Questions tagged [resources]
Questions about (online and offline) resources.
79 questions
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Where can I find information on the prosody of a poem?
Where can I find out what the meters, feet, and stresses are in a poem? I found a website where you can guess where they are, but the website doesn't provide answers.
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1
answer
34
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"General" bibliography
I'm in the process of writing some training content - primarily PPT and a workbook - where I'm pulling in a LOT of "bits" of information from a ton of sources. This content can be split, ...
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1
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482
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How can I keep away from latinate? [closed]
Are there resources to help me keep away from latinate when I write? Preferably, they would let me trade latinate words for older, better words.
A thesaurus might help (or better, a good dictionary ...
- 19
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0
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422
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Is there an "article searcher" for a certain list of words?
If I want to practice some new English words, and I need to understand them in a better way- to read them in various articles, is there a tool for that?
For a set of very few words, search engines ...
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1
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81
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Short version of longer quotes [closed]
Where can i find the full version of the shorter quotes?
Such as:
Great minds think alike
is actually a shorter version of
Great minds think like, small minds rarely differ.
Probably this is ...
- 391
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40
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Resource for complex pronunciation queries
I haven't seen any questions about resources so I'm not sure if it's accepted but let's try anyway.
I recently learned that the word quay is pronounced /ˈkiː/. I was wondering if there are other ...
- 323
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1
answer
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Usual combinations of nouns/verbs and prepositions
Following Macmillan Dictionary, we can find out that word list can be used together with the preposition of (example sentence: A list of the world’s richest people).
We are looking for a collection ...
- 123
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83
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Reference Book for Word Progressions
If a dictionary is a reference book for word definitions, and a thesaurus is a reference book for grouping words according to meaning, what do you call a reference book for word progressions?
By word ...
- 630
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111
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Article usage in technical texts: a unique and other cases
Sometimes I write technical texts and wonder which article I should use before adjectives like unique, so-called and given, as English is a foreign language for me. For example, why it is
there is ...
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4
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Is puppy a synonym of dog?
I'm a bit confused as to why some thesauruses, e.g. Oxford Dictionaries, state that puppy is a synonym of dog. To me they are related but not a synonym.
dog
hound, canine, mongrel, cur, ...
- 227
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2
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4k
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Is there a database of word families? [closed]
Is there any where that I can download the database/dictionary for word families? For example one line of it will have something like this:
Pellucid, pellucidity, pellucidly, pellucidness
A top ...
- 3,096
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2
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828
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Resources for native Anglo-Saxon vocabulary building. [closed]
Are there any dictionaries or thesaurus' out there that specialize in native English vocabulary, that is to say, real English words that are not of foreign (Latin, French, or Greek) origin?
It's ...
- 1,728
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vote
2
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303
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word "recourse" usage
I have a sentence where someone uses the phrase, "she is also a great recourse". Could that be correct? Or are they confusing the word for "resource"? A person can have recourse to another person(...
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1
answer
329
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Word frequency list from contemporary young adult fiction? [closed]
I'm looking for a resource that has frequent words found in young adult fiction.
Something like: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/Contemporary_fiction_in_60_categories#...
- 51
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3k
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Finding Alternative Adjectives for "Very ___"
Is there a good resource for finding alternatives to using an adjective phrase intensified by the word "very", besides a thesaurus? (E.g., "very afraid" -> "terrified".) Thesauri provide wider-than ...
- 185
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1
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Syllable — Phonetic Online List/Dictionary with word examples
Is there a homepage or online tool that gives you a list of, let's say, the 2000 most common syllables sorted by their international phonetic alphabet spelling?
(e.g. /sɜː(r)/ = the first syllable ...
- 265
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1k
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Does a thesaurus of comparative adverbs or comparative adjectives exist? Needing a replacement for "more successful"
I want a word but I don't want to have to use "more successful". I don't consider successfuler a suitable attempt in the context I want to use it in either.
I think this is called a comparative ...
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1
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225
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Books on punctuation [closed]
What are some good books on punctuation? Ideally, such a book should treat punctuation in both American English and British English. I have seen so many different rules in different books that I am ...
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2
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308
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Is there an historical thesaurus?
Is there something like a thesaurus that offers terms more often used in the past?
For instance, I beg you would, in Shakespearean times, be prithee, while chicks during the 1920s would be dolls.
...
- 1,014
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2
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189
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What is a good way to learn about words whose pronunciations are very different from how they are spelt
It is embarrassing to be caught mispronouncing an aphonetic(?) word whose pronunciation is not intuitive. Are there any comprehensive word lists (may be the 5000 popular words that are commonly mis-...
- 189
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705
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Is Eckersley's *Essential English* still in use? [closed]
When I taught myself English a long time ago I used (alongside Assimil's L'anglais sans peine and the BBC's Calling all beginners) a series of four books, Essential English authored by C.E. Eckersley ...
- 2,568
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310
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Where to look up more general terms for a word?
A few minutes ago, I was in need (for coding purposes) of finding a more general term for notions such as city, village, town, etc. Now, whereas I could just try a few options (e.g. locality? ...
- 131
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Negative versions of extreme adjectives
If something positive is "too much", it becomes negative. For example, too much security could be perceived as being trapped.
Is there a term for this relation? In other words, if a word with a ...
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Is there any dictionary that decomposes an English word into prefix, root, and suffix?
Is there any dictionary that shows the decomposition of each word into these three parts, if application at all? For instance, "incapable" is divided into prefix "in", root "cap", and suffix "able". ...
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1
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A good and exhaustive book for English grammar [closed]
Before marking this post duplicate or voting to get it closed (the reason for which I simply don't get just because it is a grammar forum after all! If I am seeking recommendation for a book that ...
- 101
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3
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604
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Proper definition of validation and verification [closed]
I'm trying to find a definite, peer-reviewed and generally accepted definition of the words validation and verification when applied in the context of data acceptance (computer science).
In a related ...
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158
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Best internet sites for British English learners? [closed]
What are some great resources for advanced British English learners?
- 1,320
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3k
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A thesaurus with archaic and obsolete words [closed]
Can you point me to any online thesaurus that contains obsolete, archaic, out-of-use synonyms for contemporary words?
Google search is horribly unhelpful, yielding hundreds common thesaurus and ...
- 11.4k
3
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1
answer
603
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What is there in the English corpus beside nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc? [closed]
As you can see from this NGram, the total number of words in the indexed English corpus that were nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, determinants, pronouns, adpositions, numerals, conjunctions, or ...
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How does one find a word with a rhyming middle syllable?
In conversation today I wanted to find a set of words that have an "or" sound in their middles, as in "torrent" and "sorcerer".
I couldn't find one. Most rhyming dictionaries I found only concerned ...
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What pronunciation does Google dictionary use?
I generally use the "define" Google search tool to find what a word means, and how it should be pronounced correctly. Unlike websites like thefreedictionary.com, Google doesn't tell you what ...
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190
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Resources describing Somerset English [closed]
Can anyone suggest any good resources describing the grammar of traditional Somerset English (not accented standard English)? The Wikipedia article for the West Country dialects provides a good ...
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Count vs. mass — where can you look this up?
Most dictionaries don't say whether a noun is count vs. mass. Short of asking a fluent English speaker, where can you get this kind of information?
I've tried asking various other ESL/EFL people I ...
- 1,259
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Is there such a thing as an idiom thesaurus that delivers synonymous phrases? [closed]
Is there a resource that anyone knows of that is a searchable idiom list that can provide synonymous phrases for idioms. For example, I saw on your site: step-by-step, day-by-day, inch-by-inch, and ...
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Is there any grammar or vocabulary reference reliable enough? [duplicate]
Duplicate of:
Regulatory bodies and authoritative dictionaries for English
In other languages there are official institutions which control the development of the language and provide official ...
- 1,181
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1
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369
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Does and online repository exist for texts written in African American English / 'Ebonics'? [closed]
I wonder whether I can find a work of literature in AAE somewhere? I mean not citations of conversations or songs etc, but a full-fledged story or novel or technical text.
- 2,858
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What irregular verbs are there in Early Modern English?
Can anyone tell me, or direct me to a site where it would have a list of, irregular verbs in Early Modern English? I understand verbs such as "to be" or "to have", but how many more are there, and ...
- 60
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3
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9k
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Order of definitions in dictionaries
Are dictionary definitions for words with multiple meanings ordered based on chronology, hierarchy, or frequency of usage? Is/was there a standard format?
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2
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629
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Proper usage of pronouns
As an ESL student, sometimes I wonder whether I use too many pronouns. For example:
She grabbed her purse, she took some money and then she went to buy some groceries. After that she returned ...
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2
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Idiom thesaurus? [closed]
Can you recommend some searchable resource that maps given expression onto idioms meaning that thing?
There are quite a few dictionaries that contain a list of idioms containing a given word which is ...
- 11.4k
1
vote
1
answer
2k
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Good online thesaurus? [closed]
Does anyone know of a good online thesaurus? I've used http://thesaurus.com/ and http://www.merriam-webster.com/. Especially something that's good with phrases, figures of speech or idioms.
- 131
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English parts of speech — better new treatments
Can anyone please recommend a better treatment of English parts of speech / word classes than that offered by most traditional grammars?
Many of the latter stick with the sacrosanct 8 of antiquity, ...
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622
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Nuances/shades-of-meaning online? [closed]
Is there an online reference resource devoted to commentary on the finer points of usage, connotation, and word choice in English?
(E.g. what nuances/shades-of-meaning/usage considerations would ...
- 179
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2
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What public domain thesauruses are available? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
English synonym online database?
I am working on a project which needs access to the database of a English synonyms, preferably as a raw text file. Are there any public domain,...
- 2,111
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7
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A dictionary based on word occurrence frequencies
Since there are so many language resources on the internet nowadays, I was wondering if there is an online dictionary(or any other language tool) that would list the words not only in the alphabetical ...
- 17.8k
7
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1
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Distinctive features of English diphthongs
I am looking for a table of distinctive features for English dipthongs along the lines of that available for other vowels here. I don't trust my purely book learned linguistic skills to produce an ...
- 71
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1
answer
4k
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How to check what type a noun is [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can we check if a noun is concrete or abstract?
Is there any resource or online dictionary to check the type of noun? For example: I want to check if Room, House, Office, ...
- 13
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votes
1
answer
2k
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Looking for a grammar book [closed]
Is there any English grammar book which describe how to talk/write English instead of understand English?
For example instead of detailing all situation where "would/will" is used, describing all ...
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1
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No-nonsense grammar exercise book [closed]
I have want to improve my writing. Mastering grammar and spelling are building blocks of writing. Therefore I concentrate on grammar first. The books I use are:
- Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation
...
6
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3
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407
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Are published books to be considered an official reference for spelling? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Regulatory bodies and authoritative dictionaries for English
Many times I searched across several books for the usage of some words and many times I've found my results quite ...
- 2,040