Monday, February 7, 2022

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

Progressive aspect with simple past [migrated]

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 07:37 AM PST

Is this sentence correct?

She isn't feeling well so she had to take a day off.

Or should it be wasn't?

What would we call the additional things that we buy for academic purposes?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 06:36 AM PST

For example, in engineering, we buy Scientific Calculators, Drafting Scales, Multimeters, etc. So in general, what should we call these things? My guess would be academic tools. Is there a more appropriate term?

Amiss OR remiss? – 'Then it wouldn’t be seen as amiss if one were to not attend every dinner service, perhaps?’ [closed]

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 03:50 AM PST

Then it wouldn't be seen as amiss if one were to not attend every dinner service, perhaps?

Does this sentence read alright with 'amiss'? Or should it be 'remiss'? Also, can something be seen as amiss?

A generic term for a piece of writing [closed]

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 06:41 AM PST

Is there a generic term which encompasses all types of work that a writer might do? Something that for example covers 'stories' and 'poems', but also 'articles' or 'journals'?

I thought possibly 'script', but I feel that as a script itself is a piece of written stageplay, in this context it doesn't feel generic enough.

Using prepositions for "finance" and "fund" [closed]

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 02:25 AM PST

I am writing a short content matter on behalf of my client. He runs an NGO and is planning for a crowdfunding campaign so that the NGO can provide free education to children from poor families.

Is it grammatically correct or wrong to use prepositions for "finance" and "fund" in the given sentences below?

The sentence: Families are struggling to finance for/towards the education of their children.

Or shall I only use "finance the education"?

Also, if I replace the word finance with fund, then also is it correct to use a preposition like for/towards?

Thank you so much!

How should I say "Welcome there" instead of Welcome Here

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 01:10 AM PST

How do you say welcome to someone who arrived somewhere else than where you are yourself? For example if Bob is in Australia and gets a message from Alice that she successfully arrived in Europe, what would Bob say? It doesn't sound right to say "Welcome" when one is not there in person.

Difference between "on display" and "in a display"? [migrated]

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 12:45 AM PST

When a kid asks me where I placed his toy and I answer, "I put it on display near the window", would it be better if I say "It's in a display near the window?

Does it depend on contexts? For example, can I say "I saw the wedding gown on display at a shop"?

English native, How do you add the/a into some word? [migrated]

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 08:48 PM PST

I easily omit using a/the article in conversation, because my brain have hard time what verb I should use, what noun I sould use while conversation. So I mostly forgot using articles.

So English native speaker, do you add it because you feel awkward withou it? Or do you remember Grammar book's teaching how you should a/the to it.

For example: "The lord of the rings"
You feel awkward with only 'lord of ring'.

So your tongue is used to using these 6 words. So only 'lord' is meaningless word to your tongue.

  1. My lord
  2. Your lord
  3. That lord
  4. Lords
  5. The lord
  6. A lord

Thus 'lord of ring' makes you feel weird, so you sponteneously use 'The lord', 'The ring'. Do you think keep my tongue saying those 6 words like millions times will make me spontaneously say 'The lord'?

Do you think this is right approach to make me speak like Native?

I am using semicolons wrongly; what should I use instead?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 06:40 AM PST

I am someone who best learns through examples, not definitions. It is for this very reason I have read some of the other questions on this forum but am still confused about semicolons; or rather, when I am mis-using them and the case by case fixes.

Below is a sentence that I quite like; I can say it naturalistically and I appreciate its repetition. Unfortunately, I understand that I have not used the semicolon correctly because the two clauses are not independent; the former introduces the latter. What alternative should I use then? A hyphen? a colon? a comma?

  • (1) A vapid wind welcomed the prodigal, passing him by in its migration out of the east; out of the valley.

Another example is this:

  • (2) A face spooked his memory; Jim again.

I keep jumping between thinking I should use a hyphen because they are interjections into the flow of the sentence. Then I wonder if a colon should be used because the first part introduces the second.

Finally:

  • (3) Larry showed his face from within his cloak; a ginger figure with a rough stubble and sharp features giving the appearance of a constant smile.

In this case, I wonder if I may have actually used a semicolon correctly, or if it too needs something else.

(I have tried my best to use semicolons in this question; it would be interesting to see if I have made similar mistakes throughout.)

Passive voice verbs vs. Adjectives

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 07:25 AM PST

Adjective or verb passive form??

In the sentence

  • We teach our children that everyone is entitled to respect and dignity

is 'entitled' more likely an adjective or a verb?

A similar question appeared in another sentence:

  • Had Mr. Morgan actually received the right medical care or even been directed to a doctor who could specifically give him that care, psychiatric or otherwise, his current state would most likely have been alleviated.

My question here is whether the word 'alleviated'is more likely an adjective or a verb.

I explained to my student that in both cases, passive voice is involved. Therefore, both words are verbs. She doesn't seem very convinced. I'm wondering if anyone could provide a better explanation, especially for the word 'alleviated'. Thanks!

Do one thing over another [closed]

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 09:33 PM PST

Is it correct to say

I think we should work on task A over task B

when the idea is that we should prioritize and work on task A over task B?

If not, what are the native ways of saying that?

Can em dash be used to define and give more info about a subject?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 01:37 PM PST

Can I use an em dash to embellish the last word of the original thought?

Examples:

I spent my career driving a Ford F-150—the most reliable truck ever produced!

The new method is setup for autonomous learning—the byproduct of which is self-discipline and independent thought.

Suffix in adverbs: The use of the term 'normally distributed' in place of 'normal distributed'

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 11:00 PM PST

When a word is used as an adverb then it is normally combined with a suffix like "-ly" or "-ian".

Like 'normal' becomes 'normally' and the previous sentence is an example of its use.

In statistics, common phrase have a construction like 'X is normally distributed', 'X is binomially distributed' or 'X is geometrically distributed'.

But less common are phrases like 'X is Poissonian distributed' or 'X is Bernoullian distributed'. (exception 'X is Gaussian distributed').

  • Why does the normal/Gaussian distribution get the use of an adverb-related suffix while this is not done as much with other distributions, especially with distributions that are named after a person?

  • Is the use of a suffix to make the root word an adverb correct?

    The meaning 'X is normally distributed' is supposed to refer to 'X is distributed as a normal distribution' or 'X follows a normal distribution' (the normal distribution is the name of a particular type of probability distribution, it does not refer to 'normal' as in 'usual' or 'common'). There are also phrases like 'evenly distributed', but that relates more to the way that the distributing is done.

Some statistics about the use on the website stats.stackexchange.com is found with this query which allows counting the occurrences of sentence constructions like "is ... distributed".

With distributions that are named after a person the use of a suffix is less common.

with suffix without suffix
normally/normal 610 19
geometrical/geometric 4 1
binomially/binomial 22 5
with suffix without suffix
Gaussian/Gauss 10 0
Poissonian/Poisson 0 33
Bernoullian/Bernoulli 0 9

Hits on google.scholar

with suffix without suffix
Gaussian/Gauss 16 600 169
Poissonian/Poisson 92 15 900

stats

Understanding Nehemiah 13:24 in the King James Bible

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 04:45 AM PST

The King James Bible reads in Nehemiah 13:24:

And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.

Considering the use of English at the time around 1611, what does "their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language" mean? Is it clearly (i) or (ii) given below; or can the intended meaning only be derived from context?

(i) 50% of the children spoke Ashdodic and could not speak the language of the Jews.

(ii) Each child spoke a 50%-reduced version of Ashdodic (so they did not speak it properly) and moreover could not speak the language of the Jews.

The vast majority of other Bible translations point to (i). But my question is whether this can be determined by only looking at the King James text, without going to other translations or to the original Hebrew or Greek.

Is this prepositional phrase acting as an adjective?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 08:50 PM PST

The example

Create a referral to a specialist.

The question

Is that sentence grammatically correct?

I think it is because the prepositional phrase is acting as an adjective (modifying "referral") rather than an adverb (modifying "create"). If it were intended to modify "create" as an adverb then I don't think "to" works.

Future Perfect and Future Perfect Progressive for past assumptions

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 10:02 PM PST

I would greatly appreciate your help with resolving one doubt I have and have been struggling to clear up.

It concerns the Future Perfect's and Future Perfect Progressive's more advanced usage - expressing past assumptions.

According to: https://english.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses/future-perfect-simple https://english.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses/future-perfect-progressive

Future Perfect - assumptions about something that has probably happened

Example:

He will probably have noticed that his bike is broken.

Future Perfect Progressive - assumptions about what was happening at a certain time in the past.

Example:

There was an accident last week. The driver won't have been paying attention to the road signs.

From the above description, it seems this usage in the simple form is more connected to the present - as in talking about what has happened by now. In the progressive form it appears to refer to any time in the past - also finished events and periods, things which happened before specific points in the past. Would this interpretation of those examples be correct? This seems to be a pretty major and unusual difference of usage between the simple and progressive form. Or perhaps Future Perfect Simple for assumptions could also work with past tenses? Would it be correct to say:

He will probably have noticed that his bike was broken.
He will probably have noticed that his bike was being stolen.

Mind you, the first two examples come from a source and are correct. I'm not looking for alternative, more common or natural, ways to express this - my question is if it would be correct to also use the past tenses with the simple form of Future Perfect to the same effect (assumptions about past events). Many thanks.

Word for a car accessory that is standard trim, or a low-cost option

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 04:06 PM PST

I'm looking for a word or two that covers in a vehicle all-round cameras, built-in sonar and radar, etc that may be in the base price or in a low-cost package, and all mount unobtrusively into pre-allocated mountings, but excludes exotic items like LIDAR that sits on the roof of the car and would only be a third-party or specialised purchase. "Off-the-shelf" is close, I think, but is there something better?

The sample heading I am trying to fix currently reads:

Using only in-vehicle conventional sensing devices

"in-vehicle conventional" are the words I want to replace. This is for a formal poster.

Why is the abbreviation for the Doctor of Optometry O. D.?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 03:27 AM PST

The abbreviation for the Doctor of Optometry is O.D. instead of D.O. - could someone help me understand the reason? Thank you!

"Optometrists are Doctors of Optometry (O.D.) who may prescribe corrective lenses (glasses and contacts) to aid refractive errors (e.g., myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, astigmatism, double vision)."

What does "He is so odd a mixture of" mean?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 07:06 AM PST

The following passage is from Pride and Prejudice.

Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.

With my limited knowledge of English, I know the following combinations are ok.

He was odd..

He was so odd..

He was a mixture of...

He was an odd mixture of...

But what does "so odd a mixture of" mean here? It feels like some words are missing in this phase. How should I interpret this phase?

Thank you.

What's the difference between ‘A increased with B’ and ’A increased with increasing B?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 03:00 PM PST

What's the difference between 'A increased with B' and 'A increased with increasing B? Do they have the same meaning? Or does 'A increased with B' also have the meaning of 'A increased with decreasing B'? And how about 'A increased with increased B'? Confused.

How rewrite Longmore LJ in *Salt v Stratstone Specialist Ltd* (2015) without negator?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 02:00 PM PST

To improve English, I want try re-rewriting long sentences without negator because I understand "Don't you ever talk like that to me again", but not "Don't you never silence like that to me never".

Poole, Shaw-Mellors. Contract Law Concentrate (4 ed 2019). p 209.

Leaf v International Galleries (1950): picture represented (non-fraudulent) to be 'Salisbury Cathedral' by Constable. Five years later the purchaser attempted to sell it and discovered it was not by Constable. The Court of Appeal (CA) held that rescission had been lost as not exercised within a reasonable time. However, some doubt has been cast on Leaf v International Galleries (1950) by the Court of Appeal in Salt v Stratstone Specialist Ltd (2015) where Longmore LJ stated:

p 210.

'It must, moreover, be remembered that Leaf was decided well before the Misrepresentation Act was passed. It must be doubtful whether since the enactment of section 1 it is still good law that a representor should be in no worse position than if the representation had become a term of the contract, particularly if the representor takes no steps to prove that he was not negligent.'

"It must be doubtful whether since the enactment of section 1 it is still good law" just means Longmore thinks opposite. I can just add NOT.

a representor should NOT be in no worse position than if the representation had become a term of the contract, particularly if the representor takes no steps to prove that he was not negligent.

Now how rewrite without "NOT" and "no worse"? Does "NOT be in no worse position" mean better?

a representor should be in BETTER position than if the representation had become a term of the contract, particularly if the representor takes no steps to prove that he was not negligent.

I quote 2 other books for context for you. O'Sullivan & Hilliard's The Law of Contract (2018 8 ed). p 237.

9.42 Leaf involved a wholly innocent misrepresentation, where some indulgence to the representor can be expected. Perhaps it is only in such cases that Lord Denning's view should prevail over conflicting considerations of fairness to the representee. Recently the Court of Appeal in Salt v Stratstone Specialist Ltd (2015) has pointed out that Leaf is out of date—it reflected the principle that the misrepresentation regime should not give greater protection to a purchaser than if the statement had been incorporated as a term of the contract, and at the time the Sale of Goods Act provided that a purchaser would be deemed to have accepted the goods if he did not reject them within a reasonable time. Since then, amendments to the Sale of Goods Act, and the enactment of the Misrepresentation Act, cast doubt on the reasoning and conclusion in Leaf, therefore the court in Salt, although unable to overrule the earlier Court of Appeal decision, doubted that lapse of time alone should generally bar rescission.

Mindy Chen-Wishart. Contract Law (2018 6 edn). p 228.

But even if the representee remains ignorant of the non-fraudulent misrepresentation, it was once thought that a substantial passage of time may itself bar rescission. In Leaf v International Galleries (1950), L was induced to buy a picture of Salisbury Cathedral by I's innocent misrepresentation that it was painted by the famous artist Constable. L only discovered this was false when he tried to sell the picture some five years later. Nevertheless, L's claim to rescind the contract was denied due to lapse of time. Jenkins LJ said that contracts 'cannot be kept open and subject to the possibility of rescission indefinitely'. In addition, the representor should not be worse off than if the statement had become a term, when the representee would be barred from termination if she had 'accepted' the goods under the Sale of Goods Act 1893. This was questioned by the Court of Appeal in Salt v Stratstone Specialist Ltd (2015), since section 1 MA allows a representee to treat a term as a representation (5.2.2.1).

This market was finished rebuilding - correct grammar?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 11:02 PM PST

On one of the corners of Spitalfields market in London, there's a sign that reads:

"This market was finished rebuilding by R. Homer 1893"

Is this a clumsy sentence? Is it grammatically correct?

Wouldn't

"R. Homer finished rebuilding this market, 1893"

be more correct?

I'm confused by the 'rebuilding' - is it a noun here? Is there some intransitivity in the verb 'finished'?

What are some formal alternatives to Mr./Ms., particularly in the context of job-hunting?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 04:16 AM PST

I've always been told to refer to people by an honorific followed by their last names, especially when discussing job opportunities etc. However, I would rather not misgender anybody in doing so. I would appreciate if someone offered an alternative honorific or an alternative way to address people in emails, cover letters etc.

"doomed to" + noun or infinitive?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 11:33 PM PST

I know the phrase "doomed to failure" exists. I also found someone here who suggests that both, "doomed to failure" and "doomed to fail" can be used for a specific situation:

"I'm doomed to failure" expresses a final state of outcome.

"I'm doomed to fail" expresses an inevitable action.

Questions:

  1. Would someone (a native speaker?) actually use "doomed to fail" instead of "doomed to failure"?
  2. How can this be applied to other verbs (even if it doesn't make a lot of sense in the first place), e.g. "to live"/"life". Would it be "doomed to life" or "doomed to live"?

What's the word for when water smashes against an obstacle and is forced around it?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST

I know there probably isn't one word that covers that entire experience (although if there is, I'm definitely interested). I mainly want to know what the word is for when water is forced around. For example, when you hit water with your hand and it splashes water out. What is that splashing called? The best I can come up with is scattering, but I don't like it.

Example sentence: The water smashed against the rock and scattered around it.

Is there a better word than scatter?

I know I'm going to be asked if I did any research. I tried, but because I can't figure out the word I'm looking for--although it's on the tip of my tongue--I can't figure out what to search for.

What is the name for the wall around the land

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 12:37 AM PST

There is a wall around my land(Garden). What is the correct word to call it?

  • parapet
  • parapet wall
  • rampart
  • truss
  • wall
  • Any other

Example:

Is "despatch" the British spelling for "dispatch" or is it an archaic spelling (or both)?

Posted: 07 Feb 2022 01:10 AM PST

In John Ormsby's 1885 translation of Don Quixote, the word "despatch" is used. Is that the corresponding British spelling for "dispatch" or is it simply an archaic spelling (in both the American and UK English dialects), or is it both (British and archaic)?

What is the difference between "sardonic" and "sarcastic"?

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 04:55 PM PST

Basically, sardonic and sarcastic both stand for mocking gestures, but what is the difference in their contextual use?

Are there any other words that represent a similar gesture?
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)