Recent Questions - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |
- When can I use Which vs That?
- Which word can be used to describe the lesson that introduce the content, usage of one chapter?
- What does the term"'who had no congenial home to make her known in" mean?;
- Difference between "provocative" and "thought-provoking"
- What is the diffrence between Auxiliary Verb and Helping verb. (Main Difference) [closed]
- When citing a publication with more than one author as subject of a sentence, are verbs plural or singular?
- Word for a dumb person that knows a lot about one thing [duplicate]
- What word can i use for someone who is nice to other but to look good and get something in exchange, self benefit
- When can an embedded interrogative clause exhibit Subject-Auxiliary Inversion?
- Can I use the preposition "for" with the meaning of support or agreement in this sentence?
- Distinguishing durative verbs [migrated]
- Is it correct “many to emotional reunions with family and friends.”
- Why use "can and may" both in a sentence?
- General term for singularize and pluralize
- Slang: "To have a twenty on me"
- Verbal agreement of "more of + plural noun"
- What is a single word for a "shared experience"
- "I remember the advice he gave to me" Why add preposition to?
- When is the object of a verb the subject of the gerund in structure "subject + verb + object + preposition + gerund"?
- What is the opposite of a retronym?
- A word or phrase for a non-military attack on a country's home soil
- “with” vs “to have”
- Word for "person that I supervise"
- What terms describe the various parts of someone's name?
| Posted: 09 May 2022 12:49 AM PDT Could you teach me when I can adequately use 'which' and 'that'?
Thanks |
| Which word can be used to describe the lesson that introduce the content, usage of one chapter? Posted: 09 May 2022 12:37 AM PDT Recently I am working on the 'mathematics introduction lesson'. I want to find more theories and articles about this kind of lessons. However, I can't even get some useful information after searching on Google Scholar with the words like 'Mathematics introduction lesson', 'chapter beginning lesson','pre-chapter lesson' and some other words alike. I want to know how the English native speaker describe this kind of lesson, in order to search some papers.(For I am not a English native speaker, I think the failure may due to the wrong words used to search.) Here the 'mathematics introduction lesson' means this kind of lesson: In a mathematics lesson, before teaching a new chapter, the teacher tells students what they will learn, how to learn, the application of the knowledge in real life, or something more in one whole lesson. For example, a mathematics introduction lesson before teaching the new chapter 'trigonometric function': I will tell my students the history of its being invented, how do designers use the function to measure structures, its usage in industry, the difficuities you may find during the learning process, and how to learn this new chapter. Sorry for choosing the tag 'word-choice', for I do not know which tag is proper. If it's not right, please edit it to a proper one if you like. Thank you for your help:-) |
| What does the term"'who had no congenial home to make her known in" mean?; Posted: 09 May 2022 12:26 AM PDT What does the term"who had no congenial home to make her known in" mean from a passage from Dickens' Little Dorrrit Chapter16.Why "in" is used after known? Is "in" a preposition or adverbial particle in the above sentence? |
| Difference between "provocative" and "thought-provoking" Posted: 09 May 2022 12:15 AM PDT In some dictionaries, provocative has two meanings:
Some other dictionaries include one additional meaning:
However, in my decades of experience in US and Canada, I find that, when we are using the third meaning, we exclusively mean that someone is being "thought-provoking by trying to cause anger or a strong emotion". Is it correct that, one can be thought-provoking by many methods, and being provocative is just one of them? For one example, when we say a presentation is using provocative language, we usually mean that language caused an emotional spike, usually with a slightly negative sense. For another example, a native speaker once said:
I've never seen a single case when the word provocative is used to describe a person in a 100% positive context. |
| What is the diffrence between Auxiliary Verb and Helping verb. (Main Difference) [closed] Posted: 08 May 2022 09:47 PM PDT I would like to know the difference between Auxiliary verb and Helping verb. Dont try to copy from the other websites , i have searched all the articles , i just want to know the main difference which is the basic factor of distinguishing the between the both. Regards Apeejay School Kuldeep Singh Phd English |
| Posted: 08 May 2022 11:50 PM PDT Which is correct in this sentence: "enumerate" or "enumerates"? "Jacobs and Watanabe (1966) enumerate(s) possibilities that cause change in phase path length, including change in intensity of the geomagnetic field and change in electron density spatial distribution." "Enumerates" treats the paper being cited as the (singular) subject, while "enumerate" treats the authors as the subject. Which is correct? |
| Word for a dumb person that knows a lot about one thing [duplicate] Posted: 08 May 2022 08:22 PM PDT I've completely forgotten the word for it, but the meaning of it is something along the lines of, somebody that is unintelligent but has a lot of knowledge about really specific, completely useless things. my friend john is extremely dumb, but ask him about worms and he'll talk forever. |
| Posted: 08 May 2022 10:32 PM PDT What word can I use for someone who is nice to another but only to look good and get something in exchange? They do it to get something / manipulate the person like Claudius in Hamlet Act 1 & 2 who flatters another to look good and so the other likes him but is all in order to get away with his actions (such as incest) and for other to work for him. He is fake of course, like a fake atruist, he knows he is doing it. What word best describes this? |
| When can an embedded interrogative clause exhibit Subject-Auxiliary Inversion? Posted: 08 May 2022 07:34 PM PDT I found in a comic book an interesting example of an embedded interrogative that had Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI): I'm not too sure what exactly is it that you're asking. Is this Standard English or a dialect thing? I know embedded SAI is found in Northern England, but this is presumably an American example. Are there any special environments in which we may find embedded SAI? |
| Can I use the preposition "for" with the meaning of support or agreement in this sentence? Posted: 09 May 2022 12:32 AM PDT The sentence is as below, The discovery is being resisted by many people for exploiting fetal tissue. It seems more appropriate to interpret it as below, My questions is, is it able to use the preposition "for" for agreement and interpret it as below, Is it grammatically and semantically possible? // add------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // +the discovery : a possible treatment for strokes and degenerative diseases by the transplantation of human fetal tissue into the brain to repair damage. // The discovery is being resisted by many people for exploiting fetal tissue. The discovery is being resisted by many people for excluding fetal tissue. which is right? |
| Distinguishing durative verbs [migrated] Posted: 08 May 2022 11:37 AM PDT I've been struggling to distinguish between durative and punctual verbs! What I found as a rule for durative verbs is that they are typically identified when using a continuous tense, but let's consider these examples: -Pam cured herself with large doses of vitamin C. -He is happy with the results. When I checked for the answers, I was surprised to find both of the verbs as durative! Where does duration lie exactly? And is there indeed any rule or hint to find out durative verbs? |
| Is it correct “many to emotional reunions with family and friends.” Posted: 08 May 2022 02:47 PM PDT Below is excerpted from the BBC News:
It seems wrong to me, though I know it must be an omitted sentence from many to the end. What would be the fully expanded sentence? |
| Why use "can and may" both in a sentence? Posted: 08 May 2022 02:38 PM PDT I have seen a lot of questions about the difference between can and may and I am aware of them. In a legal(-ish) document (some policy) I have read a statement to the effect of a consequence can and may include a list of possibilities. In any everyday context that I can imagine either one of them (can or may) would have sufficed and expressed pretty much the same sentiment. However, I am neither a legal expert nor an English native speaker. My question is, why does this sentence need to specify that the result of some action can and may include some consequences? The reason may be a legal distinction that is not within the scope of this community. However, I wanted to try the linguistic approach first. A good answer would also provide an example of when an action can but may not include a consequence or vice versa. For context, you can and may ;) use an example like the following (really only an example!):
Actually, while re-reading my question, I came to the conclusion that writing "can and may" both may mostly serve as affirmation or emphasis. If the document only states that the actions can include the listed consequences, a pedantic reader might ask if that would be legally allowed. If the document only states that the actions may include some consequence, a pedantic reader might ask if those consequences are technically even possible. Although the latter seems less probable: in the example above, if the teacher may reduce your grade there is no reason to doubt that they actually can do that. Similarly, if they are permitted to exclude you from the exam or write to your supervisor, there is very little that could prevent them from having that power. In any case, by writing can and may, even a pedantic reader would need to be very motivated to double-check the correctness of that statement. Still, I would love to get an expert opinion on this or maybe a little background. Since my answer is pure speculation, I doubt it would meet the quality criteria on this site. There may very well also be fine points that I just don't know about. So, please elaborate on why a legal document would or even should consider using both - can and may - in the context of consequences of certain actions or failure to meet standards et cetera. |
| General term for singularize and pluralize Posted: 08 May 2022 02:04 PM PDT I'm looking for a word (or small number of words) that is the general term for singularizing or pluralizing a word. I've thought about "inflection"/"inflect", but inflection encompasses more than just modifying for number. From the Wikipedia page on Inflection:
Is there a word that encompasses both singularize and pluralize that is also more specific than inflection? Or is there a way to make "inflection" more specific, like "numerical/quantity inflection"? The reason I'm asking is to find a good name for a function (programming) that takes a word and a number and returns the correct version of the word (either singular or plural). Building upon the package Pluralize. |
| Slang: "To have a twenty on me" Posted: 08 May 2022 07:37 PM PDT So I was listening to a song (bülow - Own me), and there's this one line that I can't really understand. Which is "Got nothing but a twenty on me", and I can't really understand what it's supposed to really mean. You can do a quick google search for the full lyrics, but in context the verse is
Song is something about like the when guys try to flex their wealth on girls and chase them like this, but that she doesn't really care about that stuff. I understand the expression to have a twenty on someone - which means to know their location. But it makes no sense in this context. And it kinda drives me mad right now. My common sense would say that she's just trying to say that she doesn't have that much money, but doesn't really care about it. Though I'm not at all sure about that - hence the question. If it helps, she's from a Canadian descent, raised in Berlin. |
| Verbal agreement of "more of + plural noun" Posted: 08 May 2022 04:07 PM PDT Here Are More Of The Most Amazing Images Of Cars Is the sentence grammatical? Shouldn't it concoord is with the uncountable more (of), instead of its current plural are? According to Microsoft® Encarta® 2009:
adjective: I need more light. pronoun: There aren't any more of these. pronoun: No more is expected. |
| What is a single word for a "shared experience" Posted: 08 May 2022 05:57 PM PDT I'm talking about a large group experience. Depression for example is felt by millions, it's a shared experience that most of us can understand, but I'd like one word to describe the understanding we can feel for what ever the shared experience is because we've all experienced it. Empathetic, prevalent, pervasive, rampant is not really what I'm thinking. |
| "I remember the advice he gave to me" Why add preposition to? Posted: 08 May 2022 11:06 AM PDT While I was reading a book, I stumbled upon a sentence "I remember the advice he gave to me". From my understanding, give can be used in two ways. First. Give + IO + DO. For example, "He gave me an answer." Second. Give + DO + to IO. For example, "He gave a book to Jane." So, I thought the correct sentence should be "I remember the advice he gave me" But the sentence includes preposition "to". Which one is right? And why is it? |
| Posted: 08 May 2022 05:36 PM PDT
I'm quite sure that the person who climbed Ben Nevis is "I" not "This" in 1). But, I'm not so sure that the person who lost "my credit card" is "I" not "you" in 2). My question is when the object of a verb is the subject of the gerund in structure "subject + verb + object + preposition + gerund"? |
| What is the opposite of a retronym? Posted: 08 May 2022 09:05 PM PDT A retronym is the name given to an obsolete or older object to differentiate it from its newer replacement. Examples include "straight razor" (once just called "razor" until the modern razor), "analog clock," "manual transmission," etc. What is the term for the corresponding word that shifts meaning from the retronym? (In these examples, how do "razor," "clock," and "transmission" function?) |
| A word or phrase for a non-military attack on a country's home soil Posted: 09 May 2022 01:32 AM PDT EDIT The fact that my question remains unanswered suggests that such a term doesn't exist. That, by itself, is valuable information. Consider this definition of asymmetric warfare:
(Wikipedia) Classic examples include the U.S. invasions of Vietnam (which beat the U.S.) and Afghanistan (where freedom fighters are still putting up a stiff resistance). Now imagine a scenario where another country wages a non-traditional war against the U.S. not on its own soil but in the U.S. For example, the U.S. government has complained about China's cyberwarfare capabilities, and there are also concerns that China is capable of attacking America's infrastructure. We could broadly describe such an attack as asymmetrical warfare, but I'd like to find a distinct word or term for such an attack, something that distinguishes it from the more traditional asymmetrical warfare we see in the various countries invaded by the U.S. The term blowback comes to mind, but I think that's a little too broad. Can you think of a better term for a non-conventional attack on a country targeting not its military, but its infrastructure or other assets on its home soil? Feel free to coin new terms. UPDATE My question is apparently confusing to some, so I wanted to add an example to make it more clear. Suppose you could travel a hundred years into the future, and you read the following in book titled History of the 21st Century.
What word or term would you fill in the blank with to describe this new type of warfare? |
| Posted: 08 May 2022 08:08 PM PDT I have a tendency to say things like:
Usually it's in the form of:
whereas my wife is always correcting me to:
I agree that the latter is correct, but I was wondering whether the use of "with" is horrible grammar. |
| Word for "person that I supervise" Posted: 08 May 2022 03:18 PM PDT What is the best word to refer to the person that I (directly) supervise, in the context of a corporate workplace? The closest I can think of is employee, but that doesn't directly convey a direct supervisor relationship. Other options I can think of are apprentice (usually used to refer exclusively to someone who is still learning where I come from), underling (patronizing), and worker (again not specific). For example when describing a project: My employee designed the front-end of the system while I worked on the critical business logic. |
| What terms describe the various parts of someone's name? Posted: 08 May 2022 02:57 PM PDT People tend to have at least one personal name and one family name. Some people also have middle names and nicknames. What terms describe other kinds of names, e.g.:
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