Monday, November 15, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

"I couldn't believe it" [migrated]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 10:32 AM PST

I couldn't believe it. I had been / was chosen to play in the team.

Which one is correct, had been or was? And why?

Are the paragraphs in present tense or the usage is incorrect? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 09:58 AM PST

I am writing in present tense, first person pov.

the following paragraph is where I am facing difficulty.

Joshua jumps over the podium along with Jonita as they swirl into weird dance moves. Gulping another glass of wine, I scratch my forearm unknowingly. Time passes by, but no one approached me over small talk. Neither I did.

Avoiding their comments, I continue to eat my dessert. I wonder what could have happened if I had spoken against these assholes? Maybe, my night will turn into a nightmare. Is it because of the confession that made them treat me like a filthy being?

The bold lines are where I am confused over the tenses. Please help me with the same and if there is any particular grammar rule that needs to be brushed up for my issue.

Thank you so much!

Edit: Hello, here is what I am trying to confer through the paragraphs. The characters(including the protagonist) are having dinner in the given paras backdrop. The protagonist is an introvert who is occasionally bullied by her office mates. They humiliated her some time before this scene. She is contemplating on her past actions.

past perfect in a direct quoted sentence

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:28 AM PST

Quote:

We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way to Leatherhead.

"I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as our word."

Question:

Does the past perfect tense "we had come here as..." imply that Holmes wanted to have let the trap driver think that they had come to this village before as architects or on some other business?

But from the context apparently the driver found that Holmes and Waston were not familiar with that area and pointed out a shortcut for them.

If the past perfect tense means Holmes wanted to let the trap driver believe that this time they came as architects or on some other business，why he didn't just use past tense (we came here as) instead?

Should "years worth" have an apostrophe? [duplicate]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:10 AM PST

Maybe this is a dumb question. If I was writing the sentence "following years worth of research...", would it be correct to write "years worth" or "years' worth"?

My initial instinct was "years worth", but MS Word's autocorrect is flagging that as incorrect. I've thought about this for almost a week but am still not sure which is correct, to be completely honest.

Thanks.

What do you call a husband whose wife is having secret affair? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:09 AM PST

A husband whose wife is having a secret affair

heavily timbered park vs. a grove, which is thicker?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 06:48 AM PST

Quote:

A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, thickening into a grove at the highest point.

The text comes from The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a short story that was written in 1892.

i thought park in British English meant "woodland" or "forest", while "grove" meant "a small wooded area or plantation".

Then how come "a heavily timbered park" can be thickening into a grove?

Capitalization of concepts used in programming

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 05:29 AM PST

Often in programming, we come up with different concepts that have the same names in the real world. For instance, there is this project which has a concept of Node. The concept doesn't have the same meaning in the context of the project as the word "node" in the real world, although it shares some of the attributes. Thus, the concept name is derived from "node" - Node.

Now, a question - when writing technical documentation and I want to make reference to the concept not to the word "node" I assume the capital letter should be used since it is almost like a proper noun?

For instance:

Node should have the following behavior.

or with "the" article since it's one concept in the context of the project, although I'm not sure.

The Node should have the following behavior.

but what if I need to make reference to one instance of the Node concept or some group of them. Should they start with the lower case and be used with the articles?

For instance:

A node will have the following behavior if it's type A.

The nodes will be removed if they are type B.

Can one say "pass my time for a few minutes on xy"? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 04:54 AM PST

TikTok is very addictive. If/Whenever I want to pass my time on TikTok for a few minutes, it will be one or two hours. Instagram on the other hand doesn't have such an effect on me. It is an app on which I can spend my time for a few minutes and then close it.

Is it possible to say "boost a grade by xy"? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 04:47 AM PST

Can "boost" be used in such a context or would increase be more appropriate?

Using my phone in class to look up unknown words boosted my grade by 2 points.

I had witnessed or I witnessed, which one will be correct in the below mentioned question? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 01:53 AM PST

Earlier I've done Judicial Clerkship under High Court judges, during the period of clerkship I witnessed many criminal proceedings, sometimes even assisted judges by making brief of the cases.

Arithmetic vs Arithmatic - arithmos (root)?

Posted: 14 Nov 2021 11:26 PM PST

I'm curious about the origins of the word "arithmetic" vs "arithmatic". It seems the suffix is not a necessary thing from the root word?

  • Why is it -metic? And not -matic?
  • Why not arithmos-tic?

*You post a random picture of a house* Someone: You bought a house!

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 04:35 AM PST

From the Friends TV show:

Monica: I have some pretty exciting news.
Phoebe: You're pregnant!

Monica was in a relationship and had expressed that she wanted kids, but didn't have a tummy and hadn't given any hint whatsoever that she may be pregnant.

Is there a word to describe these guesses that may be technically feasible but that are very exaggerated?

It's somewhat like the domino effect meme

For example:

  • You posted a picture of a house. Did you buy it?!
  • Well that's a ____. No, I didn't, I just like taking pictures.

What's it called when you get a type of award because you didn't get the award you were supposed to get?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 04:37 AM PST

What's it called when you get a type of award because you didn't get the award you were supposed to get? Let's say someone was trying to get an award, and they tried really hard, but they didn't get it, but because people felt bad that they didn't get it, they got a different award called a(n) ___ award, meaning "Hey, you didn't do it, but here's this instead, because at least you got something."

What would male concubines be called?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 09:02 AM PST

I'm asking this with a "concubine" being a woman, or one in a group of women, that one man considers routine sexual partners, with no intention of assuming marriage or a romantic role beyond what might be necessary to keep each woman happy. These women are not necessarily aware of each other; they constitute a "stable" of routine sexual partners.

Is there an equivalent term for a man, or group of men, who are in a relationship with a woman that routinely has sexual encounters with them under similar circumstances? I'm looking for a word that would describe a man who functions as such a concubine, whether he's aware of it or not.

Is "scrolling" inherently a 2D thing, or does it also apply to 3D?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 03:50 AM PST

In the 1990s video game magazines I'm currently re-reading, they constantly make references to "smooth scrolling" and whatnot for polygon-based 3D games for PlayStation and Saturn in their reviews.

To me, scrolling is all about moving images/sprites around in 2D, but they seem to be talking about something else.

Was this just incompetent misuse of the term "scrolling", perhaps lacking a better word, or does it also apply to polygonal 3D graphics?

I guess I would call it "animation smoothness" or "frame rate" or something.

How to slip "let me call it" into a sentence?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 08:42 AM PST

I want to slip the phrase "let me call it" into a sentence like in this example from a movie review.

I got tired of the, let me call it monster.

I wonder where or if to put commas. The above feels most natural to me but LanguageTool complains, so I decided to ask here.

Thanks!

Word(s) for the attitude of expecting others to believe the same things one does

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:55 AM PST

To elucidate a bit: I'm trying to find a word that means believing strongly in something and expecting others to believe in it as well. I've found words like "domineer" and "proselytize", but the difference there, as I understood it, is that those rather focus on the action itself of asserting one's will; what I'm looking for is more something like having a belief, not consciously enforcing it, but judging and criticising others for not thinking the same way. Is there such a word?

What is an idiom for loneliness and unnoticed?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 10:04 AM PST

It is for a poem that is about loneliness and how nobody really sees you or notices you, somewhat like if you are an invisible "thing" and I don't know what I can use to describe it.

Comma in series?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 01:04 AM PST

How to use serial comma when list has commonality.

1). I like the Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado Deserts, and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

2). I like the Mojave, Sonoran and Colorado Deserts, and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

3). I like the Mojave, Sonoran, Colorado Deserts, and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Which is the correct expression in USA?

What is a term for crop/livestock, something raised for indirect value?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 06:03 AM PST

What is a term for crop/livestock, something raised for indirect value?

Is it correct to say "proud of having met you", or should it be "proud to have met"?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 02:07 AM PST

Is it correct to say "I have proud of having met both of you"

  1. I am proud of having met both of you. (past present?)
  2. I am proud to have met both of you. (present perfect?)

What does the first one say? The word "having" sounds like it is happening, but it was done already. Is it right?

The second one sounds like it happened in the past. Does it mean it is finished? Inconclusive?

Does "pass" mean OK or not OK? [closed]

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 10:17 AM PST

Today, I received a folder of Recruiting candidate CVs from one of our HR. In this folder, there is a sub-folder named "pass". Question is does this "pass" mean the CVs inside are OK (i.e. that they have passed the current stage of the selection, and need to be looked at more carefully at the next stage) or not OK (i.e. that they do not deserve any further attention)?

If I want to mean the CVs in the folder that are not OK, what exact word should I use?

“...where it’s at.” - Is that grammatical?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 09:04 AM PST

I stated to a customer, "They can tell you where it's at" (regarding the office location of an appointment). The customer then asked if he could correct my grammar, to which I consented. It was an older gentleman; he was simply being talkative, so I didn't mind. He said, "You do not have to say 'at.' You can say, 'They can tell you where it is.'"

Dictionaries such as Merriam Webster don't have any examples of at being used at the end of a sentence like this.

Was my statement grammatically acceptable? If so, why?

Usage of "go to" vs "go"

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 10:44 AM PST

I'm trying to explain the difference between "go to" and "go" and I'm not sure what the actual rule is. I've tried searching about it, but I couldn't find anything.

When should I use "go to" and when should I use "go?" For example, I should say "Let's go home" but not "Let's go to home." On the flip side, "Let's go to your house," but not "Let's go your house."

Can someone help me with the rule behind this?

Why is 'the' before winter season?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:25 AM PST

In my opinion, 'the' is a definite article. It emphasis saying "that one only". Why then 'the' before winter season. There is only one kind of winter season. There cannot be different kind of winter season. For example, the food means that specific food, food - means general. The winter seasons means specific, whereas winter season is not specific, it is general only. I am confused here because someone has corrected me to use the before winter season. Please help.

"2 hours' worth" or "2 hours worth"?

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:28 AM PST

I think "1 hour's worth" is the correct way to write this. Therefore, in the plural case, I assume the correct choice is "2 hours' worth". Which one is it?

Just wondering because someone edited a question of mine to remove these apostrophes.

Name for an electrical element to use multiple appliances on the same plug

Posted: 15 Nov 2021 07:21 AM PST

Sorry, I don't know what is this element called in English. It is an electric power cord with multiple sockets to allow multiple appliances to be plugged into it. In Spanish it is said to be informally a "zapatilla", but in English?

Socket Strip

or

Extension Lead
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