Questions tagged [american-english]
This tag is for questions related to the English language as used in the United States of America.
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Meaning of "low, cherry voices" in Stephen King's 'The Jaunt'
In Stephen King's The Jaunt, I found this sentence:
Five Jaunt attendants circulate, speaking in low, cherry voices and offering glasses of milk.
It's either a typo (was supposed to be 'cheery') or ...
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Is there a shorter expression for 'are not commonly discussed as much as'?
I am currently doing some writing, and constantly try to create smooth transition and ease of readability and linkage between sentences. This sentence feels like it kind of halts the reader a bit.
...
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Is “I bind round” correct to say?
I saw this translation on Wikipedia for diadem from Greek to English: “The word derives from the Greek διάδημα diádēma, "band" or "fillet", from διαδέω diadéō, "I bind round&...
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Is it correct to say "research competitor products" or "research competitors' products"? [closed]
Is it correct to say: "We research competitor products or "We research competitors' products"? In general, should a singular or plural noun be used in such cases?
I tried looking for an ...
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Merriam Webster vs Oxford Languages Dictionary phonetic transcriptions of 'man'
I've noticed that in MW words "now" and "man" have the same middle sound (ˈnau̇ vs ˈman), but in Oxford dictionary these two words have two different sounds (naʊ vs mæn). So which ...
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Are either of the phrases "African-American individuals" or "European-American individuals" hyphenated? [closed]
This is in American English, but if it is different in British English, it is worth a mention.
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Can I use "when" to replace "how often"?
Can I use when as a replacement for how often? Is it common to use when to ask about the frequency of an action?
ex: Question: When do you do the dishes?
Answer: Sometimes I do the dishes.
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Is it normal for women, or American women to use the word c*nt? Especially on public streams?
There is a particular Twitch streamer from a video game I played, MermaidonTap. If you subscribed and follow her, not all but most of her public streams, she uses "fuck" and a lot of the ...
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What's the meaning of "not no small feat"? [closed]
I didn't understand meaning of "not no small feat" in this sentence:
I want y'all to meet Deltron Zero, hero, not no small feat.
From Deltron 3030's song 3030 Verse 1, 2nd line
I know what ...
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The British equivalent of "X objects in a trenchcoat"
Today while giving a technical presentation to our research group, I used the expression
3 [Insert technical thing here]s in a trenchcoat.
Our advisor (British/African roots, but has been in the US ...
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Euphemistic pee-pee/wee-wee: which refers to the organ and which refers to urinating?
Does one pee-pee with his wee-wee, or does he wee-wee with his pee-pee? Is one phrasing more typical than the other?
That is to say: How is pee-pee used more commonly- as "to urinate" or as &...
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Super reduced pronunciation of the affix "anti"
Listen to this clip at 00:13 and 00:30, and you will hear the word antihistamine. The pronunciation of anti is super reduced, just like this post described. I think the IPA should be like this: /anə/. ...
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Translate the term "Idoneità concorsuale" from Italian to English
I am trying to translate the term "Idoneità concorsuale" or "Idoneità concorso pubblico" from Italian to American English. In Italy, in many competitions related to public ...
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Can the word "Parse" be used in creative writing [closed]
Can I use parse as a verb in this example?
The clouds began to parse and the day opened up.
Meaning the clouds began to separate from one another and dissolve. Parse is commonly used to describe ...
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Pronunciation of "genuine" in John Hartford - Steam Powered Aereo Plane
I was wondering whether there's people pronouncing "genuine" like Hartford does in this tune or if it's simply part of the freedom of artistic expression.
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Is there dialectal variation in the weak form of "on"?
This question is related, but not quite identical, to a previous one and to another similar one.
In a recent video, phonetician Geoff Lindsey claimed that the words "off" and "on" ...
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"Get" vs "are" usage and tense in informal writing [duplicate]
I am helping a friend edit a manuscript for an informal reference book about music. There are several instances where I am perceiving a mixture of tense but I'm not sure how or whether to correct it. ...
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Why is the present tense used in "Last year he's MVP"?
Why is the last sentence in the passage below, "Last year he's MVP", written in the present tense?
'Hey, Ding Dong,' he calls. 'Who won the ball game?'
'Brooklyn wins it in a romp, ...
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Is there a transatlantic split in how to truncate "obstetrics and gynecology"?
There is a medical specialty called obstetrics and gynecology. In the UK I have only heard this truncated to something like the first syllables separated by a truncated "and". This could ...
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Is the question ""Does it exist what I'm looking for?" " the most usual way to ask a question in this meaning? [closed]
I'm doing a translation from Portuguese to English, and I've found a phrase that is a simple question, but I don't know if it exists, because it simply doesn't exist on Google, with one exception.
&...
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Meaning of "get the tags"
The song One Piece at a Time written by Wayne Kemp and made famous by Johnny Cash in 1976 tells the story of a man who steals Cadillac parts over several years and builds his own car.
The song ...
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Why can "spider" and "cider" undergo Canadian raising in American English?
If I understand it correctly: Canadian raising is a phenomenon that, in many AmE speakers, alters the pronunciation of /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants. (The Canadians also have it in /aʊ/.) This ...
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How is death "romanticized"? [closed]
Many times in question papers we can see that there's a question on "how death is romanticized in xxxx poem/ story?"
My question is how do we determine that the writer has romanticized death ...
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What is the meaning of, “…a man who had no truck with looking back..”? [duplicate]
What is the AMERICAN meaning of, “…a man who had no truck with looking back..”? I understand the meaning of a man in a truck looking back, but “who had no truck with looking back” eludes me. ...
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Are all variants of English spelling basically British or American? [closed]
I am working on an English-language online resource. It seems an obvious good idea to allow users to choose a version in British English or American English spelling. However, I've noticed that spell-...
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AmE_ The use of the simple past and the present perfect in the US for repeated actions until the present without specific time
There are situations about repeated actions until the present without specific time.
Here are some examples:
I visited/ have visited Paris two times. It is a beautiful city.
I think you should visit ...
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Pronouncing a /n/ ending with an extra schwa
I often hear American English speakers pronounce words ending in an /n/ sound with an extra schwa sound after it.
One example:
At the end of a sentence, the word's final N with a preceding vowel often ...
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Is the "u" in "menstruation" fading away?
When I was younger, I think I always heard the "u" in "menstruation" as a distinct syllable with long "u". But these days the "u" is pronounced with very little ...
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"Swear" as a noun as opposed to "swear word"
I'm a teenager from Chicago. During my childhood (and, presumably, that of almost all English-speaking children), I was taught that some words were "bad" words; these words were ...
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Flapped r after th in English?
I have heard a few English speakers — native — say the word “three” with what sounds like a flapped r. This might include other words that begin with “thr”, but I can’t remember. It’s just been ...
TheAquilineNose
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You parked this under a tree, huh?
During a border-crossing car stop, in a verbal interaction between a US citizen and a peace officer, the peace officer can be heard to use the expression in the title.
"You parked us under a ...
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How do I express "in the shape of a spiral" as adjective in an acceptable way? Precedents? [duplicate]
This question was closed, but surely "this shape is spiral" is not similar to "this shape is circular/elliptical/helical" in English. (Or rather, in my ears the former comes across ...
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A traffic light (1 "light" composed of 3 lights) or A SET of traffic lights (3 lights considered individually)?
Which is idiomatic in British and American English, when talking about a single post that contains 3 lights, red, yellow and green? A traffic light or A SET of traffic lights?
Dictionaries seem ...
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"over someone's house" vs. "over at/to someone's house" [closed]
I'm curious about this because it seems like I've heard both versions but am not completely sure. This is in reference to American English (I'm in the US).
Which is correct/incorrect?
We were invited ...
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Can "sitting down" be both an act and a state?
This is in reference to American English (I'm in the US).
Obviously the following is common usage: "I sat down.", indicating an act.
But is the following also correct:
I don't like to stand ...
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Polish Hostage Etymology?
Have you heard the term Polish hostage? Where did this come from?
I created this account because for once in my life I could not find the answer to a question by researching it. I am truly curious. I'...
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Interpretation of the word "as" in this sentence [closed]
Consider the sentence "1/50 is 0.02 as a fraction."
Which interpretation is correct, whether it is factually correct or incorrect? (That is, consider there to be a clear distinction between ...
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What does "get on" mean in this sentence from Walden?
In the first chapter of Walden, Thoreau writes:
I cannot but perceive
that this so-called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not get on
in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn ...
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Distribution of slang term “opp”
I’m a teenager from Chicago. One slang term which is used by young people in my community rather often is “opp.” It is clearly derived from the stem “oppose,” and is basically short for opposition or ...
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Do I put any kind of dash here? [duplicate]
If I say "This removes block breaking particles." when talking about a very popular block game (the game causes particles to appear when you break blocks), do I use a dash between the two ...
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0.5 of the pizza, 0.5 of the class
Suppose that there is a pizza.
1/2 of the pizza means a half of the pizza.
Does English use/allow the expression 0.5 of the pizza?
Suppose that a class has 10 students.
1/2 of the class means 5 ...
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How did barista enter the English language?
The Italian term barista (bartender) entered the English language in 1992 and its usage has considerably increased since then according to Google Books:
"bartender in a coffee shop," as a ...
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"Necessarily" or "not necessarily"? [closed]
The idea that has to be communicated is that picking someone at random in the street, it does not follow that they are a tennis player : occasionally you mignt find such a person.
Is the following ...
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When did the expression “hustle culture” emerge?
The expression “hustle culture” refers to workplace environments that place an intense focus on productivity, ambition, and success, with little regard for rest, self care, or any sense of work-life ...
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Word order after "that"
Why are we not able to delete those questions which are downvoted by someone that we have no clue what was in their mind?
Is the first sentence grammatically correct? I think it is probably wrong to ...
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Pronunciation of "there, their and they're"
I know that the words there, their, and they're are homophones, but I can't help but think that their has a slight /j/ between /e/ and /r/ (/ðer/).
This thought didn't just come to me out of nowhere- ...
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Is it correct to allow a parenthesized sentence to be followed by another parenthesized sentence? [duplicate]
I've searched. Other questions appear to mostly deal with nesting and punctuation positioning. This one does not at its core. I will stress again, due to multiple dupe flags.. This question is NOT ...
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Is this pronuncation of "serious" or "series" correct? [closed]
Merriam-Webster says that the pronunciation of "serious" or "series" is
ˈsir-ē-əs
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serious
But I do not make the si sound ("sin")...
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What does the "of" do in this sentence?
I am reading some tech materials. Here is the sentence.
So the security of the whole system depends on there being a Release.gpg file, which signs a Release file, and of apt checking that signature ...
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"Guys" losing its gendered meaning in American English
Disclaimer - I have very little knowledge of semantics, and I am mostly just a phonetics enthusiast. Thus, my question and the way I explain it may be unprofessional or may lack linguistic rigor.
I'm ...
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