15
votes
How to concisely say that pairs of items are on par with each other?
The other answer is a good one. Here's another suggestion:
A1 and B1 are on par with A2 and B2, respectively.
However, this wouldn't work if you were talking about (A1,A2) and (B1,B2,B3).
...
- 7,786
14
votes
"apply to" vs. "apply for" an opportunity
One applies for a job, not to a job.
One applies to a college for admission (to an entity FOR something)
One applies to a bank for a job. (to an entity FOR something)
One NEVER applies to a job. A ...
- 141
9
votes
Is there an order to prepositional phrases?
First: some commenters got confused by the technical language in this sentence. Commit here is a noun, referring to a record of a batch of changes to a codebase; the sentence is talking about the ...
- 19.2k
8
votes
If you are talking "on behalf of" you and someone else, what is the correct usage?
I looked at a bunch of style guides to see what they have to say on this subject. The vast majority of them dedicate at least a paragraph to the distinction (or nondistinction) between "in behalf ...
- 166k
8
votes
Can I use "Before Since" in my sentence?
Reverse the order, "since before I started kindergarten" D
- 91
7
votes
As I have want to do
First, as Jim has commented, the word is spelled "wont" (though it's pronounced the same way as want in a typical American accent).
Wont can be an adjective, as in I am wont to use antiquated ...
- 7,608
6
votes
Grammaticality of "The victim was found by a passer-by with stab wounds"
The context makes it clear who had stab wounds. I don't see anything wrong with the headline, or with your alternative. Both are ok.
Alternatively, it could say:
Passer-by finds victim with stab ...
- 4,046
6
votes
Accepted
Correct usage of the phrase 'if any'
The corpus data show clearly that if any is usually used after a noun, sometimes after few. So the second sentence is the best choice. examples: And do you know what services , if any, they performed ...
- 725
6
votes
Is there an order to prepositional phrases?
Both are grammatically correct. Your second is the clearer. And clearer still would be
The change adds to the change log more info about the previous commits on May xx, xxxx.
This version has the ...
- 3,206
5
votes
Does the phrase "on the night of the first day" include two prepositional phrases?
Yes, it is correct.
This is called embedding (or recursion) and is considered one of the universals of human language. You can say:
The dog chased the cat that caught the rat that ran out of the ...
- 71.9k
5
votes
What is the name of the ambiguity in the phrase "I want to visit clubs with attractive women"?
Attachment ambiguity. The prepositional phrase "with attractive women" must be an adjunct of something, but of what? There are two plausible possibilities ("visit" and "clubs"), and that produces the ...
- 5,338
5
votes
What is the name of the ambiguity in the phrase "I want to visit clubs with attractive women"?
This is just syntactic ambiguity in that the lack of punctuation has allowed multiple meanings. Due to this ambiguity, someone without prior knowledge about penguins could fail to correctly interpret ...
- 91
5
votes
What is the name of the ambiguity in the phrase "I want to visit clubs with attractive women"?
For the headline "Scientists discover emperor penguin colony in Antarctica using satellite images", refer to this section of A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (CoGEL):
(CoGEL §...
- 23.2k
5
votes
Accepted
"Attend at" something
It is a legal usage of "attend " meaning:
(Be present at), frequent, go to, visit (legal)
(legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary)
Usage examples:
From A Treatise on the Law and Practice of ...
- 67.7k
5
votes
Accepted
“Although in poor health, she continued...” vs “No matter how poor her health, she continued…”
You say that "the prepositional phrase 'in poor health' doesn't seem correct without a noun before it. It seems better to say 'Although she was in poor health, she continued to carry out her duties'."
...
- 33.2k
5
votes
Accepted
"Born in a City" or "Born at a City"? Uncommon Usage by Edward FitzGerald
You are correct; we would generally use in today.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was translated by Fitzgerald in 1859. Since then, the preposition generally used with born in/at [city] has changed.
...
- 89.5k
5
votes
Accepted
what does "back up" mean in this context:
First, you need to understand that "scale up" is a phrasal verb: a verb followed by a particle (usually an adverb or a preposition) that combine to have a different meaning than the verb by ...
- 59.5k
5
votes
What is meaning of for in "for Christmas"?
Three of the definitions found in MACMILLAN:
for
"used for stating the purpose of an object or action"
"relating to or concerning someone or something"
(14) "in order to ...
- 25.4k
5
votes
Does "assess the use of two strategies by this business as an effective strategy" mean that both strategies have to be effective, or is it ambiguous?
Since the problem statement ends with the singular "an effective strategy", I believe you're expected to treat the combination of two strategies that were used as a single combined strategy. ...
- 22k
5
votes
Accepted
Use of "us" as personal determinative
The construction is rare, but not so rare that examples of both cannot be found. As the data set is tiny though, there's unlikely to be a consensus about which one is 'correct', except from a ...
- 10.4k
4
votes
What is the name of the ambiguity in the phrase "I want to visit clubs with attractive women"?
It looks to me like a misplaced modifier.
There's an excellent article, from opentextbc.ca, that outlines the different types of mistakes made with modifiers. They define the term:
A misplaced ...
- 8,638
4
votes
Preposition choice when refererring to twins
Words of duplication (twin, duplicate, replica) as well as words of kinship (parent, sibling, cousin) almost always take of. Occasionally, you see to, but that's for a poetic or archaic feel.
My ...
- 28.2k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to express the frequency of some action?
Something happens at a particular frequency, so it's at which. It's a frequency of doing something. Technically, I suppose it's frequency of <noun phrase> and frequency at which <verb phrase>. A ...
- 103k
4
votes
Is it correct to use "his" in this prepositional phrase?
I agree with your judgments about the examples -- specifically, *"I had a friend for whom I installed Ubuntu on his laptop" sounds considerably worse than the other related examples. My reaction to ...
- 17.5k
4
votes
"Attend at" something
I can "attend a concert", "attend school", or "attend a meeting". That is OED sense 12a.
To present oneself, for the purpose of taking some part in the proceedings, at a meeting for business, ...
- 64.9k
4
votes
Synonym / Alternate expression for "for fear that"?
Lest
for fear that —often used after an expression denoting fear or
apprehension
worried lest she should be late
hesitant to speak out lest he be fired
- 2,466
4
votes
"The difference in X between Y and Z" -?
"The difference in intelligence between a donkey and a mule"
I can't see a problem with this. "in intelligence" is effectively parenthetical.
"The difference (in intelligence)...
- 37.4k
4
votes
Accepted
What licenses the omission of an article in a countable or singular noun phrase?
It may not be possible to define a rule here. What matters is what is idiomatic.
In English, to be sent to market means to be offered for sale on the market. This is an abstract concept. The market ...
- 2,532
4
votes
"He fought in World War II as an infantryman" - does 'as' change 'fought' into a linking verb?
That is a reasonable way of thinking about it.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, cities were abandoned as centers of administration.
My grandfather fought in World War II as an infantryman.
With ...
- 47.6k
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