New answers tagged american-english
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Is it more common for the noun "research" to be stressed on the first or second syllable among educated native speakers of American English?
This is a great topic because it highlights the difference between formal/standard and informal American English. It also speaks to how people are educated regarding grammar and the pronunciation of ...
1
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Is the expression "get shed of" or "get shut of" or "get shot of"?
My paternal grandmother was from Western Kentucky; they moved to Evansville, Indiana during WW2 when my grandfather left coal mining to work in a factory. We visited every summer during the 60s and ...
2
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Meaning of "low, cherry voices" in Stephen King's 'The Jaunt'
Yes, this seems to be a typo in some editions or online versions. This PDF of the book, from a Maine school district, has the line:
Five Jaunt attendants circulated, speaking in low, cheery voices ...
0
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Meaning of "low, cherry voices" in Stephen King's 'The Jaunt'
From context, cherry seems to be a typo for chary:
chary adj.
4.a. Careful, cautious, circumspect, wary.
6. Careful not to waste or part with, frugal, sparing (of). Source: Oxford English
Dictionary
(...
0
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What are the exclamation and question marks/points called in variants of English?
As Ngram shows, American English typically uses "exclamation point" but "question mark." British English, by contrast, uses "mark" in both cases.
-1
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What are the exclamation and question marks/points called in variants of English?
Someone said they never heard of exclamation point in America. That's funny because I was born here and have lived here for 60 years and it's always been called an exclamation point, all through ...
-2
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Are there /ɔ/ and /ʌ/ sounds in informal American English?
There are no pure or standard /ɔ/ and /ʌ/ anywhere in the English speaking world, especially in USA. (/ɔ/ and /ʌ/ are graphical and conventionl conventions for a lot of allophones. I hope it make ...
1
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Is there a shorter expression for 'are not commonly discussed as much as'?
An idiom you might use is get short shrift, although there's probably a large chunk of your audience who will be back here asking what it means. One of its meanings is "get little attention"....
1
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Is there a shorter expression for 'are not commonly discussed as much as'?
Consider changing "Dogs are not commonly discussed as much as cats" to "People discuss cats more than dogs." 6 words, not 9; 8 syllables, not 12; 29 letters, not 39.
Brevity aside,...
5
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Accepted
Is there a shorter expression for 'are not commonly discussed as much as'?
The phrase receive less attention than would work here and save you a few words. Ultimately, though, this is all a matter of taste.
2
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Is there a shorter expression for 'are not commonly discussed as much as'?
You can reduce the verbiage by using a comparative form. If you change "not commonly" to "less frequently", then you can reduce "as much as" to "than":
...
0
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Synonyms for "put somebody through their paces"?
There's dry run, which means to test someone or something in a manner that doesn't jeopardize anything already in place, or in a manner that if something does go wrong, the damage can be contained, if ...
3
votes
Accepted
Is “I bind round” correct to say?
When citing a verb in Greek or Latin, the custom is to take the first Principal Part of the verb as its name. In both Greek and Latin, the first principal part of a verb is its first person singular ...
1
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Is “I bind round” correct to say?
Yes, I bind round is an independent clause with an intransitive verb in the first person singular. round is a variant of around.
round is also intransitive there, a preposition.
If a radio could ...
6
votes
Is “I bind round” correct to say?
I don’t know Greek, so can’t address the accuracy of the translation. But I bind round does have a grammatically correct reading. For example, the sentence
I bind round your head a crown of flowers
...
0
votes
caught-cot merger: can "lawyer" sound like "lier"?
logic suggests "lawyer" should sound like /lɑjɚ/, as "lawyer" is basically "law" + "yer"
Since when is English pronunciation logical? As Wiktionary notes, ...
0
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Is Iroquoi the origin of the American idiom “cuts no ice with me”?
I’m gratified that people took the trouble to research this, but I took it to be humor. Stephen has apparently heard the use of an American word “riz” as the past tense of “raise” and uses it to test ...
2
votes
Is it correct to say "research competitor products" or "research competitors' products"?
There is a significant difference in meaning between competing products (which was suggested in the comments a supposedly superior, since more "popular", alternative) and competitors' ...
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