Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Who's he? vs What is he? when the answer is "He is an English footballer."

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 09:14 AM PDT

Who's he? vs What is he? when the answer is "He is an English footballer."

Firstly, I thought it's "Who is he?" simply because "-What's he? -He is an English footballer." doesn't sound comfortable with me. And I can't remember this "What" question can lead to information like nationality (very likely my lack of knowledge and hence I'm here).

And then I found another post on this site saying: Normally, "Who is he?" asks a person's name, or possibly his position or occupation. "Who is he?" "He's Joe. He's a cop." "What is he?" asks chiefly for a person's nature, position, or occupation, not his name. "What is he?" "He's a cop [as opposed to a soldier or fireman, say]" or "He's the commander of the submarine" or "He [Spock] is a Vulcan." There is some overlap with those questions.

Which makes me feel that an answer other than a "name" seems really less likely to be the answer of "Who is he?"

Any insights? Thank you so much!

What is another way to say this sentence [closed]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 08:47 AM PDT

Committed to delivering expert agile acquisition services and support solutions worldwide.

How to refer to an event happening without referring to when it's happening?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 09:01 AM PDT

I can say that an event will happen, or has happened, or is happening. But is there a way to say that an event exists in the time line without referring to WHEN it is placed?

For example, I can say I ate, I am eating, and I will eat. But how can I say in a single word Of all the events that have happened and will happen to me, eating is included in them?

Confused between 'to' and 'in'

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 07:04 AM PDT

In the following sentence- Information failure occurs when one party to an economic transaction possesses greater material knowledge than the other party.

Shouldn't we use 'in' rather than 'to' highlighted above? And why/why not?

The correct placement of the independent clause

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 07:08 AM PDT

Among these sentences, which one is the correct placement of my brother's name and/or more appropriate in legal documentation?

I made a bank draft to support my brother's, Jason Statham, higher education.

or

I made a bank draft to support my brother's higher education, Jason Statham.

or

I made a bank draft to support my brother's higher education, named Jason Statham.

Using periods instead of conjunctions or semi-colons

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 06:05 AM PDT

Is there a name for this style when you prefer using periods instead of conjunctions or semi-colons?

For example, the following sentence could use more conjunctions or semi-colons, but the author preferred periods:

Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours.

This is similar to Jack London's punctuation choice of periods instead of semi-colons.

I read somewhere that punctuation style changed in English over the years. Nowadays, it's more common to use periods in English. I didn't find where I read that, though.

Is "I do the worthy sacrifice" grammatically correct?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 05:12 AM PDT

I came across the sentence "I do the worthy sacrifice" in the lyrics of the song "Great War" by Sabaton, and was bothered by the use of "do" in this sentence.

I would have phrased it as "I make the worthy sacrifice", but now I'm not sure: are both versions of the sentence correct?

Can you "do" a sacrifice, or are they always made?
Or is it my phrasing that is incorrect?

Definite article before Noun+Name construction [migrated]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 03:49 AM PDT

Would the following sentence be correct?

Anna Müller of German website "Utopia.de" wrote that...

Or would I have to use an article?

Anna Müller of the German website "Utopia.de" wrote that...

And if not, why?

Decreasing water in a tank [closed]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 03:24 AM PDT

For example, there are ten liters of water in a tank of a machine. Someone needs to fill it as the quantity of the water decreases. In this case, can I say the sentence below to the staff to warn about this situation?

Fill the tank with as much water as the missing quantity.

As witnessed below (as=?) [closed]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 04:49 AM PDT

My research: Often in legal papers, above the space for the witness to sign happens to be written:

As witnessed below ...

Now, according to my extent of English I would expect something like "as a witness" or something.

Though what really bugs me is I cannot figure which defintion of "as" is being used here.

Please explain. I would be so grateful if you could cite the dictionary defintion as well.

What is the noun of "to credit something to somebody"?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 09:26 AM PDT

I'm working with digital securities. You can think about company shares. If an investor buys those shares, it is a process with several steps. At the end, the issuer gives the shares to the investor:

The issuer credits the shares to the investor.

What is that process as a noun? Is that "a credit"? A "creditation"? Something else?

Is just "Thank you, looking forward" without "to it" correct to use? [closed]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 06:08 AM PDT

Is just "Thank you, looking forward" correct to use?

Meaning the same as "Thank you, looking forward to it".

Is there a generic word to qualify dawn, sunrise, noon, sunset and dusk?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 08:40 AM PDT

Is there a generic word to qualify times of the day that are defined by physical phenomena, namely dawn, sunrise, (solar) noon, sunset and dusk?

I'm looking for a word similar to how new, full, crescent... moon are called "phases". Or how equinox refers to both to the March and the September equinox.

Edit:

Use in a sentence.

  1. The two instants in time when the plane of Earth's equator passes through the geometric center of the Sun's disk every year are called equinoxes

  2. The events that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere are called solstices

  3. By analogy: the time when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning and the time when the upper limb of the Sun disappears below the horizon are called [WORD OR EXPRESSION THAT I AM LOOKING FOR]

What is the difference between a phone book, a directory, and the yellow pages?

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 08:43 PM PDT

So, upon looking in a dictionary, this is what I found:

phone book noun [ C ] informal US /ˈfoʊn ˌbʊk/ UK /ˈfəʊn ˌbʊk/ a telephone directory : Is he in the phone book? (also telephone book, telephone directory) a large book containing all the phone numbers for a particular area, organization, etc.

Does this mean personal AND business numbers are included? Compare this with directory:

Meaning of directory in English :directory noun [ C ] UK /dɪˈrek.tər.i/ /daɪˈrek.tər.i/ US /dɪˈrek.tɚ.i/ /daɪˈrek.tɚ.i/ C1 a book that gives a list of names, addresses, or other facts: a business directory a directory of hotels, Look up their number in the telephone directory.

Okay, that being said, this is the entry for yellow pages:

Meaning of the Yellow Pages in English the Yellow Pages noun [ S ] trademark UK /ˌjel.əʊ ˈpeɪ.dʒɪz/ US /ˌjel.oʊ ˈpeɪ.dʒɪz/ a brand name for a large, yellow book that contains the addresses and phone numbers of businesses and people offering services, listing them in groups according to what type of business they are

So, that being said, would it suffice to say that directory and phone book are sort of similar and have both personal and business information and are more general, but the Yellow Pages is strictly businesses and services only? Thanks a bunch.

Suitable substitute for "edge" in business terminology

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 08:26 PM PDT

I am doing a translation on global integration among entrepreneurs. There is one sentence that makes me very confused is "talk about the outside of the topic before going straight to the main idea". I don't know what word to use to describe that "outside" exactly, it's like on the edge, not off-topic nor going too deep into the main idea. What word should I use?

two of my friends have half siblings, and their half siblings are half siblings, would my two friends be related at all? [closed]

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 06:53 PM PDT

so I have two friends (they're dating), I'll call them L and S, S has a half sister (i'll call her O) and L has a half sibling (I'll call them U), O and U are half siblings, S and O have the same mom but not the same dad, L and U have the same mom but not the same dad, O and U have the same dad but not the same mom, None of the parents are married to each other, Would S and L be related at all since their half siblings are half siblings? Personally I don't think so since they don't share any parents, but my friends are freaking out so I wanna try to get more peoples opinions

Word for the past defines the present (path dependency)

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 06:31 PM PDT

hope you're all well.

I am looking for a word that I can't quite remember.

Its meaning was that the present state of a thing was effected by its past.

I believe it started 'hyper-'.

I think it also had a similar sort of meaning in physics (specifically magnetism?) but I could be wrong on that.

Any one wielding a dictionary-brain would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Is there a term for the rhetorical technique of repeating an interlocutor's ideas while making it sound like their own?

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 05:35 PM PDT

Is there a term for the rhetorical technique of repeating, either spoken or written, the interlocutor's ideas or opinions, without acknowledgement, while making it sound like either something new or a correction? This seems to be an ego-, and self esteem-saving coopting technique. It makes it difficult for the interlocutor to disagree with his own position.

It differs from merely incorporating the other's facts, ideas or opinions into ones own narrative.

I have seen this used twice where that person wanted to end an exchange. They did not want to admit they were wrong, but they still wanted to get in the last word.

Is "dives" in "Maldives" pronounced as "/diːvz/" or "/daɪvz/"?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 04:12 AM PDT

Wikipedia says the American pronunciation of the country is "/ˈmɔːldaɪvz/". But I asked a few American friends and they all pronounce it as "/ˈmɔːldiːvz/".

I searched "Maldives how to pronounce" on Google and the results are overwhelmingly "/ˈmɔːldiːvz/".

Interestingly, the Cambridge dictionary says "the Maldives" is pronounced as "/ˈmɔːldaɪvz/" in American English but if you play the audio, it is "/ˈmɔːldiːvz/".

I also searched "Maldives" on YouGlish. I checked 10 videos under "US" accent and 10 videos under "UK" accent and they are all "/ˈmɔːldiːvz/". I only found two videos under "Aus" that the people in them pronounce it as "/ˈmɔːldaɪvz/":

So my questions are:

  • Are both pronunciations correct but "/ˈmɔːldaɪvz/" is just used far less than the other one?
  • Or is "/ˈmɔːldiːvz/" the only correct pronunciation and the two "/ˈmɔːldaɪvz/" cases in the two videos above are mispronunciations by native speakers?

What is the original superlative form of well?

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 10:37 PM PDT

I know that "well" (as in the adverb "to do well") has a superlative form, "best," but this is suppletive, and I've always wanted to know what the original, as in, the last, not suppletive, superlative form of "well" (same usage as before) was, since "best" just doesn't sound right, and it's the superlative form of "good" as well, so saying "best" could mean two completely different things.

Can 'nowhere' be used as a subject?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 07:08 AM PDT

I am utterly confused... The thing is I was helping a friend do an exercise in which she needed to put some words in the correct order to form a grammatical English sentence. The words in question were:

in / my / Nowhere / shop / than / ice cream / town / sells / else / our / uncle's / better

I was at a loss because I could not find a way to make a proper sentence using those words. My proposal was Nowhere else in town does ice cream sell better than in my uncle's shop, but in that case I would need an extra preposition and an auxiliary for inversion.

The plot thickens. When my friend asked her professor, he said that the correct answer should be Nowhere else in our town sells better ice cream than my uncle's shop. This sounds completely wrong to me. Am I losing my mind?

Do I need a comma to separate multiple prepositional phrases?

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 10:05 PM PDT

The mother shall have visitation for 2 consecutive weeks during the summer in Texas.

Do I need any commas for the multiple prepositional phrases?

A question concerning Past Perfect continuous

Posted: 01 Nov 2021 10:28 PM PDT

He had been drinking milk out the cartoon when mom walked into the kitchen

I'm reading past perfect continuous in my grammar book and the rule says it is used for an that began before a certain point in the past and continued up to that time.

Does the preceding sentence means the subject denoted by the pronoun he was drinking milk out the carton but stopped as soon his mom walked into the kitchen?

How to write from this, to that, to that, to that

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 06:03 AM PDT

For example, if I were writing the menu options for a restaurant, how would I write something like this?

Restaurant ABC offers many different dishes. From pizza, to burgers, to shakes, to fries, to hotdogs, to sodas, and more.

Is that the correct grammar? It seems like a lot of "to"'s.

"Either value can be higher"?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 04:04 AM PDT

I'm writing a math paper and want to say that two quantities, a*b and (a-b), cannot be ranked in a unique way. Depending on the values a and b, either can be higher.

My idea is to say "either value can be higher" or "either of the two values can be higher".

As a non-native speaker, I check my ideas with google - whether I get many hits when search for the exact sentences. Surprisingly, though both sentences above seem very normal to me, and it seems the point I'm trying to make ("either can be higher") should arise in many contexts, I get zero hits with both above sentences.

So, what's the succinct way of saying that "For some values a and b, a*b higher that (a-b), and for some values, the reverse inequality is true".

Thanks a lot!

What is the best abbreviation for supervisor in British English? [closed]

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 12:02 AM PDT

What is the best abbreviation for supervisor, if I were to write a letter to one in Britain?

e.g. a supervisor who works in UK Visas and Immigration.

If there is no such abbreviation, would saying something like "Dear Supervisor Blair" instead of "Dear Ms. Blair" sound awkward? It is unclear if the hypothetical supervisor is married or not, but she is a woman in this example.

Is the expression "having a good time" too personal?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 09:01 AM PDT

Me and a colleague were jointly writing an email to an English speaking business partner when a discussion arose on how to formulate a sentence.

The business partner is currently on vacation, so I thought that the sentence "We hope you're having a good time on your vacation" was a good and appropriate way to address this in the beginning of the email. My colleague on the other hand said that the phrase "having a good time" is more personal and something you say to people you know more personally and something along the line of "We hope you're enjoying your vacation" would be more appropriate.

What would you say the correct semantic of this phrase is?

What is the difference between 20$ and $20?

Posted: 02 Nov 2021 09:53 AM PDT

I am seeing both 20$ and $20 usages. (20 is nonessential to this question.)

What is the difference between them?

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