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15
This can be achieved with a touch of Google-fu.
We want to limit our Google search to search only the site,
http://www.etymonline.com/.
From reading the url structure of each result, we notice that definitions all contain ?term=, so can we refine the search with these bits of info:
site:etymonline.com inurl:term
Then, we add a space and the term we are ...
11
One major issue with family names is that they can be pronounced however the family decides. Some pronounce the names as they were in the original language, some Anglicize the pronunciation, some Anglicize the spelling then adjust the pronunciation to fit, etc.
A good example of this is Stephen Colbert. He pronounces his last name koʊlˈbɛər while his ...
8
Wiktionary maintains descendant lists, but they are far from complete. See e.g.:
cornu (Latin)
wódr̥ (PIE)
watōr (Proto-Germanic)
8
Beware broad-brush approaches, even if you find a dictionary offering the count - uncount classification. Some - perhaps many - nouns are non-count in some senses and count in others. Coffee is a good example - its basic sense is uncount:
Coffee is a drink made by infusing the ground beans of Coffea arabica etc.
Too much coffee can be bad for you.
...
7
It depends on the dictionary. Some, perhaps most, place the most common use of the word first. The Oxford English Dictionary, 'the definitive record of the English language', places its definitions in the order in which each word is first used. That is to say, the earliest known meanings are given first. As the OED itself explains,
While the headword ...
6
There is really no "official" source for the English language, but there are sources that are generally well-respected and well-accepted. For spelling, that would be the common dictionaries - Collins, Merriam-Webster, Oxford, etc.
While one would hope that all book publishers would hold their books to the same standards, mistakes slip through and some ...
6
There really isn't any "language" called Archaic English. Do you mean Old English? If so, there are textbooks for studying that. Look for books on Anglo-Saxon or Old English.
If you mean Middle English (spoken at the time of Chaucer), you can find texts on that as well.
Shakespeare's writing sounds archaic to our ear, but is actually an example of what is ...
6
Most English dictionaries used and published in the United States don't include that information, just as they don't include IPA transcription. However, dictionaries published in the UK and elsewhere sometimes do, especially dictionaries for English learners.
One American online exception is Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, which dutifully reports ...
5
There's probably no list of all words. But as a starting point you could check whether Ispells (a spell-checker) input files are helpful.
For further resources see also
http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/
5
Oxford Dictionaries has sound recordings of all its entries.
You might also like to explore these:
Phonetics: The Sounds of Spoken Language
The Speech Accent Archive
Sounds Familiar (from the British Library – for British accents)
5
You need at least a subject and verb in each sentence and independent clause. Sometimes the independent clauses in the same sentence can share a subject. As you suggested
She grabbed her purse, took some money and then went to buy some groceries.
There are three independent clauses in this compound sentence.
She grabbed her purse,
[she] took ...
4
Google has many results for such a query, though quality sites may be buried under other sites that are better marketed (or more engaged in search engine optimisation).
One main remark: what you are looking for (listings of synonyms and related words) is called a thesaurus (plural: thesauri or thesauruses).
Now, for the sites themselves, I myself am quite ...
4
The most comprehensive grammar book for foreign learners of English that I know of is the 'Cambridge Grammar of English'. If you follow the link to the Amazon site, you'll be able to look at the contents and some of the pages to see if it's what you want.
4
You can safely remove pronouns if one noun or pronoun governs multiple clauses, as in your first sentence:
She grabbed her purse, took some money and then went to buy some groceries.
You would do this to write in an economical style, which is easier to read. However, if you want to emphasize each separate clause as a distinct idea, you might want to ...
4
I can’t find a list of all irregular Early Modern English verbs, but Sandved’s appendix to his Introduction to Chaucerian English provides a list for Middle English. (Maybe try Algeo and Pyles The Origins and Development of the English Language.)
The nub of the question, though, concerns modal verbs. Even in Anglo-Saxon (Old English), these did not take ...
4
I don't know of a specific source for exactly what you are asking for, But:
With the Regex dictionary you can search for arbitrary regular expressions in words.
You can enter the following regex to find words that contain the letters or in the middle.
..*or.*[bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz].*
The expression I used requires that a consonant appear following ...
3
I'm a big fan of Wordnik for such research. Each entry has, on the right of the page, a list of sample uses gleaned from the web. At the bottom, it lists synonyms, hyponyms, and reverse dictionary entries. The body of the page lists definitions from several different dictionaries. I think you'll bookmark it rather quickly.
P.S. Before asking more ...
3
How can a raw text file be anything other than a word list? For it to be a thesaurus, it would have to be indexed, right?
You could download and install LibreOffice and then add this extension. Both the office suite and the extension are FLOSS (free/libre open-source software). Note that some users are reporting problems with the extension and at the moment ...
3
How about OpenThesaurus?
OpenThesaurus is a PHP/MySQL-based web interface that lets people
collaboratively work on a thesaurus. The thesaurus can be exported in
many formats like OpenOffice.org, plain text and KWord.
3
You could have a look at the Longman's Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency. As an EFL teacher, I use it as a reference, and it has plenty of exercises (no pictures, I promise). You can get an idea here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grammar-Vocabulary-Cambridge-Advanced-Proficiency/dp/0582518210
I take it you know about the Cambridge In ...
3
One must distinguish between English grammar and English spelling, which is modern technology (naturally, therefore, full of bugs, since "modern" in this case means 17th-Century).
It's easy to see how one might need a plural form for any English word, since vocabulary isn't inflected and can function as many different parts of speech. So, the buyer for the ...
3
I don't think there is a dictionary dedicated solely to prefixes. But you can find some common prefixes and their definitions in normal dictionaries. E.g. definitions of the prefix de- may be found in YourDictionary:
away from, off: debar, derail
down: degrade
wholly, entirely: defunct
reverse the action of; undo: defrost, decode
Edit: On ...
3
Within the limits described by the other poster (Dusty), these websites do this job pretty well:
Forvo (If the word does not exist, you can submit it and someone will pronounce it eventually.)
Ingolo
Here is Rumbaugh from Forvo.
You may also try the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (hardcover).
3
There was never a *canneth; the modals work differently. Only second person singular had a distinct inflection, like thou shalt versus he shall.
You should go to OED and look at each verb for its historical forms. For example, for can, it has:
a. 1st and 3rd sing. can /kæn/, /kən/, /k(ə)n/.
Forms: 1-4 cann, con, conn, 1- can, (4-5 conne, canne; ...
3
Does and online repository exist for texts written in African American English / 'Ebonics'? [closed]
Similar to how there are no online indicies for literary works written in cockney, 'appalachian' dialect, or even the Southern USA dialect, probably none exist for African American Vernacular English.
I welcome answers to this question that show otherwise.
Generally, dialect speakers understand the written form of the language they speak - as such, they ...
3
The first two books on this Amazon UK page are popular guides to the Somerset dialect. The third is an academic account of English dialects by Peter Trudgill, a prominent linguist who has written on regional dialects and on socioliguistics. The index has an entry for Somerset, and there may be some pointers to more specific works in the Further Reading ...
2
If you want to read something more recent ( what you might think of as the same language we use now but with those archaic usage such as thee and thou ) both Shakespeare and the King James Edition bible are influential and well written. It is also easy to find modern translations or adaptations of both so you can figure out any tricky phrases by comparison ...
2
Google Translate is what I use when I'm learning Chinese-It has romanization of the characters so I can understand it. For languages like English, it would be harder since it's unnecessary for such systems.
Checking on http://www.dictionary.com everyday for the word of the day, marking it down and looking up the definition could definitely help you improve ...
2
http://www.synonym.com/ - in their own words:
Synonyms Thesaurus with Antonyms & Definitions
Synonym.com is the web's best resource
for English synonyms, antonyms, and
definitions. Type in a word and the
synonym finder will come up with a
list of synonyms. Check out the most
popular online synonym searches to
find the right word for any ...
2
The phrase "reasoned compromise" appears in a number of 1920's-vintage books [ref1] and then as now, its meaning probably was regarded as self-evident to native speakers of English, rather than as necessary of special explanation. Moreover, its frequency of use [ref2] has never been high (twice per billion words in Google's English corpus).
Part of the ...
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