfect" world because it's the only way we could possibly be able to experience it.

I'm really not sure I got what I wanted across here but if y'all can think of anything kind of like "we can only experience what we are experiencing because that is the only way we can experience it" haha

Thanks for anything guys :)

The phrase "in (the) light of" - USAGE 2021

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 09:58 AM PDT

There is a distinction between "in the light of" and "in light of", with the first expression belonging to British English and the second to American English. The Oxford Dictionary, at least, still highlights this distinction, but I've noticed that in current BrE usage, the second expression is gaining popularity and is, at times, even used MORE than the first phrase.

In fact, I was never really aware of the British expression and I learnt/speak British English.

Is there anybody, preferably someone who is qualified or an expert in usage, who can confirm my theory on this?

The only times that I've personally noticed the use of "in the light of" instead of "in light of" is:

  • in works written by older British English speakers (over the age of 40);
  • in judgments delivered by the European Court of Human Rights and official documents of the European Union institutions, although even there, the AmE phrase is also used; and
  • in old speeches/communication (dating back to early 2000s) of the Royal Family from the Royals' website.

N.B. This question has been asked in the past but I feel it is justified to ask it again because (in my view) the usage seemed to have changed in the recent years, and the Ngram link above seems to support this idea.

Can I write like " if I did writing wrong"?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 09:41 AM PDT

I guess it means "Did I write something wrong on my script ?", is that right?

“How are things connected?” versus “how a connection is”? [closed]

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 08:44 AM PDT

I mean this question as a riddle to share my agreement with another answer as to the difference between the meaning of the words "relation"and "relationship". What do you think?

Single word request for varying temporal trends

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 08:30 AM PDT

Please help to find a correct adjective for summing up varying 9-year temporal trends.

I examined 9-year temporal trends of certain patients' care. For assessing these trends, multiple indicators had to be measured. The results showed varied trends:

  1. we detected increased access to services (a positive thing) but half still had no access at the end of the observed period (the change was clearly insufficient);
  2. inequality in the division of health care resources increased (a negative thing);
  3. regional disparities persisted or even increased (both are negative things).

Thus, we found one small positive trend and multiple negative ones. The situation is clearly worrisome and urgent improvements are needed. What would be a good adjective for describing such trends?

Diverse temporal trends

Varying temporal trends

Omnidirectional temporal trends

the Noun of which Vs of which the Noun

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 08:15 AM PDT

In the two sentences below, Is sentence 2) grammatically correct? What's the reason if you got it wrong? Thank you in advance for your outstanding explanation and opinion.

  1. We are looking for the house the windows of which are broken.

  2. We are looking for the house of which the windows are broken.

What do you call a person who lies or criticizes others and refuses to acknowledge their own mistakes?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 07:01 AM PDT

What do you call a person who lies or criticizes others and refuses to acknowledge their own mistakes? I know a person who is quick to retaliate with "what about your actions" questions whenever someone criticizes him.

What does "to wait out a full school year" mean?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 04:32 AM PDT

The setting is in modern day U.S. The character, a teenager, and his mother move places a lot. Then they decided "to wait out a full school year" in a his mom's friend's house in Portland.

I'm not familiar with the U.S school system, so what does it mean? Does it mean they waited for the school year to be over so he can start from the beginning of the new one?

Many thanks.

What's the difference between shall and must? [duplicate]

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 03:31 AM PDT

Could someone explain to me? I am not very clear

Is omitting the whitespace after a comma ungramatical?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 02:01 AM PDT

  1. I like apples, oranges and kiwi.
  2. I like apples,oranges and kiwi.

Is the second spelling wrong or only ugly?

Asking this in the context of word segmentation. Another wording of the question could be "If we split an arbitrary English string on whitespaces, will we have split all the words?". Let's not consider false positives like "homo-\ngeniously", "and - he said - we will persevere".

"Damn am I hungry." vs "Damn I am hungry." What is the difference? [duplicate]

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 09:25 AM PDT

I know this is a stupid question, but I've heard a lot of people saying some sentence like that, like interrogative sentence, but they didn't mean to ask a question.

Damn am I hungry, lets go get some food.

and

Damn I am hungry, lets go get some food.

Is there any difference?

Word order with interchange

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 09:04 PM PDT

Which sentence is grammatically correct when A and B are some states:

"The A-B gap can be controlled or states can even be interchanged depending on temperature"

or

"The gap can be controlled or even interchanged A-state and B-state depending on temperature"

How can I resume all the possible English phrases that can made in a regular expression? [migrated]

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 07:37 PM PDT

Is there any I could resume all possible valid (syntax-ically speaking) sentence formations that can be done in English with a regular expression? Here is the system I made (this excluded some grammatical classes):

\Number,EndsWith/ --> What is between <> brackets repeats Number times (Z for 1-Infinite) and have to end with EndsWith. <> -> Repetition {} -> Optional || = Or

  • = concatenate NP = Plural Noun NS = Singular Noun ADJ = Adjective ADV = Adverb DA = Defined Article UA = Undefined Article N = Noun C = Conjunction PR = Preposition MV = Moval verb

For example:

DA+N+PR+DA+N can be "The man in the boat" DA+<N\Z/>+PR+DA+N can be "The supermarket credit card in the boat" {DA}+NP can be "The elephants" or just "Elephants".

I tried using some logics to solve it. For example:

1- A noun can be composed, like "supermarket credit card". Thus, a noun can always be used as <N\Z/>.

2- Adjectives add an attribute to nouns. Example ("Red happy card"), but still "Red happy card" is still only one thing. So you can add as much adjectives as possible behind a noun.

3- You can mix adverbs with adjectives to characterize a noun. Example: "The smartly bright man".

4- You can also insert optionally an conjunction between adjectives and adjectives: "The smartly and bright and happily happy and glad man".

5- You can have a sentence like "The man under the navel under the boat under the coat shall must do importantly and decisively make and do part of an event", meaning that you can insert many nouns separated by commas in a sentence, insert as much modal verbs before a verb in a row as you wish, and cram many verbs gathered by a conjunction (in that case "and").

However, that sound confusing. Does anyone knows how can I know it?

By the way, I have reached this regular expression after trying to crack it (it may be wrong):

<{<PR+C\1,PR/>+<({DA}+{ADJ}+NP||(DA||UA)+{ADJ}+NS)+{PR||C}\1/>}+<({DA}+{ADJ}+NP||(DA||UA)+{ADJ}+NS)+{PR||C}\1/>+{<PR+C\1,PR/>+<({DA}+{ADJ}+NP||(DA||UA)+{ADJ}+NS)+{PR||C}\1/>}+{<({<ADV+{C}\1,ADV/>}+MV)+C\1,MV/>}+<{<ADV+{C}\1,ADV/>}+V+C\1,V/>+((<(ADV||ADJ||PR)+{C}\1,ADJ/>)||(<(ADV||ADJ||PR)+{C}\1,ADV/>)||(<(ADV||ADJ||PR)+{C}\1,PR/>+({DA}+{ADJ}+NP||(DA||UA)+{ADJ}+NS))||(({DA}+{ADJ}+NP||(DA||UA)+{ADJ}+NS))))\1/>

Thanks. I need it to make a bot.

Question about using 'a little' or 'a few' [closed]

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 07:52 PM PDT

I dont really understand the below, using a little or a few in positive sentences or questions. Because the example doesn't have the answer to both examples. Can anyone explain it a bit more?

When we say a little or a few, we mean a small amount. The sentence is usually neutral in feeling. We usually use a little and a few in positive sentences or questions where we expect that the answer will be yes.

John: Let's go out tonight.
Lucy: Okay. I have a little money, enough for the cinema at least.

I have a few good friends. I'm happy

Understanding these lines from a news article [closed]

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 06:59 AM PDT

I am unable to understand what these sentences mean.

  1. "A purely security-driven approach fraught with human rights violations has only added to alienation among the poor in these areas."

  2. "The Union government and the States must continue to learn from successes such as the expansion of welfare and right paradigms in limiting the movement and failures that have led to the continuing spiral of violence in select districts."

Does the sentence 'Boy, are my arms tired' mean 'Boy, my arms are tired.'?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 09:59 AM PDT

I found a meme that says 'I flew in from (wherever) and boy are my arms tired!'. I can understand what's funny about this meme but I can't understand why 'are my arms tired!' is used instead of 'my arms are tired!'. that's not an interrogative sentence, right? why does there have to be an inversion?

It is + demonstrative pronoun these

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 09:07 PM PDT

what would be the correct usage and difference in meaning in the sentences below:

  1. It is these small steps that let us ...

or

  1. These are the small steps that let us ...

Why do we use past perfect instead of past tense here?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 04:00 AM PDT

"We couldn't put down the floor until the plumber HAD finished."

When 'finished' would do the same job much more perfectly instead of confusing.

Is there a term for all of your parents' children?

Posted: 03 Oct 2021 10:05 PM PDT

In other words, is there a collective term for describing your siblings and yourself?

has been responsible vs was responsible

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 02:06 AM PDT

Here's the example sentence.

"There have been arguments about who was/has been responsible for the accident."

I'm not a native speaker. In my language(which is Chinese), when you cause an accident, and then you are immediately responsible for the accident. Additionally, responsibility lasts forever, so if I used "was" in the sentence, I feel weird, and "has been" looks like the more proper one. However, I really want to hear the opinion from the native speaker.

Which one is more correct in this sentence? What's the difference between them?

Is the sentence, ' I want to learn skateboard.' , grammtically right?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 08:49 AM PDT

Is the sentence, ' I want to learn skateboard.' , grammtically acceptable ? Instead of 'learn to skateboard or learn skateboarding', is ' learn skateboard ' right expression?

What function do "shall" and "must" serve?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 04:20 AM PDT

I've been taught that the word "shall" represent obligatory or mandatory. On the other hand, I was taught by another lecturer that "must" represent mandatory.

Which one of the two represents obligatory? When I asked a teacher this question, he told me "shall" is also synonymous to might or maybe. Is this true?

As an example, consider:

  • He shall report the case to his senior officer.
  • He must report the case to his senior officer.

What is the difference between "of importance" and "important"?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 05:34 AM PDT

I want to know the difference in meaning between "of importance" and "important" as in " It is of importance to me." and " It is important to me." please, give me the answer..

Is "stemmed to" ok, and what does it mean? [closed]

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 06:24 AM PDT

Consider this:

Poverty and substandard infrastructure are present in almost every place in the India, especially New Delhi, its capital. Having been left unattended for decades, these problems have stemmed to more serious setbacks today such as pollution and illiteracy.

If only you could see what I have seen with your eyes

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 01:01 AM PDT

I watch film science fiction The Blade Runer and man says this sentence. he is holding eye in his hand. I see in in a subtitle but I am not understanding this meaning. Can my friends in a Language and Usage website help me understanding meaning? Is this an idiom of English Language?

What is the word for a good work?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 04:10 AM PDT

I am helping a charity and I need to invite my friends to join in. We're not asking for any money or valuables but just their time for some feedback on few questions.

I am struggling at the opening line of the invitation message—what I want to say is that "I need your help in this great work / noble work" but it just doesn't sound that impressive/catchy.

Jihad or movement both describe something too big to describe "answering a few questions."

Please note that it is for non-native English speakers.

Why not concatenate two frequently used words into a new one?

Posted: 04 Oct 2021 09:44 AM PDT

I will probably get a lot of flak about this, but why not combine the often used together words "with the" into "withe" which is pronounced similarly, and it much shorter and easier to write?

I am sure there are other candidates for such concatenations, which are bound to show up especially in the world of Twitter and SMS messages.

PS. English is my 2nd language.
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