All Questions
129,965
questions
0
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4
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124
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Is there a word for something that was formerly a social norm but is no longer acceptable?
I've been reading a lot of various classic literature, and at times there is the sort of casual misogyny or racism that was commonplace and (within certain cultures) the social norm at that time. Such ...
- 103
0
votes
1
answer
32
views
Words that you cannot use intensifiers with
My question is what is the name for words that intensifiers cannot be used with. Words like unique or impossible. Something cannot be more unique or more impossible than another thing. I forgot the ...
- 11
-1
votes
1
answer
37
views
Is there a commonly used root for "Inclusion" and "Exclusion", or some way to specify the status of being "Included" or "Excluded"? [duplicate]
"Inclusion" means for something to be part of a group
"Exclusion" means for something to not be part of a group
Whether something is in the group or out of the group is obviously ...
- 1,467
4
votes
1
answer
119
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Origin of the idiom "a few trombones short of a marching band"
I've heard the following idiom being used a few times recently but am unsure where it's come from:
He's a few trombones short of a marching band.
I don't know exactly what it means and I can't find ...
- 141
0
votes
0
answers
33
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How would you use commas to separate adjectives of equal rights? [duplicate]
I am very confused about these separate adjectives of equal rights.
The example I got was
The Colt's strong, swift defense enabled them to win.
0
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0
answers
58
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What's meant by ". . . he went the pace extraordinary"? (go the pace ?) [migrated]
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XX, published 1892)
Passage 319
But before he was out of long clothes, the cloven foot began to show; he proved to be no ...
- 219
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0
answers
46
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why is it a noun phrase and not an adjective phrase? [closed]
In the sentence "The boy is ten years old".
Why is 'ten years old' a noun phrase and not an adjective phrase. Doesn't "ten years old" give me more information about the boy. How do ...
0
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0
answers
14
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Continuous form of verb or Present participle?
Expanded version:
Nobody likes to talk with the man who is sitting on the rock alone.
Reduced version:
Nobody likes to talk with the man sitting on the rock alone.
How is it possible that in the ...
-1
votes
0
answers
12
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Is the phrase "Those are all cars make Chevrolet." in the English language? [migrated]
How about these?
Those are all make Chevrolet cars.
and
Those are all Chevrolet make cars.
Are any of these syntactically correct English phrases?
0
votes
1
answer
52
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Trying to understand how to connect phrases/clauses with commas
Take this fragment for example:
The snow had come from the north, in the mist, driven by the night wind, smelling of the sea.
It is from John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War. I've seen writers do ...
1
vote
1
answer
55
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What do you call the person or character being spoken to in a poem or song?
This question asks what to call the person who is speaking in a lyric poem. The terms "narrator", "speaker", "persona", etc. may be used to refer to the "I" in &...
- 111
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0
answers
24
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meaning of " I once had it all...My palate was sated…Nostrils stimulated…standing venerated " [closed]
Hello English is not my first language . I came across this sentence that i don't understand :
I once had it all...My palate was sated…Nostrils stimulated…standing venerated
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
44
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Meaning of "these thin boards divided the secret" [closed]
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XX, published 1892)
Passage 318
I had escaped the grounds and the cattle; I could not escape the house. A lady with silver hair,...
- 219
0
votes
1
answer
58
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Is 'where' accurate here, or is 'with' accurate? [closed]
I wrote in my manuscript:
'Let f be a k-face of D where $k \ge 4$.'
However, I feel that replacing 'where' with 'with' might be more appropriate. I'm a bit uncertain, so I'm posing this question. Can ...
- 311
1
vote
2
answers
79
views
Is "all showing that the weapons were being used by the Free Syrian Army" an absolute?
At the same time, dozens of videos of the weapons were being uploaded from Daraya, all showing that the weapons were being used by the Free Syrian Army
**Source-New Yorker magazine
https://www....
0
votes
2
answers
97
views
Is the noun modifier "among them a portable anti-tank rocket and a wheel-mounted recoilless rifle" an appositive or absolute phrase?
Higgins was looking at videos coming out of the Daraya region when he noticed several weapons that he had not yet documented in Syria, among them a portable anti-tank rocket and a wheel-mounted ...
0
votes
0
answers
38
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Which is better, 'Iberophile', or 'Hispanophile'?
I'm not sure, because according to dictionaries, Iberophile isn't a word, but it is the first result on Google for "lover of Spain"
-1
votes
1
answer
32
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Adjectives with "these"
I thought I was doing a simple exercise (in attachment) from an English tutorial.
But I didn’t find the expected sentences in the answers to the exercise:
These expensive pants are too big
My black ...
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
103
views
How did "phenomenal" come to mean "extraordinary"?
Phenomenal nowadays is primarily used in common discourse to mean extraordinary, although it has a now-rarer secondary meaning which I suspect was originally its primary meaning:
a. known through the ...
- 1,822
0
votes
1
answer
45
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Another phrase for "he is a very easy person to scare"? [duplicate]
Can I have another phrase for the sentence/phrase;
He is a very easy person to scare.
Please I need this because I am writing a story which I'm going to produce when I'm finished...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
27
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Square Feet versus Square Foot [duplicate]
The sentence is
The project would construct a 2000 square (foot/feet) kitchen.'
I put 'The project would construct a 2000 square feet kitchen.'
My senior reviewer changed feet to foot. Why?
If I ...
1
vote
1
answer
64
views
The meaning of "The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it." — G. K. Chesterton
I recently came across this quote by G. K. Chesterton.
The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.
(Note that the version I initially saw ...
0
votes
1
answer
41
views
A single word that describes or connotes all items in a list except the last item
Is there a single word to describe all the elements in a list, except the last item?
The head of a list refers to the first item in the list and the tail refers to the last item. In mathematics and ...
2
votes
0
answers
37
views
When do you use hyphens with compound adjectives?
I understand there are numerous questions related to this question but nothing truly clarifies my problem.
I have been trying to understand when I should use hyphens in compound adjectives and I seem ...
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
12
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There is a table in a/the kitchen? (if 1st sentence) [migrated]
I'm confused as to why internet shows a lot of hits like 'There is a table in 'the' kitchen?' after 'There is a table in'. Is it because the sentence(s) are assumed to be already in the middle of the ...
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10
votes
2
answers
3k
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Etymologically, how did 'outrage' get 're-analyzed'?
Wiktionary:
From... Old French... oultrage (“excess”)... derived from Latin ultrā (“beyond”). Later reanalysed as out- + rage, whence the contemporary pronunciation, though neither of these is ...
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1
vote
3
answers
56
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What is the difference — honor, confer, decorate —?
I’m a Japanese college student, and in English class, I saw a sentence saying,
The prime minister was formally invested with the title by Emperor.
When I looked up words which mean "to give a ...
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0
answers
41
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Growing calls, calls have grown
I'm wondering if 'calls have grown for X to be Y-ed' is an acceptable substitute for 'there have been growing calls for X to be Y-ed'?
To clarify, these are examples of the latter from the first page ...
-1
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0
answers
29
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What does the phrase, 'as thus construed', mean? [closed]
What is the meaning of the phrase, 'as thus construed'?
I was writing an essay and felt that phrase was appropriate, but I looked it up with quotes on google and found only references in some legal ...
1
vote
0
answers
36
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Origin of the expression “turn the card” meaning to pass on an opportunity
I recently dropped the phrase “turn the card” meaning to pass on an opportunity in an answer of a sister site. While not a common expression, I would have expected most people that I converse with in ...
- 1,288
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votes
0
answers
46
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What is a word for a bad thing that is so common that it is mostly ignored? [closed]
I am not sure if there is such a word but it would be very helpful to know.
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4
votes
0
answers
56
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Easier said than done vs. Easier to say than do
As a speaker of English as a second language, I've long been curious to know why English speakers would choose to say "Easier said than done" over "Easier to say than do".
Why ...
- 473
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votes
0
answers
26
views
Proper sorting of groups that begin with a person's name
If I were sorting, for example, audio recordings based upon the performer, then "Vince Guaraldi" and "Bob Seger" would be sorted as "Guaraldi, Vince" and "Seger, Bob&...
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8
votes
2
answers
2k
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Meaning of "teen" in Aeschylus's play "The Persians"
I came across the phrase "how shall I bear my teen?" in Aeschylus' play "The Persians". I also saw "the children of teen" in "Seven against Thebes". What ...
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1
vote
1
answer
115
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'as he had lived'
In the clause 'He died as he had lived', what is the grammatical function of 'as he had lived'? I know it modifies 'died', and I know 'as' can be used.
-1
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0
answers
49
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One word for the noise that ships make when approaching a port [closed]
I’m writing my book where I would like to describe the noise, using one word, that ships produce approaching a port. I would say something like TU-TU. I’m not sure if it works though…
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
21
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What is the function of the word "boats" in this sentence? [migrated]
For instance, they can learn that boats float and can practice ways to make boats move across water.
Is it a subject or an object (the bolded word)?
- 1
0
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0
answers
23
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Is it proper to switch from the third person singular (The Department of Environment) to the first person plural (we) in the same sentence? [duplicate]
I often have to translate sentences such as:
The Department of Environment has offices everywhere in the country, and we would love for you to join us [us as in "the whole department, and not a ...
0
votes
0
answers
38
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"by validating" - missing direct object?
According to several dictionaries I have, "validate" is a transitive verb. But both Grammarly and ChatGPT judge the following (imperative) sentence as correct:
Ensure feature quality by ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
34
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Is there a word for technical debt that is centered around at-rest configuration data?
So sometimes my team runs into technical debt centered around persistent data. A quick example is if we create four options KNOWING that we will want to reduce them to two options later. This would ...
- 1,467
0
votes
0
answers
34
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What’s a word for an organization you’re soliciting a sponsorship from?
For example:
Please enter the name and email of the [word meaning
a possible sponsor].
I am building a website that helps users find and
connect with companies and other organizations to ask
them ...
1
vote
0
answers
36
views
What is a term for the evolution of idioms through error?
At my place of work the idiom bottom-up (as in bottom-up design) is often used and debated as a way of doing things. However over the last year or so it's increasingly being expressed as bottoms-up ...
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
65
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Galloping incompetence & galloping ineptitude
Is it correct to use "galloping" as a synonym of "extreme"? For example, I often see "galloping incompetence" and "galloping ineptitude".
But Merriam Webster's ...
- 103
0
votes
1
answer
30
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What seems more accurate "You and your kid discover their true capability" or "You and your kid discover his/her true capability"? [duplicate]
I have been asked to look at some old admission response forms that our school mails back to applying students. This letter consists of their test scores and the programs that is offered to them.
Now, ...
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0
votes
2
answers
40
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When you compare an object to a reference object, what noun to use to refer to the former?
I am in the process of writing a research paper that compares my Methods A and B against a commonly accepted gold standard (reference) method. All methods produce objects that are identical in the ...
- 101
0
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2
answers
46
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Do I need to repeat the subject after a semicolon splitting two sentences that have the same subject in formal written English?
Do I need to repeat the subject after a semicolon splitting two sentences that have the same subject in formal written English?
For example:
He talked to the owners, which was understandable; paid ...
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
A/an + adj. + weather [duplicate]
We can say,
"I had a delicious breakfast"
because of the adjective, as opposed to
"I had breakfast",
where we don't use an indefinite article. As in this former case we have ...
- 235
2
votes
0
answers
84
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Why are "all together" and "altogether" exact homophones in American English?
This question was inspired by the interesting discussion here: Why isn't the T in "relative" flapped?
It seems like the adverb already and the two-word phrase all ready should be ...
- 235
0
votes
2
answers
58
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Should you italicize names of aircraft if they are serial numbers?
In English, it's customary to italicize the names of vessels, aircraft, and spacecraft, e.g. USS Oklahoma, B-17 Ye Olde Pub, and space shuttle Discovery. Does that also apply to specific aircraft ...
user448501
4
votes
1
answer
447
views
Meaning of "swindle" in "…while four to five days in London would be suitable to swindle across the streets" [closed]
I came across this sentence in a blog. Is the 'swindle' being used correctly? If yes, what does it mean in this sentence?
In most cases, three to four days in Paris would be enough to skim through ...
- 41