Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

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• Is there a word for a member of a roster?
• You, mostly English native speakers say "Quick!" instead of "Be quick" or "Quickly". Am I wrong?
• Is the word "chum" to mean friend a common word? [closed]
• "the sizes of the disks" or "the size of the disks"?
• What is the word/term which describes transition from civilization to wildness in North America? [closed]
• Is there a word for sets of words with related meaning in English, like 'yellow' and 'green' or 'January' and 'February'?
• Where are the people writing "would of" from?
• I need to know whether my sentence tone is correct for a Software Product [closed]
• Simple Abbreviation Confusion
• "She going home, he called her." Is it right sentence? [closed]
• The difference between Where and That [closed]
• I had a girlfriend. She (was/is) an american. Which one is correct and doesn't sound odd? [duplicate]
• Adding the 'n' to indefinite articles on compound nouns [duplicate]
• That or Which in 'Briana R takes the readers through 20 tales which shed light on different aspects and bring out the spirit of Islam.' [closed]
• What does it mean when someone says "the result is the gravy, not the turkey"?
• "survey the landscape" idiomatic?
• laying around vs lying around, is one preferred? [duplicate]
• A to-infinitive is formed with 'to' plus the base form of a verb. What part of speech does 'to' belong to?
• What verb goes with "combined temperature"?
• Why do we use past perfect instead of past tense here?
• Used to and would
• Do you use a subject pronoun or object pronoun before the ing-word in an absolute construction?
• Word for a non-politician who commits crimes against humanity
• Word to describe the state of something being external or internal
• Use of conditional tense/subjunctive mood
• Could "selfue" be a sensible antonym of "selfie"? [duplicate]
• Relationship between "ductile" and "malleable" ... a word to describe words related like this
• "Key to" vs. "key for"

Is there a word for a member of a roster? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:42 AM PST If a roster is a list of people, is there a word for a single member of the roster? As in, "We're always growing our roster! Apply today and you could be accepted to be a ______ tomorrow!" What would that word be?

You, mostly English native speakers say "Quick!" instead of "Be quick" or "Quickly". Am I wrong? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:59 AM PST My poor memory is telling me that you say "Quick" instead of "Be quick". My first question is: Am I wrong? If my memory works well about it. How about other adjectives? Nice instead of "be nice" Easy instead of "be easy" It seems some word preference for this expression. Thanks

Is the word "chum" to mean friend a common word? [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:07 AM PST Does the average American know its meaning? Is it used commonly in the spoken language? What connotations does it have? Is it gender specific?

"the sizes of the disks" or "the size of the disks"? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:20 AM PST Consider the following hypothetical example: There are 3 disk; named X, Y, Z; and each have radius rx, ry, and, rz. If I want to refer to the set {rx, ry, rz}, would I say ... the sizes of the disks or ... the size of the disks or ... the sizes of the disk

What is the word/term which describes transition from civilization to wildness in North America? [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 06:08 AM PST Can you help me with finding the word which describes the transition from civilization to wildness and which is used in North America. It belongs in the geographic terms. I have this one word in my head...

Is there a word for sets of words with related meaning in English, like 'yellow' and 'green' or 'January' and 'February'? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 07:38 AM PST I'm learning the Indonesian language, and they took the word 'antonim' from Dutch (antonym in English), but changed and expanded the meaning. In Indonesian, 'green' is an antonym of 'yellow' and 'February' is an antonym of 'January'. Which surprised me, but also got me thinking that I don't know how these words are related to each other in other languages, English in particular, and if there is a word for that. I figured maybe 'categories' but that sounds a bit oversimplified. Is there even a word to describe these sets of groups?

Where are the people writing "would of" from? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 07:34 AM PST As a non-native speaker, I would never have guessed that this mistake was a thing before I read it on the web. Since it makes no grammatical sense, I can guess that it can only be seen in the writing of native speakers because they have learned the language through oral communication, while most non-native are exposed to written English from the very beginning of their learning. I also guess the accent may influence the appearance of this error, and thus I am wondering, where are these people from? Is it more of an American English thing? More British English? Something else?

I need to know whether my sentence tone is correct for a Software Product [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:49 AM PST You recently made an offline purchase, and the payment methods associated with that subscription have been dissociated. So update your payment method in our Payment portal. This is the statement I am displaying to the user. I need to know whether my statement is clear and proper to my audience and at the same time, it should be in a proper tone. Can anyone clarify me on that and in case if it is not meeting the standards, suggest me some alternatives.

Simple Abbreviation Confusion Posted: 01 Feb 2022 07:30 AM PST You know that a lot of words can be abbreviated like: You know -> y'know About -> 'bout Going to -> gonna and much more To be honest, I found one interesting abbreviation: Of course -> 'Course. But you see, when I searched the internet I didn't find a single article that confirm that this form is accepted unlike the others. And when I tried to search its usage in literatures, like no one using them. But still, it appears a lot in a not-so-formal-and-professional work. So what's up with this abbreviation, is it allowed? Am I allowed to abbreviate words that I feel like doing? You know, like in dialogues inside a novel.

"She going home, he called her." Is it right sentence? [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:46 AM PST I want to make a sentence succinct. Can I turn "When she went home, he called her." into "She going home, he called her." ? Theoretically it looks okay, but I've never seen such a sentence before.

The difference between Where and That [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:01 AM PST The school "Where/That" all the local children attended shut down because its water supply contained toxic chemicals. Which one should I use in this sentence?

I had a girlfriend. She (was/is) an american. Which one is correct and doesn't sound odd? [duplicate] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:47 AM PST Which one doesn't sound odd and is correct? "I had a girlfriend. She was an american." Or "I had a girlfriend. She is an american."

Adding the 'n' to indefinite articles on compound nouns [duplicate] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 01:23 AM PST The rules when to add the n to the indefinite article a is explained here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/using_articles.html They show rules about adjectives: If the noun is modified by an adjective, the choice between a and an depends on the initial sound of the adjective that immediately follows the article: a broken egg an unusual problem a European country (sounds like 'yer-o-pi-an,' i.e. begins with consonant 'y' sound) But what about compound nouns? Examples: The software creates a/an server object. The software creates a/an observer class. The software creates a/an server or client object. The software creates a/an observer or client object. The software creates a/an observer or client class.

That or Which in 'Briana R takes the readers through 20 tales which shed light on different aspects and bring out the spirit of Islam.' [closed] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 01:09 AM PST Original sentence: Briana R takes the readers through 20 tales which shed light on different aspects and bring out the spirit of Islam.' My question is, should 'which' be 'that' here? And if we do use 'which', should there be a comma before it? I can't understand whether the clause is restrictive or non-restrictive here. For context: all the 20 tales of the book 'shed light on different aspects and bring out the spirit of Islam'.

What does it mean when someone says "the result is the gravy, not the turkey"? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 12:53 AM PST I came across the following statement in a book I'm reading about remote working: Letting people work remotely is about promoting quality of life, about getting access to the best people whenever they are, and all the other benefits we'll enumerate. That it may also end up reducing costs spent on offices and result in fewer-but-more-productive workers is the gravy, not the turkey. I have no idea what that literally means. I searched around and found no meaning for the full expression. The only phrase I found that seems to have this meaning is "It's all gravy" : This fun phrase stems from a traditional English saying that compared life itself to meat and potatoes, while the luxuries were gravy. If "it's all gravy" to you, you're probably enjoying life and its little luxuries. Is the gravy, not the turkey expressing the same meaning?

"survey the landscape" idiomatic? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 02:49 AM PST Can I use the phrase "to survey the landscape" when refering not to an actual outdoors scenery but to something more abstract? In this case, I want to express that I was researching something in a body of literature (meaning that I tried to get an overview of a specific subtopic?), as in: "I surveyed the landscape of books focusing on "? I think I saw this a couple of times already, but right now, I cannot find any thrustworthy reference for this. I this really idiomatic?

laying around vs lying around, is one preferred? [duplicate] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 02:31 AM PST Is one preferred to the other? "I spent the day lying around" vs "I spent the day laying around"

A to-infinitive is formed with 'to' plus the base form of a verb. What part of speech does 'to' belong to? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 08:31 AM PST I want to go home. Here the word to belongs to what part of speech?

What verb goes with "combined temperature"? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:56 AM PST I came across the following two sentences in a reputable daily: The combined land and ocean temperature for the first six months of 2010 are 57.5 degrees Fahrenheit (14.2 degrees Celsius), which is 1.2F (0.68C) above the 20th century average for the January to June period. In June the combined land and ocean temperature was 61.1F (16.2C), which is 1.2F (0.68C) above the 20th century average of 59.9F (15.5C). Although the subjects in both the sentences are the same, different verbs are used - in the first sentence, the plural verb 'are' is used whereas in the second sentence, the singular verb 'was' is used. Which verb is appropriate? Can anyone shed some light on it?

Why do we use past perfect instead of past tense here? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:06 AM PST "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.

Used to and would Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:52 AM PST 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.

Do you use a subject pronoun or object pronoun before the ing-word in an absolute construction? Posted: 01 Feb 2022 04:13 AM PST For example: The Pope became the anointed leader of kings and emperors, they becoming his subjects. -or- The Pope became the anointed leader of kings and emperors, them becoming his subjects. On one hand, I can see it being the subject pronoun "they" because it appears that "they" is the subject of a form of the verb "becoming" in a phrase. On the other hand, I can see it being the object pronoun "them" with "them" referring appositively back to the object "kings and emperors" as the antecedent and the phrase "becoming his subjects" being an adjectival modifier of "them."

Word for a non-politician who commits crimes against humanity Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:28 AM PST I am looking for a word or phrase to communicate someone who has committed what amounts to crimes against humanity, but who is not a politician or a soldier or military leader. I want to describe the rubber barons (not robber barons) who exploited people in the Amazon basin at the turn of the 20th century. Not only did they enslave indigenous people to collect latex, but they also kept sex slaves, trafficked in human beings, drove out populations, murdered people, razed villages, etc. Here is a brief reference. Someone who does this things might be called a war criminal, but these rubber barons were not military leaders, nor was there a war. The term "slave driver" comes to mind, but slave-holding is not the limit of what they did, and also it has the connotation of a boss or overseer who simply works their employees too hard. One might call them a "monster" or similar name, but that doesn't indicate the scale or specificity of their evil deeds. Is there an apt phrase that would indicate the situation?

Word to describe the state of something being external or internal Posted: 01 Feb 2022 05:06 AM PST I'm looking for a word that refers to the state of being external or internal as a noun. Something like "ternality" or "ternalness" if those were words. Example: "The 'ternality' of the door was external."

Use of conditional tense/subjunctive mood Posted: 01 Feb 2022 07:21 AM PST I am discussing with a friend (over email) the pros and cons of various interview styles. At some point in the email I write: "Ideally the candidate will demonstrate X." Then in the next sentence I want to describe, by comparison, what action by the candidate would not be ideal. I was initially tempted to write: "What would be bad would be if the candidate did Y" but the bold-text "would be" sounds wrong as used here. Instead, I feel I should write something like: What would be bad is if the candidate did Y" because I'm saying that [the action that would be bad] = Y, as opposed to [the action that would be bad] would be Y. In other words, I know that the action Y would be bad. Neither phrase sounds perfect though. I would appreciate any explanation of a 'correct' phrasing! Also I am from the UK, but living in the US, so I am interested in usage in each place (if there is a difference). Finally, I apologize if I have mis-tagged this question - it seems to me to be a question about use of either the conditional tense or the subjunctive mood, but this could be wrong.

Could "selfue" be a sensible antonym of "selfie"? [duplicate] Posted: 01 Feb 2022 01:12 AM PST A selfie is a photograph a person takes of themself. By this definition, the antonym of selfie must be a photograph of oneself taken by somebody else. In selfie the i can be taken to mean "taken by me (I)". In that case, in selfue the u would mean "taken by you". Is it possible that this word could arise and be used?

Relationship between "ductile" and "malleable" ... a word to describe words related like this Posted: 01 Feb 2022 09:12 AM PST What is the relationship between the words ductile and malleable? They are definitely not antonyms, but can we call them synonyms?

"Key to" vs. "key for" Posted: 01 Feb 2022 06:50 AM PST Key to exercises. Today I saw the quoted sentence when looking at the keys to exercises, and afterwards that sentence got me thinking why the preposition to is used here instead of for. The way I see it is that the key purpose is to match our answer with the correct one; hence, for would fit here nicely. Am I right?

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