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In some eastern Indo-European languages like Persian specially in its northern accent Gilaki, the words "thou", "thee", "thy",... have a same meaning and pronunciation as English. But there is a difference. In these languages the usage of "thou" is much more frequent than English. They have no "you" (in singular forms) and they use "thou" everywhere. My question is about this ancient word. Question: What are the main differences between the words "you" and "thou" in English language in usage, grammar, etc? Is there any difference in meanings of "thou" and "you" up to special circumstances? Can one use "thou" instead of "you" everywhere? Answer There are two important distinctions. The first is that thou (and thy , thine , thyself ) is second-person singular. Ye is second-person plural. You is second-person of either singular and plural (originally only a case of ...

What's the word to describe someone who acts arrogantly and always disagrees with others unreasonably in order to upset people around him/her? [I'm not looking for adjectives like unpleasant, annoying, unfriendly, rude , I'm looking for a more specific term like opinionated, didactic, loquacious, gregarious ] I think I'd come across it before but I've forgotten what it is..

Time magazine (Aug.2) reported that Toledo Mayor instructed city residents not to drink tap water polluted with toxin caused by algae bloom under the headline: Toledo, Ohio without drinking water for second day. “In a Saturday press conference, Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins called upon residents to stay calm. ' I don’t believe we’ll ever be back to normal ,' he said, the Toledo Blade reports. “But this is not going to be our new normal. We’re going to fix this. Our city is not going to be abandoned.” http://time.com/3074318/toledo-water/?xid=newsletter-brief I’m drawn to the line - “I don’t believe we’ll ever be back to normal,” which sounds like to me as if the Mayor doesn’t believe the water will get back to normal. What is the difference between “I don’t believe we’ll ever be back to normal,” which is simple negation and “I don’t believe we’ll never be back to normal,” which is double negation leading to affirmation? Actually, this morning AP news reported that Ohio Gover...

Is there a difference between your 'signature' and your 'mark'? One of the comments on this post on Bruce Schneier's blog claims there is: This might be out of date in these days of 100% literacy (yes, that is sarcasm) but it's not actually your "signature", it's your "mark". This is why serious contracts require witnesses. If there is a difference, then what exactly is it? Answer Traditionally, if a party to a contract were unable to sign their name, they would literally make their mark (and often get a witness to sign that they had made the mark themselves).

The letters -ough- can be pronounced a ridiculous number of different ways in English. Here is a possibly incomplete list: tough, enough cough, trough bough, plough though, dough thought, bought through thorough, borough weirdos like hiccough, hough, lough. Are there any other letter sequences in English near this crazy? How do non-English speakers cope with trying to learn a language as messy as this? Answer Answer to (2): We memorize each exceptional word. In the grand scheme of things, this is actually not a huge number of words. Consider Chinese and Japanese, who have a large number meaning-based characters that provide little to no information about their pronunciation at all. If memorizing the pronunciation of thousands of characters is possible, then memorizing English words with exceptional spelling seems almost trivial.

Is there a difference? Both versions are common. If there is a difference, which do I use when, and why? Answer Grammatically they are interchangeable. The very definition of "unavailable" is "not available". However, my gut tells me something else. When I see 'unavailable' it immediately connotes that it's a temporary condition: The senator was unavailable for comment. He may be available later. The web page was unavailable all afternoon. But then it came back online. Whereas when I see 'not available' it implies to me that it's a stronger or more permanent situation. Maybe because of the emphasized not ? This service is not available in New York. And it's not likely to be any time soon. The web page is not available outside the company. Because it's private. While you could legitimately substitute "not available" for "unavailable" in those examples (and vice-versa), I wouldn't.

The slang term minge in the sense of quim dates from the beginning of the 20 th century. However, neither the OED nor Etymonline has any idea where it came from. Here are two of the OED’s citations: 1936 J. Curtis Gilt Kid viii. 80 — I’m going to give you a kick in the minge if you don’t shut up. 1974 New Direction IV. iv. 19/2 — They’ve all..scented and talced their minges . Which is all very nice and all, but what is the origin of the word in this sense? Answer Your question was actually the subject of a paper: Minge --- A Loanword Study by James Clackson. Clackson asserts that minge is, like pal , nark , and lollipop , a loanword from Romani Gypsy. While the OED dates the first use of minge in text as 1903, it had been used since the 19th century in (very) informal conversation --- it belonged almost solely to spoken English, and even then, appeared to have been commonly used only by speakers of certain dialects. However, to complicate matters, the origin of minge in the...

People say things like ‘all publicity is good publicity’ but that isn't always true. Should that in the sentence above be replaced with it ? It's sort of ambiguous as to what that is referring to, isn't it? I meant that to be referring to what's in the quotes, but couldn't someone also interpret it as referring to the whole clause before it? Would it be any better to use it ? Also, besides the aforementioned ambiguity, is there anything else wrong with that sentence? Answer Using either it or that (or even this ) is perfectly fine in this context. Personally I would go for it since it seems to flow more smoothly, but that is merely a matter of taste. The word that can certainly sometimes refer to the previous clause: People are mean to me and that's a fact. Indeed, it can often be used in a similar way: People are mean to me and it makes me sad. However, it's not ambiguous in the case in the question, largely because if you meant that the whole phr...

Is there an idiom for explaining something in extreme detail? I know there is an idiom for getting rid of something "root and branch", but based on the examples I've seen, this cannot be used in this kind of context, or can it? I am looking for a phrase of some sort, somewhat pejorative but a funny one – an idiom, colloquialism or something multi-word. In my language we have a saying that someone explains something and "includes the root" or "explains every pond and pool", e.g. when someone asks the shortest way from point A to point B, and instead of telling which one it is, you start describing every rock and tree and bush on the way, which really is not at all informative. Pretty much an exact opposite to "cutting to the chase". Answer In my shop we call this getting too deep into the weeds , which is the opposite of taking the thirty-thousand-foot view . I'm afraid business-communications outfits like mine are sorta heirs to the Madi...

A long time ago somebody gave me a word for phrases that are so popular that they need not be completed to be understood. For example, saying just "Old habits..." to imply the phrase "Old habits die hard". Is there a name for phrases like this, or the act of using just the memorable parts of sayings? Answer In addition to what has already been said, this type of phrase might also be considered a Synecdoche : a word or phrase which uses a part of something to represent its whole. Some general examples include using "suits" to refer to businessmen, "threads" to refer to clothing, and "stick shift" or "stick" to refer to the type of manual transmission of a car or even the car itself (e.g., "Can you drive a stick shift?"). Examples I can think of that are similar to yours include: "Life is like a box of chocolates" to refer to the longer quote from Forrest Gump, "Death and taxes" to refer to "T...

Is there a word for someone who puts on too much perfume ? cologne ? Answer You can say reeks of perfume Which has an appealing literary twist because reeks is usually used to describe bad smells while perfume is supposed to smell good.

None as plural indefinite pronoun With words that indicate portions—some, all, none, percent, fraction, part, majority, remainder, and so forth, how can we decide if the verb will be singular or plural? None of the garbage was/were picked up. None of the chairs was/were comfortable. She inspected all of the plates and none was/were chipped. Can anyone please give some more examples and help me out... Examples: None of the pie was eaten. None of the children were hungry. In a sentence like “None were missing,” there is an implicit noun that answers the question, “None of what?” That noun is what determines whether none takes a plural or singular verb. Examples: None were missing. (None of the cookies were missing.) None was missing. (None of the pie was missing.)

You have only one couple of apples, so it's singular. There are multiple apples, so it's plural. Which one is right, "there are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"? I have seen both used. In Dutch you would say "there is a couple of apples" because you only have one couple of apples. How about English? Answer There are 3 things that need mentioning here: 1) Couple as a group of two people in a relationship: In this case you say: Where is the couple that requested the wedding? But you would also say: They are a lovely couple. 2) Couple as a few : In this case, you use are , examples: There are a few apples on the table = There are a couple of apples on the table. 3) As in the 2nd case, but contracted: When you contract in spoken English , this is the special case where you can contract are to is , like this: There are a couple of apples on the table. => There's a couple of apples on the table. Because you cannot contract...

I do know that the much better construction is "he wished he had met her a year before", but is the construction "he wished he would have met her a year before" acceptable?

I heard that we should use "I want to rest" instead of "I want to take a rest." I also heard that "I want to take a rest" is not a sentence a native speaker would use. Is that correct? Should we prefer "I want to rest" to " I want to take a rest"? Could you please confirm if this is true, and explain “why”.

Uncanny seems to be the word I'm looking for to describe something, but I'm worried that it might have a negative connotation to it. Does it? What are some words that are very close to having the same meaning and don't have a negative connotation?

According to Dictionary.com : mis·spell·ing    [mis-spel-ing] noun the act of spelling incorrectly: Note his misspelling of that word. an incorrectly spelled word: You have three misspellings in your letter. Some people have told me that as long as the letters actually create a word, it's spelled correctly. This doesn't make sense to me, though. The example I'm using occurred in a recent Stack Exchange blog . They had accidentally typed in "word" instead of "world." I pointed out that "world" was misspelled (missing an "l") and another person said that it was technically not misspelled. So when do we consider a word misspelled? Only when our computer puts a red zig-zag line below it? Isn't the word "word" still considered misspelled since it was meant to be "world" and it is not spelled correctly, and just happens to become a different word when this particular misspelling occurs? Is there perhaps a better def...

I've heard grungy used to mean envious in old motion pictures and books. Here is one reference , and there are several more on the internet. However, when I researched the etymology of the word grungy online, I only found this: grungy (adj.) "sloppy, shabby," 1965, American English slang, perhaps a blend of grubby and dingy. grunge (n.) "sloppiness," also "untidy person," 1965, American English teen slang, probably a back-formation from grungy. The music and fashion style that originated in Seattle is attested from the early 1990s. The dates given are considerably later than the 1920s. I'm curious to know if anyone has any idea where the word grungy from the 1920s could have originated to mean envious.

If bilingual means you know two languages, and trilingual means you know three, what would be the proper term for knowing four, five or even six languages? Answer Polyglot : person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages. (AHD)

My daughter has been given the task - by me - of explaining irony. She identified and did a jolly good job of explaining 5 of the 6 apparent types of irony : dramatic, cosmic, socratic, situational, verbal, and irony of fate . When it came to verbal irony she (we) stumbled. She is happy to accept that verbal irony is equivalent to sarcasm, but I would appreciate confirmation of this from the experts in this forum in order that I do not mislead her by accepting her appraisal of the matter. Just to be clear, I am not asking whether irony is the same as sarcasm in the general case. What exactly is "verbal irony"? Update: my daughter's take-away from the answers so far (2012-04-16) is the following -- in her own words: "Verbal irony is when someone says something but means the complete opposite. Like one person might say, 'Oh, that looks wonderful', in a kind of giggly voice. Its a bit like sarcasm except it's not negative" I will accept the answer tha...

Could anyone help me with finding the difference between saying "catch a bus/train/etc" and "take a train/bus/etc"? I'm afraid I haven't been able to glean one from my dictionary. Answer Catching a bus describes the process of getting to a stop/station, waiting and boarding. Taking a bus describes the entire process, including the journey itself. Much of the time, the distinction isn't important. For example: "How did you get to work today?" "I caught a bus." (The listener infers that having caught the bus, you stay on it) "I took the bus." (You have described the journey) However, it could be relevant: "I read a book while I was taking the bus" (yes: reading while the bus is moving) "I read a book while I was catching the bus" (unlikely: reading while stepping onto the bus, paying the driver, etc.) It is a similar meaning to catch as catching a fish, or catching a ball. You and the bus are apart, and...

I don't want to get into the proper use of the phrase 'and/or', but rather to investigate the use of the forward slash between other words. Examples: I have an interview with him/her this afternoon. He has a large binder/notebook. And even separating just letters: I connected the i/o ports. (input/ouput) Mark the field as n/a. (not applicable) I did it w/o her help. (without) It seems as thought the forward slash can be used to indicate an option, display ambiguity, shorten 2 words and shorten 1 word (and others). Is it OK to use a slash to separate these words/letters (yes, that was intended), or is it better to explicitly say 'his or her'? One more thing, is it correct to 'chain' these phrases together? I'm horrible with examples but here's one: I don't open letters/mail that aren't/isn't addressed to me. Answer As I often say in response to these questions, it's not obvious what form of "OK"-ness you're looking for i...

If there is a group of individuals identified by a name, what's the right way for one of the group to refer to them all? For example, if one of a group of 10 Americans wants to refer to the group, is it more correct to say "Us Americans" or "We Americans"?

I honestly can not think of any examples that cannot be countered. Perhaps something like if a person brought a weapon out in the open to an airport - no one actually thinks it would be a weapon because that would be so ridiculous, no one would do that. Or a student bringing alcohol in a vodka bottle to school, but having the vodka bottle out. No one would suspect it to actually be vodka, they simply assume its to be a joke.

Is there a word for representing one's self as weak or unintelligent in order to lull an opponent into a false sense of security and thus gain advantage? I have been using "disingenuous" but that's not correct.

In his book Humorous English, Evan Esar writes, The blended compound is the fusion of two compounds, with the terminal word of one being the same or similar to the initial word of the other. By such telescoping ... one's adopted country becomes a 'stepfatherland', and Lewis Carroll's dragonfly becomes a 'snapdragonfly'. Many a piece of wit gains its effect solely through a blended compound. He proceeds to list a few examples: A college education is all too often merely sheepskindeep. The subway has created a new animal—the undergroundhog. Gossip has been defined as something heard over the sour grapevine. Does anyone know of a technical term for this kind of wordplay? Throughout the book, which is a catalogue of comedic techniques, Esar coins original terms for the phenomena he describes, and so they aren't to be found elsewhere. But I suspect (and hope) that the devices he treats therein have more widely recognized names. Is that the case? Answer Wikiped...

I'm a married male in my mid-thirties and meet a woman of a similar age and talk about business. I want to refer to this meeting later, and it feels weird to say "I met a girl today...," (feels like it describes someone younger or it was romantic) or "I met a lady today..." (feels like it describes someone older.) Is the best term just "I met a woman today..."? Answer Depending on context, all three could be acceptable, with woman probably being the most neutral. However, in all three cases, you seem to want to put emphasis on the fact she was a woman... if you met to talk about business, you could use a job-title. You could refer to her (depending on the nature of your business relation and her job description) as a colleague, a designer, a manager, a developer, an investor, an analyst, etc. Apart from professional relationships, you could simply go with someone , a person or an individual , as Qaz notes in the comment. I think the most neutral ...

I am looking for a word that means something like "daydream" or "fantasy", but without the connotation that I actually want this "imagining" to come true. For example, something that would fit the sentence "I was on the bus today, and fantasised that the bus crashed and I had to decide who to save first." Fantasise sounds a touch too sexual to me. Daydreamed makes it sound like wishful thinking, something I hope will come true in the future. Imagined is close, but doesn't have the same sense of running through the scenario in detail in my head in the way the other two do. This part is important. Any other ideas? The sentence can be rephrased as required. Answer "Visualized is pretty neutral - could have positive or negative connotations.

Sometimes when writing I find myself looking for a word to describe something in the “³⁄₂ th ” place — exactly between first and second. I would like to ask, does there exist an easy expression for this? If so, does it generalise to other “in-between” places as well? (I mostly encounter this problem when writing mathematics, where I wish to write the “³⁄₂” order derivative, and normally have to endure clumsy or imprecise expressions (“Taking the fractional derivative. . . .”).) Answer The word you are looking for is the sesquialter , sesquialteral , sesquialterate , sesquialteral , or sesquialterous element. You can also use sesquialter as an ordinal noun, for the midpoint between first and second: I’ve skipped the zeroth, but then jumped straight from the first to second, so I’m am still missing the sesquialter I expected midway between those two. That’s because sesquialter means “one-and-a-halfth” , 1 but is substantially easier to say. 2 It is one of those sesquipedalian ter...

Brazil have Neymar. Argentina have Messi. Portugal have Ronaldo. Germany have a team! I read this on Facebook, and someone said the singular "has" is supposed to be there instead of the plural "have" in all cases within the quoted phrase. I got myself thinking, though, whether the plural wouldn't be correct, making each country's name a collective of the people that are part of it, or perhaps a collective reference to the national team of each country in this specific case. I've seen uses such as the police are conducting an investigation making the noun "police" a collective of all people within a police force, but I'm not sure these kinds of usage are a recurring mistake by native speakers or something of that nature. Answer This is one of the differences between British English and American English. In British English, collective nouns can often take plural verbs if the sense is that we are thinking about several individuals in the grou...

Is there an adjective or a noun to describe a person willing to argue contradictory things depending on what suits him? For example: "Our company should buy X — it's good for the shareholders". Realizing later that it's bad for his career: "Our company should not buy X — we have too much invested in Y". Answer You could call someone like this expedient (World English Dictionary: "inclined towards methods or means that are advantageous rather than fair or just") or maybe a vacillator , someone who "fluctuate[s] in one's opinions" (WED).

For example, someone on the phone said, "I was calling to ask for a form," when she meant to say, "I am calling to ask for a form." I hear this consistently, and usually in customer service situations. It is also being used by the under-30 crowd, of which my daughter is one, but as an out of state resident, she also finds it odd, and thinks it may be a coloquialism. What's confusing is the person asking the question is typically unaware of their tense confusion, almost in the same way that someone saying, "like" cannot hear themselves. I'm sure I say similar things, but I try to weed them out, for clarity of communication. Can anyone shed some light on this usage, or have others noticed the trend? Answer For example, someone on the phone said, "I was calling to ask for a form," when she meant to say, "I am calling to ask for a form." There's nothing wrong with that past-tense usage. It is standard usage, and has been for a...

In the hot story of today (the U.S. Senate report on "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" ), I noticed the following: He was subjected to numerous and repeated torture techniques, to include being waterboarded 83 times. The same construction is there in the report itself. To include ? What happened to including ?

I generally like the expression " clutching their pearls " as an expression of exaggerated shock or scandal. However, its origins in women's jewelry gives it a sexist bent that I'd rather avoid. Is there a similar phrase with the same general implications, but without the gendered lens?

Recently, I finished my phone job interview with the phrase "Thanks for having me". It was a reply to the other person's "Thank you for your time". So, does "thanks for having me" sound alright in this context? Answer No. "Having me" implies "having me over", usually in the sense of for a visit or stay, so wouldn't be right in a professional context even if face to face. I would suggest a response of simply "thank you" to "thanks for your time" as an appropriate professional alternative that will also work on the phone.

Which spelling is correct, "updatable" or "updateable"? For example, "The file is not updat(e)able." By the way, I did go to Google and ref.dic.com for this first, and they both seem to indicate that both spellings are correct. If they are indeed both correct, which is more widely accepted? Answer Google Ngrams shows that updatable is currently much more prevalent :

How did the word "Utopia" (coined by Sir Thomas More) come to mean an ideal place when the Greek etymology specifically means "Not a place." Relatedly, while this might be the prime use of the word "irony" or "ironic", does anyone have a suggestion for a word matching the general public's ideal definition of "Irony?" Answer On the second question. Often one hears the word irony when two events are related. Irony, in this context, means a poignant juxtaposition. If that quality is missing, the related events are mere coincidence. Hope that helps.

Like the title says: I don't think "to can" is right :) I mean "can" as in to be able to . I'm aware of other meanings. I can't find the answer here. (There's What is an "infinitive"? which sidesteps this precise case). Online dictionaries draw a blank ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/can , e.g.). I'm looking for some official indication that the infinitive doesn't exist for this irregular verb. It would be nice if someone could share any information on how this has evolved to be the case. Answer "Can" is a modal verb and doesn't have an infinitive See "Defective verbs": Defective verbs The modal auxiliary verbs, can, may, shall, will and must are defective in that they do not have infinitives; so, one cannot say, *I want him to can do it, but rather must say, I want him to be able to do it. The periphrases to be able to, to have to and to be going to are generally used in these cases.

Which noun is correct? a topup a top-up Which verb is correct? to topup to top-up

I have a few questions on terminology, first, actually, as having the right terminology may have enabled me to answer this question on my own. What is the terminology for such constructs, "as [adjective] as [noun]"? ( Wiktionary seems to label them adjective-based similes —is that correct?) Is the [noun] considered a subject , a direct object , or some other kind of an object? I feel that [noun] was actually meant to be a complete sentence on its own, e.g. "She is as wonderful as they [are wonderful]," but for convenience we drop repetitive words—is that an accurate view? If so, then, are sentences like "She's as tall as me" actually ungrammatical? Yet, it seems awkward to say, "She's as tall as I." Is that purely due to a shift in speaking norms? Answer Wiktionary is not the right place to go for grammatical terminology. Sorry. First, "adjective-based similes" is not a grammatical term, nor even a technical one, since it...

Apart from 'street-smart' what is another word for street-wise?

I ask this because Firefox suggested that whitespaces is not a valid word; rather it gave me whitespace or white spaces .

Wikipedia has a sentence in its article on ellipsis : In reported speech, the ellipsis is sometimes used to represent an intentional silence, perhaps indicating irritation, dismay, shock or disgust. This usage is more common amongst younger, Internet-savvy generations.[citation needed] I can find plenty of random internet articles making a similar statement, but is there an actual authoritative grammar source that says this is grammatically correct? Is it just something the "Internet-savvy generations" have invented? Here is an example from a story: She swallowed hard. "I'm afraid, Mark. Maybe if you might... talk to him?" Here the ellipsis is indicating a verbal hesitation in the quote rather than the typical use of indicating an omission. Answer According to Grammar Girl , several style guides support the use of ellipses to indicate a pause (the relevant paragraph can be found under the header The E-mail Ellipsis). She quotes from the Chicago Manual of Style ...

One of the most used words around is et cetera. Some people substitute et al for etc. Google says that both of them have the same meaning: 'and the others'. Is there a particular context and usage for each of these? Are there any situations wherein one should employ et al. over etc. or vice versa? Answer I would say there is a definite distinction between the two, in definition and in proper usage. Et cetera , often shortened to etc. , means literally 'and the rest'. Et alii , often shortened to et al. , means 'and others' and can be thought of as a specific case of et cetera when the 'rest' refers to a list of persons. It is often seen in academic contexts, usually when citing a reference having more than two or three authors. I have seen improper usage of et cetera described as instances where what is intended to be the 'rest' is unclear or ambiguous, for example: When visiting your accountant, please bring your receipts, cash book, bank sta...

the other day I heard one of my colleague referring to another colleague "that poor bastard is stuck there". I was surprised to hear that. But when he was saying the bastard word, the person he was referring to wasn't present because we were looking at him through the window and he was busy shovelling his car out of snow. I have to say that the former colleague swears a lot, like "fuck me" which I don't even know what it means,etc. I suppose it is some kind of common joking but just want to make sure of it. Could someone give some explanation on how this word should be used ? I am not a native English speaker and I live in eastern Canada. Thanks Answer If you live in Eastern Canada, get used to it. Used that way in colloquial speech (as Anonym and Mitch pointed out in their comments), it does not in any way call the subject's parentage into question, nor is it insulting or pejorative in any other way. (It would not be unusual to hear son of a bitch or ...

I have a feeling this question has already been asked, but couldn't find it by searching. I found people asking about hyphenation of multiple compound adjectives with a common second word, but I'm wondering about hyphenation of multiple compound adjectives with a common first word. What is the correct way to hyphenate a phrase like this, assuming that "sometimes" is modifying both "unreliable" and "inadequate?": sometimes unreliable and inadequate Internet service Note that if style plays a role in your answer, I prefer American English and specifically Chicago style.

I saw this term, backshifting , in an answer to another question, that was not endorsed by the community: [T]he process called backshifting...signal[s] that the speech is not direct/quoted but rather it is indirect/reported. That sounds very interesting, but unfortunately, I can't be sure of if this given definition is correct, as it is found in a downvoted answer. So: What is backshifting , and how does it apply to English? As always, plenty of examples are requested! Answer I think what Dan meant was what happens to direct speech when you turn it into indirect speech; this is especially notable when the indirect speech is subordinate to a sentence in a past tense: She said: "I will tell him that you lied". (Direct speech, no shifting.) She announced that she would tell him that you had lied. (Indirect/reported speech, tenses shift.) Because the tense of the main clause is in the past ("announced"), the finite verbs in the reported/indirect speech shift back ...

What word or phrase best communicates the idea that a human (or other sentient being) is easily swayed, particularly between moral good and evil? Words I have found that are close are: Impressionable - Easily influenced because of a lack of critical ability. Implies that the subject lacks critical skills, and misses the concept of good and evil. Gullible - Easily persuaded to believe something Misses the concept of good and evil I created a typical angels and demons scenario to demonstrate the polar extremes of the the spectrum. In this scenario, I lack the word to describe the humans, who can be influenced towards either end of the spectrum if impressed upon by an external entity. The angels are devoted to good, and are immovable in their ideals. The demons are wicked, and will feign morality only to manipulate others. Both prey upon the humans, who are ____________. I think that the key here is the spectrum of good an evil. Here are examples of other spectra and their associated wo...

"I can have a cookie, can't I?" (Please ignore the double quotes while reading) What is this type of question called? Also, is it grammatically correct under American English?

I was surprised when I heard zero is plural, and even 1.00001 is plural. Then, what about following numbers ? (1) 1.00 which means the value measured between 0.995-1.004, having possibility that it was exactly 1. (2) 0.99999..... which is mathematically equal to 1. Also, are others that are mathemattically equal to 1 than this, treated completely same as 1? (3) -1 Is this singular? Or negative numbers are generally plural? (4) i = square root of -1 I know it's weird to count things with imaginary numbers, nonetheless, if you were to count, which form, plural or singular, would you be to use? That's it. Answer It has less to do with the actual number, and more to do with how the number is said or written. Singular nouns: Any time the number is "one", or a fraction with "one" in the numerator, the result is singular. This also applies to negatives. See Is -1 followed by a singular or plural noun? One apple 1 apple ("one apple") Half an apple One hal...

I've always had this question about the pronunciation of Sean . Is Sean a word from another language? Is it actually not pronounced Shawn and instead it's some sound between Shawn and Seen ? Also, why isn't it pronounced as Sawn instead of Shawn , when the word Sean doesn't even have the letter ' h ' in it to get that -sh sound? Bottom line is, why is Sean pronounced Shawn instead of Seen ? Answer Sean (written "Seán" or "Séan" in Irish) is a Hibernization of the English name "John"; that is, it's a transliteration of "John" into a form which can be pronounced in Irish and written with the Irish alphabet (which nowadays is simply a version of the Roman alphabet). The Irish language does not have the sound /ʤ/ (the sound which English typically writes as "J"). It does however have a /ʃ/ sound (a "sh" sound in English orthography), which happens when an "S" is followed by a front vo...

What's the difference between the two? Is dictionary mostly applied to written or printed forms and vocabulary to others (like "someone's active vocabulary")? Answer They are two different things. The dictionary is a book (or series of books) that lists all words in alphabetical order with pronunciation, definitions, classifications (noun, verb, adjective) and if it's bilingual (E.G. English-[other language] ) it gives the translation. The vocabulary is not an object, it's that collection of words used in a given language. It can also indicate the amount of words known by a certain person (E.G. John has such a wide vocabulary! ). EDIT: I wrote that lexicon is a synonym of vocabulary, and it is, but Rhodri made me notice that it's also a synonym of dictionary. So I investigated a bit and, as I was suspecting, it has a restricted use, which is still right though... From the OED: A word-book or dictionary ; chiefly applied to a dictionary of Greek, Hebr...

In my language, we have a phrase which roughly translates to "don't roll around where you've fallen". It indicates that a person has said or done something stupid. Then when someone points this out, they still don't stop and pretend to be right, in order to avoid shame due to being wrong. Hence the phrase means: "You've already fallen, don't try to roll around and pretend you're still up". Answer When you're in a hole, stop digging. Michael Josephson has this to say: Most of us have lied to get out of trouble. From childhood denials (“It wasn’t me!”) to adult fabrications (“The check is in the mail…”), what seem like harmless falsehoods easily fall from our tongues. And then we make up more excuses or tell more lies to protect the first one. Soon the “cover-up” is more serious and credibility-damaging than whatever we lied about in the first place. The natural tendency to avoid discomfort makes our lives more difficult in other ways as ...

I'm writing a business recommendation, and since it's a proxy for a proper name, it seems like capitalization might be in order, but it looks odd. Answer "To whom it may concern" is correct according to Gregg , the only style guide I could find that addressed this issue completely. However, I found the Chicago Manual of Style using a version that capitalized every word - but they had no citation or Q&A entry to back it up. I found this web resource that backs it up, though. Purdue's OWL concurs, capitalizing it the same way. From this page that references the Gregg Reference Manual that asks the same question as was asked here: The first word, all nouns, and all titles are capitalized in the salutation. That's according to The Gregg Reference Manual . Gregg says nothing about the last word. As pronouns, all and everyone would not be capitalized unless they were the first word or part of someone's title, according to Gregg . The only words that are ...

I would like to use the phrase "this question should not be closed" to refer to a question that someone closed—but the expression seems defective because it doesn't get at the fact that the closing already occurred. Must I use This question was not to be closed or are there better ways to express the idea, e.g., 'it should not have been closed'? Please, let explain the difference between the alternative expressions and give the context in which one should be preferred to the other(s). Answer The passive voice in the simple present This question is closed This question isn't closed This question should be closed This question shouldn't be closed The passive voice in the present perfect This question has been closed This question hasn't been closed This question should have been closed This question shouldn't have been closed The passive voice in the simple past This question was closed This question wasn't closed *This question should...

There's a book entitled Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead . It's not clear what exactly phrasal verb Lean in in it's title means. Does its meaning differ from the meaning of the verb to lean in the context of the book's name? Answer The book is about women needing to move out of their comfort zone and work harder to break into senior management positions traditionally held by men. From the Free Dictionary: "lean in (to something)" to incline or press into something. You have to lean into the wind when you walk or you will be blown over. As you walk into the wind, lean in a little bit. The north wall of the barn leans in a little. Is it going to fall? See also: lean (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.)

I've heard the phrase "dry run" being used with the meaning of rehearsal, experiment or test exercise in various contexts. For example: They did a dry run of the demonstration before showing it to the CEO. Practice with a dry run . Organise a dress rehearsal within two weeks of the wedding to ensure... A dry run of the software release will be executed to ensure that the release plan is correct and clear to everybody. However, wet run would not make sense in any of these contexts. So, why "dry"? Where does "dry run" come from? Answer According to World Wide Words , it originates from firemen doing speed competitions without carrying water. The term run , more fully fire run , has for at least the past century been used by local fire departments in the USA for a call-out to the site of a fire. It was once common for fire departments or volunteer hose companies to give exhibitions of their prowess at carnivals or similar events. [...] These competiti...

Let's say in this scenario: Someone asked me for help to do certain thing. I gave a negative response. That person then asked for the reason. I responded with: "Had you had asked me nicely ...." What I meant to say was "If you had/have asked me nicely ..." Question: Does the former have the same meaning as the later? Edit: Just to make sure there are not any differences: My response was a statement, not a question to that person. Answer "Had you had asked me nicely ...." is incorrect. It should be EITHER: If you had asked me nicely... OR Had you asked me nicely... which both mean the same thing.

I am a non-native speaker of English. When communicating with a professor, would it be better to use could you kindly send me the document or could you please send me the document ? I know both are correct, but which one shows more respect?

When talking about money, people often write "$1", but read this as "one dollar", rather than "dollar one". (Same with "£1" and "one pound"). Are there any other situations, besides currency, in which items are written in a different order in which they are spoken or read aloud? Answer Sometimes this happens with other units of measurement, particularly when the unit is squared. That is, we might write "12 ft 2 ", but say "twelve square feet," or "10 mi 2 " as "ten square miles." This example isn't as universal as currency – that is, no one says "dollar one," but some might say "ten miles square."

Simon Jenkins, in The Guardian online newspaper , writes: How can the British Tommy, the jolly tar or the air ace confront the dreaded foreigner, when a defence secretary cannot say boo to George Osborne? Be a man, Fox, they cry. The black spot is under the plate. The pistol is in the gents. I googled for the exact phrase, and the only hit is this article. Googling for "black spot under plate" just gets me a lot of stuff about toenails. What on earth could he mean? Answer Perhaps the black spot is an allusion to Treasure Island ? Perhaps the meaning is that (Liam) Fox (defence secretary) should quit (i.e. accept the black spot).

What is the common origin of these and similar phrases, and how are they used? I've seen them in both silly and serious contexts. If guns get outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. If freedom gets outlawed, only outlaws will be free. If evolution gets outlawed, only outlaws will evolve. Answer “If [X] gets outlawed, only outlaws will [X′]” is what you might call a snowclone : A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants" Classic examples of snowclones are “[X] is the new [Y]” (like “gray is the new black”) and “If Eskimos have [N] words for snow, [X] surely have [Y] words for [Z]”. I searched using the Google Books Ngram Viewer for “ outlawed only outlaws ” and found this saying had no examples until the late 1960s. The examples shown from that period are invariably the versio...