New answers tagged adjectives
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All three are grammatical and idiomatic. A chance can be all of these things, and more. The top 50 collocations from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC) look as follows:
COCA BNC
1 a good chance 1403 a good chance 274
2 a better ...
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Just as continual means "apparently continuous", perhaps ineffectual means "apparently ineffective".
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A person is rarely a cynic. Cynicism is a transient attitude which is modified in the light of changing conditions and can be just as healthy as skepticism. The implications above that one may switch from one to the other without intervening new information and consideration, is ridiculous. I had hoped that my diatribe would have made this clear.
The ...
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The word 'referenceable' is commonly used in business. I am using it in an email right now but seeing as I am a little old school, I checked to see if it appears in any dictionaries yet. Alas, it does not.
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I'd never had a problem with differentiating the two but I cannot agree with some of the clear divisions mentioned here. Both are variables dependent on the place, the time and the people.
For an illustration of this other place — time and people, I choose History Channel and its need to fill empty program hole with something that will grab the attention of ...
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A counterfeit is a copy of a generic item with the purpose to deceive, usually with a minimal amount of profit, i.e., to counterfeit a $20 bill to be passed off for $20.
A forgery is a copy of something that is a specific target, which is usually very valuable, i.e., to make a copy of the Mona Lisa that someone wants to sell to a collector.
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Yes, you can use migration as a noun adjunct here, with essentially the same meaning:
migratory: “wandering, roving”
migration: “to change position in an organism or substance”
Depending on the context, this might change the emphasis from activity to migration. If that's OK, you might consider removing activity entirely and simply writing, “the migration ...
1
If it's possible to "educate" your spell checker (that is, update its database with common spellings of technical terms), do so.
If you want to "correct" the terms that the spell-checker flags, you probably know that many programming languages do not allow hyphens within variable names, so there's nothing you can do about terms like plugin (for which ...
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Now , for those of you that ever experienced basic programming , those terms would be very familiar , but how should I treat those terms when releasing my software ?
If the terms are within the code, then don't worry about spellcheck errors. Like you said, these are generally understood terms, and very few programmers care about dictionary levels of ...
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I suggest you look at http://stackoverflow.com/q/8786880/509840.
Running your code through a spell check is a little like ironing your underwear. It's an effort that no one will see.
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Why are you putting code through a spell-checker?
It may be useful to spell-check your documentation, but any code snippets quoted will be copied verbatim from the programs, and therefore not necessarily standard English (of any variety).
If, on the other hand, you want to check that any displayable messages embedded in your code are spelled correctly, it ...
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To address your second question, I would go with Model Parameters. I've been a technical writer for over 20 years and one of my first lessons as a technical writer was to avoid the saxon genitive if at all possible. For example, use "the cards on the shelf" instead of "the shelf's cards". It's more concise and clearer for your reader. I would especially ...
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As technical terms, blackest and blacker are still going strong:
Acktar Black ™– world blackest coating – now 1% reflectance from FUV to FIR
World's blackest material unveiled
Blacker Than Black:
Black is black, right? Not so, according to a team of NASA engineers now developing a blacker-than pitch material that will help scientists gather ...
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The reason that some dictionaries do not contain "blacker" and "blackest" is that "black" is considered to be an absolute adjective. This is the same reason you are not supposed to say "more perfect", "more unique", "whiter", "deader", or "fuller". See, for example, this web page.
There are lots of people who do not abide by this "rule". For example, ...
2
What dictionary are you using? With a quick online search, I see the word "blacker" in these:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blacker
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blacker
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/black (only the racial definition)
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/black lists "blackest" in one of its senses, so ...
2
People write papers about parts of speech? Good heavens.
First, yes, be is always an auxiliary verb. Even if it's the only verb in the clause; the lexical item following be in that case is the real predicate.
(Not a "linking verb", btw; that's grade school stuff, like "5 take away 2")
And disappointed is indeed an adjective -- a predicate adjective ...
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Big is uncountable, large is countable. So, family is large.
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Abstract ideas refers to the ideas which are not concerned with worldly things.
eg. education, knowledge, happiness, cowardice, freedom, self expression, peace of mind etc.
They are the things that you cannot touch but you can feel them.
Hope that helps.
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Use a different adjective, like tardy or unpunctual. Or use a different construct, like
to see the late-comers penalized
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"Over-exaggerated" is grammatically correct.
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Possible and probable are both Modal terms.
This means they're weird, confusing, and irregular as hell.
Two major groups of modals are the Necessary (⃞ 'Square') and Possible (⃟ 'Diamond') modals. Necessary and Possible are defined logically this way (where p is any proposition):
If p is Possibly True, then p is Not Necessarily Not True ( ⃞ p ≡ ...
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The answer to your question is not quite as easy as it should be.
The reason for this is that both "possible" and "probable" are also technical terms. So while some may use the words ordinarily, others may use them technically.
The ordinary meaning of the word "possible" is that which is able to occur.
The ordinary meaning of the word "probable" is that ...
1
At bottom your problem isn't too many prepositional phrases - it's too many nouns.
Nominalization has been the bane of "scientific" style since the heyday of positivism: nouns, 'things', are somehow regarded as having more 'reality' than verbs or adjectives, even when the 'things' are just syntactical transformations of the deprecated 'actions' and ...
3
Your grammar books are quite wrong; the above example is well attested in formal writing as well as informal usage. So is the above as a noun.
No one objects to using prepositional phrases as what used to be called predicate adjectives, and no one objects to a similar use of many bare prepositions:
Sartorius is above all that.
Such behavior is beyond ...
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The word seasoned is meant experties while the word experienced is having knowledge of a certain issue.
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If the essence of the question is whether it is grammatical to chain three adjectives in a row, then the answer is: Yes.
There's nothing ungrammatical or illegal about using any number of adjectives consecutively. However, good writing style recommends that the number of adjectives be limited to three and to avoid using more than two where possible.
5
I see only one adjective.
Melody is a noun. The adjective form would be melodious (or possibly melodic).
Sad is indeed an adjective describing love song.
Love is not an adjective. It is a noun adjunct — a noun which serves the function of an adjective in the noun phrase, love song.
The use of melody as a noun makes this sentence ungrammatical. This ...
2
In heads a prepositional phrase constituting an adverbial of location within a relative clause headed by that:
I will look totally stupid in it >>> that I will look totally stupid in _
If the relative pronoun were that instead of which, the preposition could be 'pied-piped' instead of 'stranded':
in which I will look totally stupid
But this ...
1
In very formal traditional English, this sentence would be written:
It will be a terrible automobile, some old wreck in which I will look totally stupid.
Contemporary English disfavors using the formal prepositional phrase in which with its relative pronoun which: it replaces which with that and separates the preposition by putting it at the end of the ...
0
To cool is the verb that you want. Hot is to heat as cold is to cool. And there is an answer from a really chilled out cool dude.
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If you were looking for a verb, then I suggest chill
You can heat something and you can chill something
You cannot cold something...
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It's cold. That is, the noun has the same form as the adjective.
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I think your original intepretation is correct. If Scheinhauer became squeamish after even a light smattering, than the more fulsome praise made him retreat entirely. "Light smattering" is used to contrast "fulsome", to mean exactly what you thought.
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How about brevity ?
Cambridge Dictionary describes it as "using only a few words or lasting only a short time".
Also, here
brevity [ˈbrɛvɪtɪ]
n pl -ties
1. conciseness of expression; lack of verbosity
2. a short duration; brief time
[from Latin brevitās shortness, from brevis brief]
1
The state you describe is equanimity:
noun [mass noun]
calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation:
she accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity
[ODO]
The adjective is equanimous.
adjective
calm and composed.
[ODO]
However it would not be the best choice in normal use. Google ...
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Unflappable describes someone who remains composed in the face of adversity or scandal, "impossible to fluster."
Stoic has the same meaning, but often implies indifference to pleasure as well as adversity.
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How about placid?
From Merriam-Webster.com:
Definition of PLACID: serenely free of interruption or disturbance
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I wouldn't be so sure that anger is a "temporary state on its own". Some people seem to be angry all the time!
I am being [adjective] can be used to mean that you are only displaying a certain behaviour for a limited period of time.
Contrary to @tchrist, that construction does not strike me as odd at all. In fact, it can convey nuances that the present ...
2
Yes, “am being ADJECTIVE” sounds quite odd to a native speaker. It is not impossible, but it is very uncommon and seldom what you want.
You would virtually never say “I am being ready” or “I am being happy” instead of “I am ready” or “I am happy”.
If you really, really want a progressive aspect, then it works better with verbs like getting or becoming, ...
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I agree with @tchrist: just use light.
However, other possibilities are frivolous, flippant, or giddy, depending on what you want to convey.
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Because levity means “lightness” and ultimately derives from Latin levis meaning “light”, the best adjective that corresponds to it is probably just plain light.
A conversation full of levity would therefore be a light conversation.
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Afraid of means having been caused to have (i.e. possessing) fear of. "Of" in this case means "resulting from," with the full implication that the entity feared is also the causative agent of the fear. In other words, if we say George is afraid of ghosts, then we are essentially saying that ghosts made George afraid of them.
Thus we can see that "brave of" ...
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The two words are used very differently.
You are afraid of something.
You are brave. (Possibly despite something)
So the teacher is incorrect - you can't just be brave of something.
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I have a single word for what you describe: fantasy. Or how about phantasm?
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Be careful with the word tumult — that describes noise as well!
A "visual tumult" doesn't sound as good as a "visual cacophony". Depending on the situation, we could use a number of terms. I'd go with "a riot of (something)", be it colour or whatever the visual focus is that is so cacophonous.
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There is no single English word to express this concept. As usual in such cases, try broadening your cast; describe why the nostalgia was false. Did the subject have no actual memory? Was he lying? Romanticizing something that doesn't deserve it? That's the way to go.
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How about pastiche?
a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources.
an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.
Wikipedia:
In urban planning, a pastiche is used to refer to neighborhoods as
imitations ...
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"Idealization" can also be used for this concept. We tend to "idealize" something from our past or our history that may be just a fantasy version of that person, place, thing or time.
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