Friday, November 5, 2021

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Why do we use the specific sentence structure - it took me (time) to (do)?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 10:28 AM PDT

What is the grammar behind using:

  • It took me 2 years to learn 'X' (to cook/read/write) rather than
  • It took me to learn 'X' 2 years

Many thanks

Committed team vs dedicated team

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 10:42 AM PDT

I want to express that I am managing a team that is responsible for API integrations. How is the best and tightest way to say it?

  1. Managing a committed on API integrations team
  2. Managing a team, committed on API integrations
  3. Managing a dedicated team on API integrations
  4. Managing a dedicated to/(on?) API integrations team

or something in between, or probably something entirely else?

What is this sound called?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 10:28 AM PDT

So, I know there is a word for this sound, but it's driving me nuts. For some reason I'm remembering troleling?

Basically, I'm asking what is the sound when someone goes like, "Tra la la dee dah!". Or maybe if it's an Indian war cry? You know, the whole, "whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo!" or, "Lah Lah Lah Lah Lah!" sound made with our tongues jumping behind our top/front teeth.

(Side note, how is my punctuation?)

Is "Still one of the most handsome foxy" correct? [closed]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 07:42 AM PDT

I Tweeted a phrase last year, "Still one of the most handsome foxy~", and I just realized that there is something wrong with the last word since I figured out that people usually make it plural. I'm not sure whether changing it into "foxies" is absolutely correct decision on the other hand either. I'm just a bit confused. All I need right now is just to know if I spelt that phrase correctly.

What is the word or phrase to describe the action of pursing one's lips in a tight rounded shape in a happy mood?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 06:55 AM PDT

As the title says, what is the word or phrase to describe the action of pursing one's lips in a tight rounded shape in a happy mood?

Merriam-Webster: purse(verb) defines it as (quoting from English Language Learners):

to form (your lips) into a tight circle or line

So "purse one's lips" can mean forming a line instead of a circle.

Cambridge Dictionary: purse(verb) defines it as follows:

to bring your lips tightly together so that they form a rounded shape, usually as an expression of disapproval

Example: "I don't approve of that kind of language," she said, pursing her lips.

So "purse one's lips" usually shows the feeling of disapproval (although I think it can also mean a happy mood).

But I'm trying to find a word or a phrase that specifically refers to "rounded shape" and "happy mood". For example, "So happy to see her boyfriend again, she ___ her lips to ask for a kiss from him." From our life experience we know that, in this example, when she "___" her lips, the lips don't form a line but a circle, and she must be in a happy mood.

I'm aware of this question What does the phrase "to purse your lips" mean？ [closed] but it doesn't answer my question.

What's correct: "I saw him eating" or "I saw his eating"? [duplicate]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 07:09 AM PDT

I was always taught that if you can replace a participle with a pronoun, then you should use the possessive case. So instead of "I saw him eating", because I can substitute "it" and say "I saw it", I should say "I saw his eating." "His eating" is the object here, and it can be moved around as such. For example, I might say "His eating is good," but it would be incorrect to say "Him eating is good." This rule of "Can I substitute 'it'?" has proven helpful in most cases.

That said, when I come to very long participial phrases, using the possessive can seem awkward. For example, even "I saw him eating a donut" sounds much more natural than "I saw his eating a donut", even though I can still substitute it for the entire phrase and say "I saw it." But if "I saw him eating a donut out on the front lawn yesterday morning with a friend," then it seems even more awkward to use the possessive, even though it still seems more grammatically correct.

Any thoughts on this? What is the rule? When is it proper to use a possessive in combination with a participial phrase, such that the entire thing acts as an object, and when is it proper to use the phrase to modify the object?

Can I use "for which" here?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 05:40 AM PDT

I'm writing a post, but none of below sentences sounds good to me.

This post is a record of the first five weeks that I've exercised in a gym.

or

This post is a record of the first five weeks for which I've exercised in a gym.

or

Is there any better suggestion?
Thanks in advance!

What is the difference:? Sentence A: I am ready for whatever may happen. Sentence B: I am ready for whatever might happen [migrated]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 03:20 AM PDT

Is it true that both sentences convey the same meaning?

use of "said fiercely"

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 08:30 AM PDT

'How can you stand this? he asked Hermione fiercely. 'Just standing here and watching it happen?' He hesitated. 'I'm going to grab the Cloak!'

Context: Harry and Hermione have gone back in time. Harry really wants to interfere and save Black. But Hermione doesn't want Harry to change something drastic.

  1. Now, Does "said fiercely" mean "in an angry way" or "with a heartfelt and powerful intensity"?

  2. And does it always, in almost all contexts, mean said angrily?

Usage of English Tenses

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 08:07 AM PDT

Is it correct to say the following?

  • While working on my project I have found an interesting research paper.

I mean whether while and the use of Present Perfect in the same sentence is correct.

Many things can influence the academic achievement and emotional growth of a student. , peers have more of an impact than teachers [closed]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 02:03 AM PDT

Some people think that the school performance of students and their emotional maturation are affected by their classmates more than their teachers. I firmly agree with that opinion, peers have more of an impact than teachers do.

First, the school performance of students can be developed in a competitive environment with their peers. The desire to be outstanding in class makes them practice hard and stimulates their motivations to study and improve. For instance, I was very bad at English, when I attended an English class 3 three years ago and saw my peers get a high score in the test, during I just got 4 points. At moment, I had the feeling of peer pressure. And the pressure became my motivation, I started trying more, doing more exercises, and enhancing my English skill. This demonstrates that competition among peers plays an important role in enhancing students' academic results.

Second, peers have affected students through socializing. On the daily basis, among friends, we usually share things, storíe, ideas, etc than with teachers. This can help the student develop their emotional maturation and easily learn how to control the emotion. For example, when I have some problems in my life, my friends will be the first who I share about this and ask for advice. And the time I interact with my peers is always more than with my teachers. And, building relationships by spending time playing and talking with classmates is beneficial to children's emotional growth.

In conclusion, peers play an important role in improving their academic achievement as well as growing their emotional feelings.

Why doesn’t “water broke when it was ice” make sense unlike the previous statement?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 09:55 AM PDT

"My mother played soccer"

Does this make sense? "The water broke when it was ice."

Not really. "Water" implies the liquid form, when it freezes, it is no longer referred to as water. So the sentence provided does not make sense.

But I learnt that there is no need to relate the timing cues of the relationship in that noun phrase to the verb phrase. (My mother played soccer when she was not a mother.)

(Editted)

I think there is no need to relate the timing cues of the relationship in that noun phrase to the verb phrase but also there is no need not to relate the timing cues of the relationship in that noun phrase to the verb phrase, so "water broke" can be true and false depending on situations.

Italics is to italicize, as bold is to...? [duplicate]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 02:09 AM PDT

I'm trying to find the right phrasing for I actionably make something bold in a given text document. Clearly I know that when I put something in "italics", I'm actionably "italicizing" something, but I haven't been able to easily nor readily find on the internet what I use for when I make something "bold" in a document.

Is it "to embolden"?

Differences between “Approach” and “Paradigm”

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 01:23 AM PDT

My question is related to this one: Differences between "methods", "methodologies" and "paradigms"

In lectures, we learned

In statistical practice, there are two main schools of thought or paradigms:

  1. frequentist
  2. Bayesian

Moreover, on the shelf we have books with titles like Decision Analysis: A Bayesian Approach or Machine Learning: A Bayesian and Optimization Perspective

I was wondering waht is the differences between Approach, Perspective, and Paradigms?

From...to goes to [migrated]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 12:04 AM PDT

Is it correct to say from one place to GOES to another place INSTEAD of
FROM...TO... Like in this sentence for example: "We get arid climates in the center of Iran to goes to the south and southeast."

Do I use "is" or "are" in these situations? [duplicate]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 12:12 AM PDT

Suppose I want to describe "work" or types of work on a school. Do I use "is" or "are" in these situations?

The proposed renovation and rehabilitation of the school is subject to strict design limitations.

or

The proposed renovation and rehabilitation of the school are subject to strict design limitations.

Which English word for the person who helps travellers while travelling?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 08:40 AM PDT

While travelling, a person joins travellers to help, explain and introduce the place we travel. What is the English word for that person?

Is the sentence "just to help me if I'd paint" grammatically correct?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 08:06 AM PDT

So I was just listening to this song by Lana Del Rey and she goes:

"said he'd come back every May, just to help me if I'd paint"

I can't really make sense of the "help me if I'd paint" part because that would be: "help me if I would paint"

Why is it would? Why is it not just "help me if I paint"?

Where would the question marks fall within this poem?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 05:06 AM PDT

Can someone help me punctuate this line? It is poetry, which may not always follow the common rules of punctuation...

I asked myself is there such a place in the deepest part of the soul
where noone has dared to linger where deepest thoughts are kept below

Is metrics a synonym of scores?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 09:05 AM PDT

I would like to know if I can use score and metric interchangeably. I'm a software engineer, and I'm creating a product that will store conversion metrics (the level of conversion of a site's visitor), and read scores (word count, adverb percentage, sentiment of the text). Therefore, my product database has a conversion_metrics and a read_scores table. I would like to know if I can use conversion_scores or read_metrics. I unconscious named them, without much thinking, and now I got me thinking about it.

Alternatives to the word fanclub? [closed]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 12:02 AM PDT

I'm looking for alternative beginnings for fan in fanclub.

Examples:

  • Member -club = memberclub

What is some word that communicates the idea of being a member, or fan, or in some way associated with a club? It should be short.

Can 2nd conditionals (unreal) have a guessing of the past situation (real)?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 08:17 AM PDT

Sentences (1) and (2) have the form of 2nd conditional, which is unreal at the time of utterance (In this text, the time is past, which is natural in grammar and usage in my intuition). However, some instructors (who explain the paragraph below) say that though (1) and (2) have the same sentence structure, (2) is interpreted as the possible past (real), which means 'Picasso' could have gotten warmer ~ or not and the author still doesn't know the two possibilities. But, I don't, cannot buy that. But they insist that the interpretation is possible, depending on its context. What do you think of this?

  • (1) If creators knew when they were on their way to fashioning a masterpiece, their work would progress only forward. They would halt their idea-generation efforts as they struck gold. But in fact, they backtrack, returning to versions that they had earlier discarded as inadequate. In Beethoven's most celebrated work, the Fifth Symphony, he scrapped the conclusion of the first movement because it felt too short, only to come back to it later. Had Beethoven been able to distinguish an extraordinary from an ordinary work, he would have accepted his composition immediately as a hit. When Picasso was painting his famous Guernica in protest of fascism, he produced 79 different drawings. Many of the images in the painting were based on his early sketches, not the later variations.

  • (2) If Picasso could judge his creations as he produced them, he would get consistently "warmer" and use the later drawings. But in reality, it was just as common that he got "colder."

as + adjective + as vs as + many + as Rules

Posted: 04 Nov 2021 11:01 PM PDT

I'm trying to sum up some rules for myself around the following two patterns:

  • "as + adjective + as"
  • "as many/few/little/much as".

This is what I have summed up for myself. Is this correct?

  1. If using a plural noun with "as + adjective + as", the noun must come in the middle.

Example: The jewels are as beautiful as the ocean.

  1. If using a singular noun with "as + adjective + as", then the noun can come at the beginning OR the middle.

Example: The jewel as beautiful as the ocean OR As beautiful a jewel as the ocean.

  1. If using a plural noun with "as many/few/little/much as", then the noun must come in the middle.

Example: There are as many dogs as cats.

  1. If using a singular noun with "as many/few/little/much as", then the noun must come in the middle? This is where I get confused.

Example: A risk as little as one chance in a million.

Can someone help me summarize when to use which?

Whats a word for someone who distrusts laymen and believes they always need to leave things to the professionals

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 04:35 AM PDT

I'm looking for a pejorative word or phrase for a professional who distrusts the abilities of laymen to do things for themselves, and advocates inaction even when it is an emergency and within the person's capabilities. . A "leave it to the professionals" type of attitude, taken to an unhealthy extreme.

Similar to this question, but on the side of the professional.

The best I can think of is a "professional elitist", but that really fails to capture the idea precisely.

Imagine an EMT who recommends against doing CPR, because "you'll mess it up. Just call 911 and wait for us". Or a firefighter who advises against using a fire extinguisher. Or a cop who advises against ever defending oneself in fight: just call 911 and wait for us to come help you (granted that could be potentially be more reasonable depending on the situation).

What is the active voice of this sentence: "I was annoyed by Mary wanting to tell everybody what to do" [closed]

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 05:58 AM PDT

What is the active voice of this sentence, please tell me.

"I was annoyed by Mary wanting to tell everybody what to do"

Colon versus separate sentences

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 10:03 AM PDT

They do not hesitate in bending the truth however they see fit to their cause. At times they are rigorous and precise; at times they just play dumb.

versus

They do not hesitate in bending the truth however they see fit to their cause: At times they are rigorous and precise; at times they just play dumb.

  1. Am I correct that both the above sentences are acceptable, and the choice boils down to preference?

  2. Preference aside, what arguments can be put forward to choose one over another? (For example one can argue that if separate sentences make complete sense it should be preferable because long sentences are harder to read, etc.)

Usage of 'directed to'

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 06:01 AM PDT

Is it correct to state that a text is 'directed to' children, or would a different choice of words be preferable?

What's a word for the fear of eating hot peppers?

Posted: 05 Nov 2021 09:57 AM PDT

Is there a word for the fear of eating hot peppers? By hot peppers, I mean fruits from plants that are members of the Capsicum genus of the Solanaceae family that contain capsaicin to any noticeable degree, or have an SHU rating greater than 0. This question does not pertain to temperature or flavor.

Example sentence (where [x] represents the word): "Ever since he had licked a chile pepper as a child, he had maintained a moderate case of [x]."
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