Sunday, February 27, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

How to write the last sentence of the introductory paragraph of a cover letter? [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 11:10 AM PST

Assume that i want to write my qualifications for a job in multiple paragraphs. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, I would like to write something like

My qualifications are listed as follows:

  1. Can I write multiple normal paragraphs after "as follows:"? I have only seen that bullets or numbers come after "as follows:".

  2. What are better synonyms and alternatives for the above sentence?

What does 'blinking to death' mean? [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 11:17 AM PST

I stumbled upon a line from Life by Proof:

Life was so fast you could damn near blink to death

What does this mean? I think of three possible variants

  1. Life was so fast, you could wink your eye to death
  2. Life was so fast, you could blink your eye and die before you even get to open it.
  3. Life was so fast, it seems short as time blinking takes.

Is this fronting correct? [duplicate]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 09:07 AM PST

I need to know if fronting the compound object of the sentence in italics is grammatical and idiomatic.

But first, some context: a man wants to give a dress to a woman. He would prefer the tailor to select the features of the dress rather than do it himself.

  • I leave [its] colour, shape and style to you.

Which becomes:

  • [Its] colour, shape, and style I leave to you.

Besides, can I delete "its"?

Thank you for any help.

Help me with writing a poem [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 08:29 AM PST

So there is this one work that demands me to write a poem, a stanza poem spesifically. After writing some lines, I'm out of words. Is there any idea for the next upcoming lines? I'm fine with any words, as long as it rhymes and relates with one another. Thanks! :)

Why do use this statement in the end? [migrated]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST

  • The eighteenth century has gifted English literature two entirely new forms which are without any traces in the ancient classical heritage.

Why is the bolded statement (my bolding) included: what does it mean?

Usage of the phrase "do not play the saint"

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 12:51 PM PST

I have noticed that some Maltese-speaking people tend to use the phrase "do not play the saint".

Is this phrase in current usage in British or American English? I've only seen it used by Maltese-speaking people and I always thought that it was a direct translation from the Maltese phrase.

I do know that the verb "to play" can, and is, used before certain nouns, such as "to play the hero", or "to play the fool", so technically there is nothing wrong with the phrase "to play the saint" - but what I want to know is whether this is actually in use.

The only non-Maltese use of it I could find is the song 'Playing the Saint' by Digital Summer.

A single word for instrument-playing?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 12:45 PM PST

For eg., Tiya secured first place in singing/dancing/drawing.

How do we say it if Tiya secured first in playing an instrument? Is there any word for instrument-playing?

"biggest failure" versus "greatest failure" [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 05:00 AM PST

Which one is the correct way to say it?

"War is and always remains one of the biggest human failures."

or

"War is and always remains one of the greatest human failures."

Or are both adjectives equally good in this case?

Meaning of sentence with "betrayed" [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 01:08 AM PST

A statement reads:

The old man could not have been accused of hiding his affection; his conduct toward the child betrayed his love for her.

But I think the statement should be...

The old man could not have been accused of showing his affection; his conduct toward the child betrayed his love for her.

If someones conduct toward his child "betrayed his love for her", then he was not showing affection towards her. Is this correct? or am I misunderstanding "betrayed".

I am really puzzled by where I am going wrong with understanding this sentence. Any help is appreciated.

What's the word that describes a state where you have to take a choice between two options but you end up somewhere in the middle? [duplicate]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 11:55 AM PST

I'm looking for a word that describes a situation where you have a possibility to be either A or B but you kind of don't really go after one or the other. Then you end up in an undesirable state that's neither A or B.

Why are only few letters in title of this poem in capital letters while others are not? [duplicate]

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 08:39 PM PST

The poem is 'Have you earned your tomorrow' by Edgar Guest. In my textbook , only certain letters first word is in capital while others are not. My question is why is that ?enter image description here

Does he *has* a ball? [migrated]

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 06:56 PM PST

As we know, third person singular uses "has" instead of "have". But why do you say, "Does he have a ball? Yes, he has a ball."

When did "vegetable" become "vetchtable"?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:52 AM PST

I was watching a video that referenced the "Major General Song" from The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, and I noticed that the writers clearly use vegetable as a 4-syllable word. The Wiki entry also notes that they used "gineral" to make it rhyme with "mineral," which is odd because nowadays general always rhymes with mineral (at least in my area of the U.S.), so at least one word has definitely shifted in pronunciation.

Has the pronunciation of vegetable shifted to the 3-syllable "vetchtable" after this was written, or has it always been contracted this way? Are there any sources that discuss this pronunciation?

What's the meaning of " wildness" in this context? Could it mean our nature/essence that we were born with? [migrated]

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 01:50 PM PST

. He tried to shape in his mind what he had to say to McDonald. It was a feeling; it was an urge that he had to speak. But whatever he spoke he knew would be but another name for the wildness that he sought. It was a freedom and a goodness, a hope and a vigor that he perceived to underlie all the familiar things of his life, which were not free or good or hopeful or vigorous. What he sought was the source and preserver of his world, a world which seemed to turn ever in fear away from its source, rather than search it out, as the prairie grass around him sent down its fibered roots into the rich dark dampness, the Wildness, and thereby renewed itself, year after year.

Meaning of "pull in" in this context? [closed]

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 08:26 AM PST

I'm reading The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead and found this part is difficult to understand.

The scene is like this. Lila Mae is an elevator inspector. While she was returning to Headquater she heard the news from the radio that the elevator of Briggs building which she had inspected yesterday fell. Now she arrived the guild and Chancre, Chairman of the elevator inspector's guild is holding a press conference at the entrance of the HQ.

She(Lila Mae) doesn't have a plan yet, figures she has at least until the press conference is over before she has to meet Chancre, and that much time to get her story straight. Unfortunately, Lila Mae realizes, she turned in her inspection report on the Briggs building yesterday afternoon, and even if she could think of a way to sneak into Processing, past Miss Bally and her girls, they would have already removed it. As evidence. How long before they pull in Internal Affairs, if they haven't already?

I wonder what "pull in" means here.

What is the difference between "when the night has come" and "when the night comes"? [migrated]

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 02:10 PM PST

In the song "stand by me", we can see the sentence like "when the night has come" but I am curious why he used the present perfect. He could write a song like "when the night comes, the land is dark" why is it?

Is chremamorphism the literary technique for objectification?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 06:15 AM PST

So I was hoping if someone could support that chremamorphism is the literary technique term for objectification. Specifically, I am looking at the phrase "the pushing of your sadness". Sadness, a personal attribute, is being depicted as an object which I think aligns with chremamorphism. Am I misunderstanding the technique, or is there a better term for the concept of objectification in literature?

What idiom describes someone who is confident on the outside but not confident on the inside?

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 06:59 PM PST

I am wondering what words are for this because I need to describe a person for a school essay and this is their personality.

Looking for a phrase, word, etc., to describe tendency towards choosing an easy solution

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 01:01 PM PST

I am curious whether a specific phrase or similar exist.

E.g., modus vivendi characterize "an arrangement or agreement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully".

I am looking for a phrase that characterize a tendency to work towards an easy solution/avoid advanced situations. Like "tendency to choose an easy solution".

Edit for further clarification So I do health research. We just found in a large-scale study that the mortality rate decreased for intensive care unit patients during the Covid-19 lockdown. We have learned by manually reviewing patient records that ICU facilities have significantly altered selection of patients eligible for ICU admission. The predominant characteristics of these patients comprise diagnogses prone to more favorable outcomes compared to pre-lockdown ICU patients. Thus, there have occured a state of modus operandi prone to pre-hospital selecting of admitting patients with more favorable outcomes. I seek a short catch phrase to encapsulate this practise fit for a paper title in health care research.

What does "practices are the context to which they respond" mean?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 07:05 AM PST

Through our practices, we create the reality (context) through which the former is influenced by the latter. 'Social reality is practices' (Taylor, 1985 cited in Schatzki, 2005: 470). Or, to put it differently, practices are the context to which they respond. Contexts are 'nexuses of practices and material arrangements' (Schatzki, 2005: 471). The context with its institutionalized meanings limits the possibilities to think and act (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). As a consequence, leaders are not free 'to do whatever they want, but neither are they determined in their actions by the situations they find themselves in' (Grint, 2005: 1490, emphasis added).

Drath, W.H. & Palus, C.J. (1994) Making Common Sense – Leadership as Meaning Making in a Community of Practice. Published as CCL Report no 156.

I am reading an article and trying to understand what this sentence " practices are the context to which they respond" means.

Does it mean the same as "practices are the context and practices respond to this context"?

declining reputation, worsening reputation

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST

I am trying to write a two-word phrase. The second word is "reputation." The first word is a modifier; it will signal that a reputation is getting worse. "Worsening reputation" fits this description -- but it seems clunky and unidiomatic to me. Is there a better alternative?

"Declining reputation" came to mind, but I am not sure that it's appropriate. A reputation can be in decline, but can it be declining? Perhaps it's fine; I am not sure.

"Decreasing reputation" is not appropriate here. I wouldn't write "increasing reputation" to suggest that someone's reputation is getting better (though I might consider it if I wanted to suggest that someone was becoming better-known).

"Deteriorating reputation" might make sense, but "deteriorating" is just too many syllables.

having been participled?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 12:05 PM PST

Is anything wrong in this sentence?

The enemy, beaten at every point, fled from the field.

According to my book it should instead be:

The enemy, having been beaten at every point, fled from the field.

Why?

There is only one subject in this sentence, so there should only be one verb; that is, fled.

How can we use having been + the past participle?

What's the difference between the two sentence structures?

Correct construction for "easily protected against"

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 10:03 PM PST

What I am trying to express is that I have a problem P and a good G and it is easy to protect G from P. However, G is not the focus of the sentence and P was described in the previous sentence.

So I would like to say something like:

There is the additional problem P. However, it is easily protected against.

With it referring to the problem P and without going into what G is again. However, the construction seems complicated and possibly plain incorrect. What we would be a good expression?

I also considered:

There is the additional problem P. However, it is easy to protect against.

Alternative to the expression "we are going to"

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 06:47 AM PST

At the moment I'm writing a sort of economical report over Bosch GmbH. That's a group work and I would like to report our data and our analysis in the most clear and straightforward way. I have an issue though, I found myself writing an awful lot of times the expression "we are going to". Here some examples

  • In this section we are going to focus on the financial...
  • We are going to perform a first level analysis of ROE...
  • For the short term situation we are going to use two different approach...

I don't really like to use the WE, but neither I can seem to find a non redundant solution to say the same thing.

Thank you in advance

How to punctuate one word quotes in a sentence

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 01:35 AM PST

Please tell me which one is correct...

They said "no" because the children needed an adult with them.

OR

They said, "No," because the children needed an adult with them.

OR

They said no because the children needed an adult with them.

OR

Some other way?

Please advise - thank you so much!

When to make compound adjectives with adverbs?

Posted: 26 Feb 2022 02:55 PM PST

I'm trying to figure out what style guidelines or rules apply to creating compound adjectives when adverbs are involved. Typically you create compound adjectives when there is potential for ambiguity between the noun and the previous modifiers(s):

This is a high-risk behavior.

But you don't typically hypenate 'ly' adverb pairs (I believe).

This is a highly risky behavior.

While the example above looks correct to me, the example below just feels somehow wrong.

That is a friendly looking dog.

It should be be:

That is a friendly-looking dog.

Is there a general rule or style guidance for when a compound word is preferred over leaving the modifiers separate?

What is the opposite of "meta"?

Posted: 27 Feb 2022 01:58 AM PST

A while back I was talking about it with friends.

Another question indicates a few meanings of the "meta-" prefix. Considering that "meta" means, in simple words, "about itself" (like how metadata is data about data), what would be the appropriate prefix to mean the opposite relationship?

It seemed to us that "meta" raised a concept to a new level, and we were wondering what prefix would, conversely, lower a concept to another level. Is there another prefix I could use to cancel out the "meta" in "metadata" to get back to "data"?
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