Questions tagged [context]
A context describes the surroundings for a sentence.
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What did this person mean by this confusing remark?
This confuses me massively, and I'm unable to ask him through a comment:
if the TV is unplugged, there's no power. A capacitor isn't going to hurt you through a stream of water, and that's only for ...
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Emanate from a place, not a source
Just a nuance question here:
The word "emanate", I know for sure it can be used in reference to a specific source, e.g. "a strange glow emanated from the lamp".
But can it also be ...
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Example word that is a homograph and preposition
My research involves the study of word frequency in American English and the importance of context when connecting text representations to different speech representations.
I would like to know if ...
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What exactly are "beasts that perish"?
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly ...
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What's the meaning of 'couldn't make your car'? [duplicate]
It was a situation that the police were trying to stop a driver who ran two stop signs. The driver finally got out of the car and said "I couldn't make your car".
From a publication article ...
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Can I use "customer service" in a Public Sector context?
Dears,
I'm translating a cover letter from Portuguese to English. In it, my client states she's worked in government agencies answering phone calls, giving information etc.
If it were in a Private ...
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Can I say "Since we met, I had been meaning to say that I like everything you do"? [closed]
Hypothetically, I said "I like everything you do" in the past.
So now can I say "Since we met, I had been meaning to say that I like everything you do." ?
Is it okay to use past ...
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Present Perfect in the past time context
I have come across this paragraph in an English textbook:
Does this ring a bell? I'm sure it does. We've all experienced annoying tricks when we were young – the brother who stole your toys and then ...
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Why would anybody use "bloody" to describe how would they take their burgers or any other food?
I think it doesn't make sense to go over to the bar and ask for a burger, and then when the bartender replies "How would you like your burger", to answer "bloody" (I saw this in a ...
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Out of one’s hands / Beyond one’s control: synonyms?
I am writing something about legal defences available to a defendant.
I would like to know if these two expressions (title) can in this case be synonyms and if one is more used than the other.
Context:...
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Whereby / By which
I have a doubt about the use of “whereby”. I know it can be a synonym of “by which”, but I am not sure if it can always substitute “by which”.
I am doing an essay and I wrote this:
Will, gift, lease ...
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Generalized Terms for Categorizing an Occupation Label
This feels like a longshot, so pardon me if it’s an ill-formed question for this forum…
I’m trying to define a two-phrase structure that describes any person’s role or occupation. Here are several ...
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Do you contract a disease or a virus? Or either?
You are infected by a virus, not a disease. You can develop a disease, but not a virus (unless you are a virus-developing scientist, I guess -- but you know that's not what I mean).
I guess what I'm ...
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Meaning of "...on the week of ..."
I got an email to confirm my availability:
We would like to know your availability on the week of May 10th from 10:00 - 14:00.
Does it mean they are asking my availability for the whole week for the ...
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What is "a gallops"? [closed]
I've found this phrase here on a recent BBC report:
"...the mare in the video died after suffering a cardiac arrest on a gallops in April 2016."
The same article has:
"A video on ...
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At its highest or in its highest
So, I have been writing this text about agriculture and farming and I got stuck with this sentence.
When the population is in its highest...
Should I say "in its highest" or "at its ...
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“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Dursley stiffly - (Harry Potter) [closed]
I read this in a Harry Potter novel:
"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly
I looked up the word "stiffy" in Cambridge dictionary, and saw this definition:
an erection (= ...
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Should I Capitalize the Word "mom" in This Specific Context [duplicate]
In the book Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is says the word "mom" is a proper noun in the following context and should be capitalized:
"How's Mom these days"...
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Is this an example of a mixed metaphor?
Is the writer employing a mixed metaphor here?
A part of her was sinking languidly down into the passive pleasure of having returned to the familiar—like a pebble, she had been picked up and hurled ...
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How do you describe a word that has two, conflicting meanings depending on the context? [duplicate]
There is a single word that can be used to describe these, and I'm having trouble remembering it. I think it might be a '-nym' word or a '-phone', but I can't remember.
An example would be handicap, ...
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What does “otherwise than” mean in this context
“The library, which I had never seen otherwise than wide open, was tight shut.”
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What does "Tree someone's or their game" means?
As contextually hinted here in the sentence "1838 – "Instead of having treed their game....", the meaning of possibly rarely-known phrase "tree his/her/someone's/their game" ...
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Can unilateral mean unanimous? [closed]
When deciding among colleagues between two options, everyone present agreed on the same solution. When reporting the result to a member that hadn't taken part, I reported it as "unilateral ...
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Is there ambiguity in "by each" in this context?
The sentence:
"Find all malls that have been visited by each student attending Wolf
Secondary School"
I've recently encountered a question like this on a Computer Science test and ...
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Partly out vs Partly
"In August of 1930, a Norwegian sloop, the Bratvaag, sailing in the
Arctic Ocean, stopped at a remote island called White Island.The Bratvaag was partly on a scientiɹc mission, led by a geologist ...
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Is my usage of "any different" correct in this context?
I'm reading a Webnovel and in this particular chapter, there is this guy who is on a high position and everyone around him(not including those who have a higher authority and status) is bending over ...
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What does the term 'labels' imply in this context?
"Labels are a necessity in the organization of knowledge, but they
also constrain our understanding."
I'm interested in what the word labels implies.
According to the definition in the ...
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Why some words that are extensions of words, are not explained with those original words mentioned/referenced in meaning description?
I recently had an encounter with word "iffy", which if explained with reference to word "if", its meaning that "something/some-concept cannot be considered fully and ...
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“Being with” definition
If I said, “I get happier when I am with her.” Is it clear that “when I am with her” means when I am physically with her? “With someone” can mean a lot of things in English such as being in a romantic ...
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What does " pulp" mean in this context? [closed]
the pulp for the marriage made by the empress dowager has made me a fool to the whole world
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Meaning of radical punchline [closed]
The text:
Rudman looks at how a poor understanding of maths has led historians
to false conclusions about the mathematical sophistication of early
societies. Rudman's final observation-that ancient ...
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grammatically, rotate + er is it correct?
I try to name something as its usage is rotate+er.
The main usage is doing a rotation on a reliable circle, so I pick rotation as the verb.
My main lang is Indonesian, but I always try to give my best ...
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What does "tweak business establishment" mean here?
everyone, I have difficulities in understanding the following sentence.
All the while, the flamboyant and irreverent Mr. Branson has tweaked the business establishment, particularly in Britain, ...
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What possible word that begins with D and ends with Y is used in racial context?
I recently came across an article about the history of chicken thieves, and in two instances, it made a reference to d---y. I'm curious to know what this means.
The first one is where they are ...
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Pararphrasing question
I have come across the following the sentence : (I ripped my shirt on a nail )
Can I just say " The nail ripped my shirt " instead .
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What does it mean when Anne Frank was described as "a symbol for the lost promise of the children who died in the Holocaust"? [closed]
I'm doing an English lesson on the Holocaust, and on one of the questions, I had to answer what the phrase meant. I've tried looking up what "lost promise" means, but none of the answers I've found ...
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"It is that ..." sentences in a non-linguistic context
I sometimes see or hear "It is that ..." sentences as the following:
(1) "It's not that I don't want to support you. It's just that I don't know how."
I'd like to know if "It is that ..." ...
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Curriculum framework and model
What is the difference between curriculum framework and curriculum model? What I understand is that a framework is a set of principles on which a model is built. Am I right? Please clarify.
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Meaning of draft
The following is an excerpt from a book:
The article “Poll Finds Most Oppose return to Draft,
wouldn’t encourage Children to enlist” (Associated Press,
December 18, 2005) reports that in a ...
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"Like never before" or "Like you have never done before"
I am a not a native English speaker. But the term "Manage Teams like never before" which our company thinks about using for advertising our software sounds strange to me.
Wouldn't it be better to ...
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Grammatical query (was vs is, etc) [closed]
I live and work in Taiwan but my son has a question regarding grammar in his test. I don't quite know how to answer this or to help him, so I would like some advice, if possible:
"Despite the fact ...
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Which preposition goes with the word 'solution'?
Though I've found one of the questions with the same topic as mine, I would desire the better elaborated explanation as it confuses me a lot.
According to that question, the answer was that when the ...
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"Schematic Claim" [closed]
I would like to know what does "schematic claim" in the following encrypt mean which is from an entry of Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
To consider some of the different strategies for ...
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Question about vinegar in expressions
What does "vinegar in her voice" mean? It was said by a girl in a story about her sister, she envies her and feels bad in some way. The story is from the Bible.
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alternate word for "coupling"
I'm writing a scientific article.
In my study, the amount of food we eat affects the bodyweight for example. We call it "coupling of food and bodyweight" because bodyweight depends mainly on food ...
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Meaning in context
Provine writes: “I forge recklessly into the paleohumorology fray, proposing my candidate for the most ancient joke—the feigned tickle. (Real tickling is disqualified because of its reflexive nature.) ...
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Inquiries Concerning Context Clues, Syllables, and the Use of the Dictionary [closed]
The following are consists of three questions with the possible choices for each along with my reasoning for each question. I ask of you to provide me assistance in guiding me towards the answer for ...
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Flexible change another prepositon [closed]
Here is the sentence:
" I argue with you"
Most of the time I have been taught that ARGUE + WITH is the function that I have to remember. But recently I have read some books about lexicon and they ...
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Interpretation - "my younger brothers seem never to do anything else."
I couldn't accurately understand what is the meaning of the following sentence.
"Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything ...
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Can you brew wine, or is the word "brew" specific to Beer, coffee, and tea? [duplicate]
I would like to know whether or not wine can be brewed, and secondly if the wine-making process is considered brewing. It seems that some definitions are specific to beer, coffee, and tea, where ...
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