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Consider the sentence below: During this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of me. In this hour, you can obtain everything for yourself and for the others for the asking. Is the person who is mentioning the sentence basically saying that " I will grant every one of your request that you make to me during this hour "?

There's a construction in English that allows us to form a compound adjective from a noun and a past participle. Examples: This is a volunteer-built home. Our newspaper is student-run . After the spill, beaches were littered with oil-soaked birds. The way it works is pretty transparent: [subject noun] + [verb participle] modifies [object noun]. However, it occurred to me that we can't just plug any subject, object, and verb into this formula. Some sound completely wrong/impossible: *This is a cat-used litterbox. *I wanted to buy my daughter the most child-wanted toy. *I was uncomfortable lying down in the hobo-slept bed. Thinking about it, I couldn't come up with a clear rule that determines why some words can fit this construction acceptably and some can't. Why is that? Answer First, hobo-slept doesn’t work because (in most dialects) you can’t say “I slept the bed”. But I think there are a couple of different things at work in your other examples. In the first s...

For walking/running you have sprint , for talking/whispering you have blurt . How about standing up ? Example: He [...] and rushed out of the living room. His suddenness startled me. Answer To spring may convey the idea of a sudden and quick motion: To move upward or forward in a single quick motion or a series of such motions. he sprang up and rushed...

A new study has shown that millions of pieces of junk floating in space could be a big hazard for satellites orbiting Earth. Is there an implicit " which is " in front of floating in space? Why is " which is " not written?

Eisenhower used it constantly to fend off reporters. Is there a term to describe this type of phrase? Answer I think it's a rather extreme case of litotes. From the New Oxford American Dictionary : ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry , meaning you'll be glad ).

I found on a research paper the following statement: Is any particular images satisfying the requirements ? I thought any can only be used with singular terms. So I was surprised when I've seen "images" rather than "image". Am I correct? Answer I would take that to be a typo. The verb should agree with the noun: Is any particular image satisfying the requirements? Are any particular images satisfying the requirements? Any can be safely used in both cases. Have a look at these example sentences from Wiktionary : Choose any items you want. [ items — plural] Any person may apply. [ person — singular] I haven't got any money. [ money — uncountable] Merriam-Webster defines any as follows : one or some indiscriminately of whatever kind [...] one, some, or all indiscriminately of whatever quantity [...] Emphasis mine. Lastly, note psmears' comment that it might be more appropriate to use present simple rather than present continuous in your case (t...

I am trying to write a grammar rule that will be able to identify when to use someone or anyone , and I got confused. I couldn't find any clear way to do this. For instance, "anyone can do it" is totally different from "someone can do it", but since both are pronouns referring to unknown entities, it's extremely difficult to predict the correctness of the grammar. Any suggestions or am I missing something? Answer You are correct. There is no clear way to do this. Robin Lakoff's paper entitled "Some Reasons Why There Can't Be some ~ any Rule" is precisely about this situation. Short summary of a few of the reasons: Any is a Negative Polarity Item , but some isn't. Many environments (like questions) allow NPIs like any , but don't disallow some . There are several kinds of any , including NPI any , and "Free Choice" any , as in Any idiot can solve this problem.

Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? Which one of the following is correct? Management gets its ideas from its employees. Management gets their ideas from their employees.

From what I know "have something from someone" means to know secret or damaging knowledge about someone, I was reading this article on espn.com and it is an excerpt from that article Carl Pavano for $40 million, A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million and Kei Igawa for $20 million have nothing on Rodriguez for $275 million. I don't understand what "have nothing on" means here. Even though it is fairly obvious what the article is about, and what the comparison is here, but I cant quite figure out the meaning. Answer ODO on have nothing on : have (got) nothing on informal be not nearly as good as:      bright though his three sons were, they had nothing on Sally ( have nothing or something on ) know nothing (or something) discreditable or incriminating about:      I am not worried—they’ve got nothing on me The first sense is obviously the one to interpret the phrase as here, although it needs a bit of nuancing to match the context: The Yankees aren't ready to commen...

I'm wondering about the difference in meaning, if any, between the two sentences in each of the following examples. Example 1. a. If he was a serious leader, tackling the debt would have been a pillar of the speech. (Corpus of Contemporary American English) b. If he was a serious leader, tackling the debt would be a pillar of the speech. Example 2. a. I am sure your father would have been upset if his boss got a gigantic raise and he got nothing. (Corpus of Contemporary American English) b. I am sure your father would be upset if his boss got a gigantic raise and he got nothing.

What's the term to express "left money in my account" ? I found BALANCE, REMAINING SUM and REMAINING BALANCE. Are they identical? Thanks! Answer When speaking of a bank account, one normally uses 'balance', but everyone would perfectly understand what you meant if you said 'sum' or 'amount', which in this sense are synonyms. When talking about the notes in your wallet and coin in your purse or pocket, however, one wouldn't use 'balance'. The usual term would be 'amount'.

Backstory: Back in 2013 the American Dialect Society appointed because Word of the Year. People had begun using a new syntax: noun-phrases and adjectives could now follow because . In response Geoffrey Pullum on the Language Log corrected all dictionaries everywhere and argued that because is not a conjunction but a preposition. With this new usage because has not changed or added to its part-of-speech. It is simply acting ever more like the preposition that it is. That's all old news. Recently I saw a similar use of which : The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was hovering over the surface of the deep, which, ugh. ( Source. ) Simply by rules of analogy, would this usage make which a preposition as well? *6/29/17 Edit: I've found another sighting : That was it. I walked out (no one clapped, which , fair), and for the next half hour I sat in the quiet dark, as three more people took their turns. I peeked through the curtain a few times. One person was lying down. ...

Consignment is when you leave goods at a third party for them to sell as their own, and when it sells they pay you an agreed amount. In this case the third party is called a consignment store Is there a word for the opposite of this? i.e. when you keep the goods on hand and a third party advertises it as their own and sells it (takes payment), and then when it sells, you deliver it to the customer. What would the third party be called in this case? I'm finding that the listed antonyms for consignment are lacking: holding , keeping , and retention all seem to lose quite a bit of the nuance that consignment has. Answer That's ' drop shipping '. Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. If you don't label the goods with your brand then it's 'whit...

I want to write a sentence with three city/county pairs. I normally use a comma between a city/country like so: I live in Sydney, Australia. But what is proper when describing three places? I want to separate the city/country with a comma and then another comma between each pair, but it looks wrong. I have lived in Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. Answer You could use a comma to separate the cities from the countries, and a semicolon to separate the locations. See the example of the semicolon being used as a super-comma given at this The Oatmeal comic : I have lived in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Paris, France. Note that the list ends with "Paris, France". Even if the sentence continues after the list, there should be no further list-related punctuation. For example: I have lived in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Paris, France at various times.

Is there a word in English that encapsulates the condition of being blasé, sort of in the same vein as "weariness" encapsulates the condition of being weary? blasé: having or showing a lack of excitement or interest in something especially because it has become familiar Merriam-Webster I would like a word that captures that idea of disinterest due to routine or familiarity. Answer It turns out that jadedness is considered to be a word: it appears in MW and Dictionary.com and has over 4,000 hits on Google Books : feeling or showing a lack of interest and excitement caused by having done or experienced too much of something [MW for jaded ] Another option, apathy , is much more popular, but the routine/familiarity aspect of the disinterest is not as clearly implied: the feeling of not having much emotion or interest [ MW ] Google Ngrams shows that the use of jadedness is on the rise , but compared to apathy , it barely even registers:

Not being a native speaker of English, one of those words that tripped me up is “cocoa”. Besides having its vowels inverted from “cacao” ; it also is pronounced exactly the same as “coco”, whereas “cacao” isn't pronounced “caca” and “boa” isn't pronounced “bo”. So why is the “a” in “cocoa” silent? Phonetic spelling from a dictionary: cocoa |ˈkōkō| noun 1 a chocolate powder ... coco |ˈkōkō| noun ( pl. -cos) 1 [usu. as adj. ] coconut : coco matting ... cacao |kəˈkou; kəˈkāō| noun ( pl. -os) 1 beanlike seeds from which cocoa ... boa |ˈbōə| noun 1 a constrictor snake ... Answer A few sources indicate it's due to initial confusion between coco , cocoa , and cocao . According to Dictionary.com , the confusion started circa 1545 when cocao was misspelled as cocoa . But, according to the Online Eytmology Dictionary , the pronunciation issue occurred with the 1707 printing of Johnson's Dictionary that ran coco next to cocoa , stirring confusion between the two words.

Which is correct: me and my wife or my wife and me ? The sentence in which this is used is Ms. Smith informed me and my wife that she was afraid of being accosted.

Chen Guangcheng is a special student at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at the New York University School of Law. This essay was translated from the Chinese. Why don't they write: "This essay was translated from Chinese"? (Omitting the "the" before "Chinese".) Answer The name of a language is sometimes preceded by the in this way, particularly in academic texts. It seems to be an ellipsed form of the Chinese orginal .

I am watching a UK TV programme called "The Apprentice". The candidates have to sell guided tours. Some candidates are terrible at giving these tours. They fluff their lines, or they haven't researched, or they make up "facts". Watching their ineptitude cause a feeling of discomfort. What is the best word for this discomfort? The German word schadenfreude means roughly "the pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others". The word I want would be almost an antonym of schadenfreude - "the discomfort derived from the mosfortunes of others". Except not the misfortunes but the uselessness of others. Answer vicarious embarrassment The very uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while you watch someone else embarrassing themselves. This feeling is often intensified when the person embarrassing themself is not aware of how embarrassing their behavior is. In this case it is more like you are feeling the embarrassment on their behalf. Facepal...

Is it correct to use "softwares"? For example: There are various video conversion softwares in the market. Answer For all I know, software is uncountable, so it's perfectly fine to say "there is various software". If you don't like how that sounds (I know many people who don't), you can always go with "there are various software packages", "there are various pieces of software" or something like that. An even simpler alternative would be "programs". Depending on the context of your sample sentence, even "video converters" might work, if it's already clear that you are talking about software. Edit: I have checked Merriam-Webster , Wiktionary and The Free Dictionary , none of them mention softwares at all.

What is the difference between a catch and a handle? Ain't they the same thing? But here it said they got no handle but a catch: It was very dark and dusty and draughty and they stepped from rafter to rafter without a word except when they whispered to one another, "We're opposite your attic now" or "this must be halfway through our house". And neither of them stumbled and the candles didn't go out, and at last they came where they could see a little door in the brick wall on their right. There was no bolt or handle on this side of it, of course, for the door had been made for getting in, not for getting out; but there was a catch (as there often is on the inside of a cupboard door) which they felt sure they would be able to turn. Answer This diagram may help: Some might argue that the catch is actually the piece that the part labeled "catch" goes into, but I'd call that a "stop." The catch that is described probably would look s...

I find it easy to pronounce words like full (/fʊl/, dark l) and light (/laɪt/, light l), but when the letter l appears in the middle of a word, things become tricky. I can hear different pronunciations from some native speakers, e.g. delete /dɪˈliːt/. Almost all pronounce it as a light l, i.e. /dɪ-ˈliːt/. delegate /ˈdelɪgeɪt/. Some pronounce it as /ˈdel-lɪgeɪt/ (as a dark l and a light l), and some pronounce it just as /ˈde-lɪgeɪt/ (light l only). silly /ˈsɪli/. Like the "delegate" case, both /ˈsɪl-li/ and /ˈsɪ-li/ can be heard. My question is: is there any pronunciation rule for "l in the middle of a word"? Thank you. PS: I have found some explanations after googling: Rachel's English: L in the Middle of a Word . This video suggests that there's only a light l sound by taking "elongate" for example. Wikipedia: Velarization . Seems it hasn't clearly described the case for "l in the middle of a word". A common example of a velariz...

I cannot understand the usage of this tense. For example, what does "I will have done this task" mean? Does it mean the effects of this task will be remaining in the future? On a more general note, please tell me in which situations I can use this tense. Answer I will have done this task when you arrive means I am expressing my certainty that by the time you come, the task will be completed. This construction is used to show that something will be finished when something else happens in the future.

I find the use of the word "inspecific" very natural. It makes sense and flows easily in sentences I speak and write (to myself at least). However, upon inspection, it is apparently not a valid English word , instead being nonspecific (A.H.D. 5), unspecific (O.D.O.) or something of that sort. We use the in- prefix to negate the primary meanings of words very often, for instance in the words "inadequate" and "invariable". I feel like ignoring all of the signs telling me to use "non-specific" instead of "inspecific" and go with what I find right. What about you? Do you find the word "inspecific" right or wrong ? Why can't we negate it, like we negate many other words, simply through prefixing an in- ? Also, as a rule of thumb, Latin words usually seem to take the in- prefix when negated, whereas Germanic words seem to take the un- suffix . Variable , adequate and specific have Latin origins according to The Online Etym...

In freedom fighter the fighter supports freedom. In fire fighter the fighter fights fire. How do you determine when it is the first or the second case? What is the meaning of spam fighter ? @ Hellion , as the afterthought and in response to comments by @Kosmonaut, and as a person who has lived in a dozen of countries, in the East and the West, the positive connotation is highly subjective and culture-specific. How should I use "spam fighter" to be understood: in negative connotation? in positive one? How to interpret, for example the "culture fighter", "education fighter", "religion fighter"? One could tell that this depends on context. And if I see this as nicks on the internet? Answer The safe way to interpret this sort of thing, especially if the label is self-applied, is to assume the most positive possible connotation: fighting against something bad, or for something good. If someone chooses to label themselves or their product as a spa...

So like, I had this teacher? And he's like, "You're late?" And I'm like, "There's like other people late too?" I've always cringed at the word "like" strewn about in a spoken sentence. Well now I've seen it in print, right in the middle of an otherwise articulate National Geographic article. Not once, but twice. As far as I could tell it was not being used tongue in cheek. In the Feb '10 issue, in the article about the Congo Chimps. See last two paragraphs here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/02/congo-chimps/foer-text/2 "Sure enough, they built their nests directly over our tents," says Morgan. "I was like, This is great! But our trackers were like, No way, man, this is very bad news." "People were like, Curiosity: Hmmm, how do you define that?" says Sanz, 34, now a professor at Washington University in St. Louis." When I read that I had to shake my head and go back to re-read those sen...

Is it possible to have a list of items separated by commas where the last item in the list is not preceded by 'and'? For example, "the river runs through dense bush, towns, cities, farms, dams, until it exits into the sea." Or does it need to be "runs through dense bush, towns, cities, farms and dams, until it exits into the sea." Answer Is it possible? Certainly: you did it yourself. Should you? Eh, it's a judgment call. Technically, a list should have an and (or an or ) before the last item, but leaving it out give the sentence a breathless, urgent quality that can be what you want in a dramatic narrative. In formal writing, I would never do it.

I hope someone, once and for all, can clarify (with examples) the difference in usage of will vs. would vs. would have vs. will have . Answer This question is quite broad, and I find it quite hard to come up with an answer that is comprehensive yet succinct, technically impeccable yet easy to understand. At the risk of failing miserably, I'll give it a try nonetheless. Will , would , and have are auxiliary verbs used to form different tenses . Will is used to form Future Simple, to describe something that takes place in the future. I will be there. ⇒ I am not there. But I plan to be there at some point in the future. I will do that. ⇒ I am not doing it right now. But I plan to do it at some point in the future. Will have is used to form Future Perfect, to describe something that not simply takes place in the future, but is completed ("perfected") at some reference point in the future (which is usually specified). I will have done that by the end of the week. ⇒ I wi...

I often hear the usage "don't got" in American English as spoken on TV programmes. Recently I was watching season four of "Prison Break" and one character, an Asian computer wizard , repeatedly used "don't got". E.g. 9:48 into episode two: Not if you don't got me However, I've also heard from people who say that this formation is not used much in real speech. How common is the "I don't got money" or even "He don't got a dog" style formation in real American speech?

Is there an idiom for someone who gets what he deserved? Like someone receiving punishment for his evil deeds or someone getting awarded for his good deeds? Answer I think the most common phrase I hear that works for good and bad is karma (is a bitch/beauty). (in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. A common set of idioms to reflect the results of bad/good karma.

I found this phrase in my biology textbook (emphasis added): ...in relation to Earth's history, 100,000 years or even a million years is the blink of an eye. The part of the phrase in question is the word "the" in italics. In this context, doesn't it make more sense to use the indefinite article "a" instead of the definite article "the", since there can be more than one "blink of an eye"? Is "a blink of an eye" incorrect in this context? Are idioms like this exceptions to normal definite and indefinite article usage, even though the literal meaning of the idiom makes better sense otherwise? Answer As has been pointed out, the overwhelming form of the idiom is the blink of an eye . So there's no issue of correctness involved. The questioner, however, had some specific questions that deserve attention, since they suggest some underlying grammatical misunderstandings. Specifically, In this context, doesn't it make more s...

She caught sight of Mr. Diggory’s feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky. Harry could see the floating skull reflected twice in her enormous, glassy eyes. (p134, Harry Potter 4, US edition) NB – The floating skull is an ill omen, which a gangster launched into the sky by using magic, to show that his group is going to do bad things. The sign is illuminating the entire wood like some grisly neon sign. ‘ She ’ is an innocent passerby with big eyes. Mr. Diggory is a kind of policeman who thinks she is the gangster. I’d like to know what the ‘twice’ means. When I ran into the sentence, I thought she blinked and the sign reflected two times in her eyes, though there’s no ‘blink’ like expression around the sentence. Then, another idea occurred to me that the sign reflected in her two eyes, one by one. Would you give me the right meaning of the ‘twice’? Answer I think it is meant to refer to one reflect...

I've been wondering if there is a word to express that something was current at the time of its creation. It (in bold) should plug-in into a sentence similar to: The results are based on an analyses that deal with the then-current methods. As far as I can tell, both "contemporary" and "current" refer to now, whereas I would like to express something was "current" in the past. Answer It's true that current refers to now, but for contemporary and its related terms, such as contemporaneous , this is not true. It's a false assumption based on the fact that those terms are used now , so you interpret them as now , but they are used now, because if something is contemporaneous (see below for term explanation) it is related to us . Contemporary , for example, per se means " living or occurring at the same time ". There is no actual reference to the present, past or future, but rather to the co-presence, in a given time, with something/so...

"Do me a solid" means doing something helpful for a friend. (I'm going off of Urban Dictionary definition, which I assume is accurate). What would be a good colloquialism to describe the opposite of that phrase? E.g. a friend (someone who you expect to do you a solid) does to you something unhelpful or worse.

When my coworker in the US asks me "How are you?" I usually answer "I'm fine", but the last time I told him "I'm good" and he replied "I'm glad to hear that". It looks like "I'm fine" means "I'm OK" but not quite good as "I'm good". What is the difference between them and if the score of happy is 10, what is the score of "I'm fine" and "I'm good"? (higher score means happier) Answer In common usage, "I'm fine" is a generally positive way of saying "There's nothing particularly wrong"; yet it also means that there isn't anything superlatively right, well, or good. "I'm good", however, is a positive assertion that your personal situation and the events surrounding it are supererogatory compared to your usual state of being. That is, by describing your state of being as "good", you suggest that your personal sit...

Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun when referring back to a singular noun phrase? Each student should save his questions until the end. Each student should save her questions until the end. Added 10/27/2019 We could use an answer from the transgender community. There are none amongst the first 23 answers. I know there's a term (in America), but i can't remember what it is. Answer Singular they enjoys a long history of usage in English and can be used here: "Each student should save their questions until the end." However, “singular they ” also enjoys a long history of criticism. If you are anxious about being criticized (for what is in fact a perfectly grammatical construction) I would advise rewording to avoid having to use a gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun. Some rewording strategies that can be employed: Use a plural noun: Students should save their questions until the end. Use the formal one : One should save one's questio...

I'm looking for an expression similar to "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." This phrase means to make the best out of a bad situation. I am looking for a phrase for when someone did do something great out of a bad situation. I think it goes something like "Was given sh** and made ." To add a few more details, the situation in particular I'm thinking of is a person who works for an organization that has not been doing well (financial troubles, staff turnover, lots of infighting). They have continually been doing excellent things despite the bad situation. However, they are not necessarily responsible for fixing the problems themselves (to say, the problems haven't been fixed yet) - they have just done a good job of working with/around them. Answer [She] knew how to make a gourmet meal out of leftovers. An example, admittedly of the literal usage, can be found in 'Beyond Passing' By Elaine Galindo The parallel form would be She made a g...

I am looking for a word that incorporates all, or most, of the following (when referring to a sentence or a piece of technical literature): Highly academic Not useful (despite being technically correct) Overly verbose/eloquent Superfluous (to be honest, this seems to incorporate the rest, but I want to see if there is a better word here) Sample sentence (I hear it's required): There are many ____ white-paper definitions which only serve to dazzle the reader with the author's purported intelligence. Answer The two most common, apart from Lux's pretentious , are going to be in the manner of a pedant , hence a. excessively concerned with minutiae. b. needlessly displaying academic learning. and ( originally ) characterized by pomp and splendor. ( now the primary sense ) affectedly solemn and self-important. You'd use the first if the important aspect was how unimportant the information being shared was, the later if you wanted to emphasize the (undeserved) self-importanc...

I have heard there is a difference between movies 'based on' verses those 'inspired by' true events. Does one relationship with the 'true events' have more license than another, or is it just the director's discretion as to which phrase to use? Answer Both are sufficiently vague that the author can use them however he/she wants. Both wordings could mean anything from "nothing like the actual events" on up to "exactly like the actual events". So the director / author can and will decide which best fits their marketing motivations, in a matter of connotation and style. I could imagine that a more artistic movie would use the term "inspired by", and an action movie would connect better with "based on" for example. Outside the context of art, I think "based on" does imply a closer resemblance to fact.

Sorry if the terms are not right. Is it correct to say "Since burgers are edible, then burgers can be eaten." ? Should it not instead be "If burgers are edible, then burgers can be eaten." or "Since burgers are edible, burgers can be eaten." ? Answer Sure it's correct. Since/Then is functionally equivalent to If/Then. An accepted meaning of "since" is "because" or "inasmuch as". If I can say "because burgers are edible, then burgers can be eaten," then I can say "since burgers are edible..." "Since burgers are edible, burgers can be eaten." is simply a case of omitting "then", much like a contraction omits one or more letters in a word. ETA: Quite apart from correctness is the meaning . "Because/Since" and "If" are not the same. "Since burgers are edible..." makes the assumption or states the fact of edibility. So does "Because burgers are edible...

I'm looking for an arcane or obscure word to describe a person's daily record. Words like: account, agenda, appointment book, chronicle, diary, daily record, daybook, engagement book, journal, log, minutes, notebook, record work, but are common. Do you have something more obscure? Answer Ephemeris has an obsolete meaning synonymous with this, and it certainly has a solid arcane flavor to it. Also rather lovely is noctuary , which is the opposite of "diary", logging what happens during the night rather than the day.

Which is correct: “prefer X to Y” or “prefer X over Y”? I prefer walking to taking the bus I prefer walking rather than taking the bus I prefer walking but taking the bus Wikipedia reads: "In grammar, a part of speech (also a word class, a lexical class, or a lexical category) is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question." Is taking the same part of speech in the sentences above?

Context: I am looking for a term to indicate a time period of 3 weeks/21 days For instance, a "fortnightly" event would occur every 2 weeks/14 days. My Usage : The "Read for the Visually Challenged" is a {fill in word for 3 weeks} event as part of CSR initiatives organised by our comapny. When I searched online, I stumbled upon Triweekly , an adjective with two entirely different meanings occurring or appearing three times a week occurring or appearing every three weeks [Merriam-Webster] Ideally, I mean #2, but will this create a confusion? Why does it mean 2 different time periods? Is there another word to indicate a period of exactly 3 weeks? P.S: I am not looking for "monthly" since this event is conducted every 3 weeks and it could be possible that it occurs in the first and fourth week of the same month. Answer Confusingly (according to dictionary definitions) the same is also true of biweekly ; bimonthly ; and biyearly . All of them can mean once ...

The solution is to foo, producing what is called a bar. or The solution is to foo, producing what is called a "bar". Should I use generally use one over the other; and if so, which one? If either is acceptable, then which style guides (if any) have an explicit preference?

If two people want to buy a car together, would they go half on the car or halves. Example: Let's go half on this car or Let's go halves on this car?

What is the difference between a housewife and a homemaker ? When can we use housewife , and when can we use homemaker ? I am a housewife. I am a homemaker. Which of the above examples is correct for a married woman who is unemployed. She is filing out a registration form, applying for a ration card in India. Which of these options should she write under 'Occupation'?

Isn't there a difference (or aren't there differences) with the following? I only drive to work on Fridays I drive only to work on Fridays I drive to work only on Fridays I drive to work on Fridays only Though C and D may be the same. Don't people usually mean C or D even if they say A? I ask because in "Word Crimes", Weird Al says "You should only write in emoticons" but I think he should have said "You should write only in emoticons" or "you should write in emoticons only", right?

Hey native English speakers, My question is regarding the use of the definite article before a person's name, as in Realtime with the Bill Maher on HBO ( youtu.be/I9HCbOmwndA?t=8m40s ) or in the Metallica song "The Unforgiven II": If you can understand the me Then, I can understand the you I suppose these must be grammatical. If so, what are they supposed to mean? If not, why are native speakers making such sentences (especially Metallica; I mean that song is going to become history, right?)?

Can you forget something somewhere? I expect that much more common is I have left my book at home. But, based on other languages where it is quite common (and based on the fact that I somehow feel an intention hidden under the I have left ), can you also use (in general, or GB/US/CA/AU specific) the following form? I have forgotten my book at home. If a pupil says the first sentence (with leave ) in school, will the teacher interpret it as I have intentionally left my book at home. or I have accidentally left my book at home. ? Answer There is nothing wrong with using forget in the context of articles you have accidentally left somewhere, especially informally. If you say I forgot my book at home. nobody will give your usage a second's thought. They'll simply understand that you don't have your book, and why. It's also shorter and less fussy than saying you "accidentally left your book at home," which may smack of over-explanation. Remember, it's i...

How did the expression "hands down" come to mean "without a doubt?"

When you are writing about the seasons, should you capitalize their names? For example, would you say: I love the colors of the leaves in Autumn. Or should you say: I love the colors of the leaves in autumn. Answer The names of seasons should be left uncapitalized. However capitalization may be used to achieve a poetic effect.

Does "Feel it in my bones" sound natural? I have never seen or heard any native speakers use something like that, except in a subtitle of a movie I watched long ago. What are other phrases, or common ways to state something similar?

In my cover letter I want to write that I am a graduate student in statistics. But I am not sure about the "in". So what is correct? I am a graduate student in statistics. I am a graduate student of statistics. Answer I would say in Statistics. The reason I say this is because you would say: I am majoring in Statistics. Or in response to the question: What do you do for a living? You might say, "I'm in plastics." You can say I'm a student of Statistics, and hence, it wouldn't be wrong to say graduate student of Statistics. But, I don't believe it is the common usage (in American English).

Wikipedia gives the following, with plenty others ommitted by me, as some of the features of Cockney English: T-glottalisation: Use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions,including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently for /k/ and /p/, and occasionally for mid-word consonants. For example, Richard Whiteing spelt "Hyde Park" as Hy' Par. Th-fronting: /θ/ can become [f] in any environment. [mɛfs] "maths". /ð/ can become [v] in any environment except word-initially when it can be [ð, ð̞, d, l, ʔ, ∅]. [bɒvə] "bother," [dæɪ] "they." H-dropping: Sivertsen considers that [h] is to some extent a stylistic marker of emphasis in Cockney. Rhoticity : A rhotic (pronounced /ˈroʊtɨk/, sometimes /ˈrɒtɨk/) speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not. That is, rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ in all positions, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only ...

If person A gives person B a recommendation, can you call A recommender and B recommendee — or are these words made up? I've seen both forms used in everyday language (e.g. magazines), but never in a dictionary or grammar book, or in literature. Also, what is the process of creating recommendee or recommender out of recommendation called? Answer It depends what kind of reference we're talking about. Referrals , as suggested by @Autoresponder, is the normal term for "unsolicited" endorsements - for example, A is a satisfied customer who suggests to others that they should consider using B's products/services. Reference (sometimes referee ) is normally used in contexts where B suggest to someone that they should contact A for a "third-party" (in principle, unbiased) opinion on the quality of B's products/services. There are many other types of recommendation, obviously. Proposing someone as the chairman of a group you're in, or as a suitable ...

Does that kind of numbering style have a common name or names? To be fair, it is really more of an "identifier" since it certainly not a scalar (one-dimensional) number. It isn't fair to call it a floating point number either. If I were to hazard two guesses, I would say: a document identifier (but that seems so vague) a multi-dotted number (silly, yes, but it gets the points across) So in reality, I've got nothing. Answer I think "section number" makes sense. Interestingly, Wikipedia's page on Section Numbers redirects to ISO 2145 : International standard ISO 2145 defines a typographic convention for the "numbering of divisions and subdivisions in written documents". It applies to any kind of document, including manuscripts, books, journal articles, and standards. So, this standard defines the number format I'm looking for. Great. (Note that to satisfy this standard, only Arabic numerals can be used; letters and roman numerals are outsid...

The first time I heard it ( When You Believe by Leon Jackson), my grammar instinct screamed "When all you hear are fear and lies." But then again, I feel that the phrase "all you hear are" sounds a little odd, "all you hear is" sounds perfectly fine to me. But maybe I am wrong. Would you use is or are in such a phrase? Answer "All" here actually means "The only thing," as in: The only thing you hear is fear and lies. So, for me, the original line is better. *All is singular when used as the subject with a linking verb or when it means the only thing or everything: All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth ; all we found was candy wrappers and soda cans.

I saw this: "Don't you wish your girlfriend was grammatically correct like me?" I'm wondering should it be: "Don't you wish your girlfriend was grammatically correct​ , like me?" Answer I found this comma guidance online: Use a comma near the end of a sentence to separate contrasted coordinate elements or to indicate a distinct pause or shift . He was merely ignorant, not stupid. The chimpanzee seemed reflective, almost human. You're one of the senator's close friends, aren't you? The speaker seemed innocent, even gullible. That guidance suggests that a comma might be appropriate. Moreover, the same website goes on to say: Don't put a comma after the main clause when a dependent (subordinate) clause follows it (except for cases of extreme contrast). Incorrect: She was late for class, because her alarm clock was broken. Incorrect: The cat scratched at the door, while I was eating. Correct: She was still quite upset, although she had won...

Can I use two colons in a sentence? A typical example would be something like the following: Note: I have substantial experience with the following languages: Python, Java, C++, and Perl. I have often wanted to write something similar but have been forcing rewrites in order to get around using two colons in the same sentence. The general pattern is: Note: [sentence with a colon]. Is this use of two colons acceptable? (This question is similar but distinct from Can I use a colon twice in one sentence? due to that question's focus on colons and lists.)

Time magazine’s October 22nd issue carries the article titled “Paul Ryan on the campaign trail: More performer than wonk .” The article begins with the following lines: “Mitt Romney's running mate was doing what he likes best: wonking out ." I'm kind of a powerpoint guy, so I hope you'll bear with me," Paul Ryan told about 2,000 people at the University of Central Florida gymnasium in Orlando in late September.” OALED defines “wonk” as noun, AmE, informal, disapproving, meaning (1) a person who works too hard and is considered boring. (2) a person who takes too much interest in the less important details of political policy. So I surmise the meaning of “wonk” in the headline as defined in (2) of the above. Please correct me if I’m wrong. However, I don’t understand what “wonking out” means in the beginning line of the body copy. OALED doesn’t show usage of “wonk” as a verb, while Readers English Japanese Dictionary at hand shows the usage of wonk” as vi. meaning ‘...

Suppose we are talking about the numbers 1, 2, ... , 10. When we use the phrase between 1 and 10 , do we include the end-points 1 and 10? Is there any difference if we say from 1 to 10 instead? Answer Saying “between 1 and 10” is somewhat ambiguous; usually people will say “between 1 and 10 inclusive” or “between 1 and 10 exclusive” to clarify when there is no other context. Both “between…and…” and “from…to…” are usually considered inclusive unless otherwise specified.

No more than four syllables, more PC than Indians. EDIT: I arbitrarily chose four syllables because any more seemed like a mouthful. I like to be PC and not have to stumble over 6+ syllables. Answer I know Indians and they prefer to be called Indians . Their reservations have names like Navajo Indian Reservation . Any office or bureau for them would have the name Indian in it. Here is a good article that discusses the Indians’ own preferences about what they would like to be called — and not called. So not only is it not offensive but it’s actually preferred, so go with that. Here are some government bureaus run by and for the Indian population in America. Not sure they would choose to have an offensive name in their office titles. Added based on comments: Yes, Columbus coined the term probably (there is talk that Indian comes from an Indian word too). He was looking for the (East) Indies, though, not India itself. Yes, there may be confusion about whether the person is from Ind...

Example: The whole family got together __ Christmas. Meaning: Christmas is the reason for the family getting together Answer The word usage is wholly dependent upon what you are trying to say with the sentence. Note that the differences, while real, are also minor. Most readers would guess the reason for the gathering. The whole family got together at Christmas. This implies that the family got together around Christmas time, but does not suggest that Christmas was the reason for the gathering. This can be seen in the following example: The whole family got together at Christmas for Uncle Benny's funeral. If you are trying to say the family gathered to celebrate the holidays, then you might say The whole family got together for Christmas. Or The whole family got together to celebrate Christmas.

What is the correct way to say a product can be bought with a discount of 30%? Is it: “Buy this by 30% off the regular price.”? What I want to say is that a 30% discount is being given, so the product will cost 70% of the regular price. There seems to be a difference between of and off . Will this wording be misunderstood to mean that the product can be bought by 30% of the regular price instead of 30% “off” the regular price? How do I say it correctly and without creating doubt?