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When I want to go out to eat, I say: "let's go to a restaurant," but when I want to go play on the sand I say: "let's go to the beach." Why is that true? In both cases I'm talking about doing a single activity, that could take place at multiple locations, but I'm able to say "the beach" as though it is a specific beach. Answer Because that is how English speakers talk (and write). There are things that a city has (if they have them) that are used with the , even if there are more than one and a particular one is not being discussed. This is the case for beach . Compare other things that cities or towns or other populated areas have, sometimes in multiples (more than one): the bank the library the hospital the pharmacy the grocery store the park the beach For these common locations of a populated area, we use the , even if there's more than one in that city, town, neighborhood, etc. We are not necessarily specifying which bank, libr...

Which one is the correct form? "all they need is some words" "all they need are some words" Answer "Some words" is a plural object in this sentence, so it will be "all they need are some words". If it was "a word", it would be "all they need is a word".

What's a word for a person who studies many subjects? Often, the words we use to describe this type of person implies that he/she knows little about each subject (e.g. jack-of-all-trades, dilettante). I'd like to avoid that negative meaning. e.g. Steve was a true ________; he was well-versed in everything from theoretical physics to gastronomy. Answer Per Wikipedia : A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. You could also use Renaissance Man to hearken back to the time when being a generalist didn't make you a " "jack of all trades, master of none" . Notice that Wikipedia redirects "Renaissance Man" to "Polymath".

Are collective nouns always plural, or are certain ones singular? Which is correct: The rest of the staff is or are? The rest of my family is or are? I've done a bit of research and I understand that "family" should be preceded by singular or plural verb depending on how you want it to be treated. For example, His family is one of the oldest in the county. and His family are all doctors. These are apparently both correct. But in the following instance, could a grammar expert tell me which should be be? When his family are abducted or When his family is abducted ? Thanks.

For example, what is the difference between the following two sentences: I had a bad day I had had a bad day Answer 'Had' is the past form as well as the past participle of 'have'. The first sentence is in the simple past tense which typically has this form: Subject + past form of verb I had (past tense of have) a bad day. I reached (past tense form of 'reach') the office late. The simple past is used normally to denote an action that is completed in the past. The second sentence is in the past perfect tense which has this form: Subject + had + past participle of verb If two non-consecutive events happened in the past, this tense is used to show the first event. By the time we arrived, the party had begun. = The party began. Then we arrived. By the time we arrived, they had eaten all the food! = They ate all the food; then we arrived. I had had a bad day already, and I arrived home to find that it had been robbed! = I was having a bad day. During the day m...

I would like to know if there is any rule to know where prepositions should be placed in questions or clauses. For example, I have heard many sentences and some of them put the preposition in the start and others in the end, but I don't know if there's any rule for this or any recommendation. Where are you from ? Who are you talking to ? To whom are you talking? He's the person I was speaking to . He's the person to whom I was speaking. This is the place from where you should start.

The existential 'there' is usually followed by a form of the verb 'to be', used as a pure copula. For instance, rather than saying, a wrench is on the bench , you'd say there's a wrench on the bench . Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002) list a number of syncategorematic/copular verbs which can also follow the existential 'there', eg: There used to be a house ... there's supposed to be a plot ... there seems to have been a mistake ... there's said to be a ghost ... They don't make a distinction which I've noticed about what I call 'emergent-type' verbs, always used in the past, describing, as I see it, an action which has emerged, but seems as yet incomplete, eg: ...there arose such as clatter ... there appeared a great multitude ... there emerged, out of the freshly tilled soil, ... I noticed today another type which I hadn't clocked before ... the use of the intransitive after 'Once upon a time', eg: Once upon a time, ther...

Future tense in conditional clauses Which one is correct? option 1: If I go there, I can meet her or option 2: If I will go there, I can meet her I clearly remember, was told by English (not American) teacher that "If", "When" cannot be used with "will" in the above context. Though, I have seen few people in US saying like option 2 I do know that "If I would go there, I could meet her" is correct (or at least, think so). Answer This topic seems to come up with some frequency here. Your teacher was overgeneralizing, I'm afraid. It's not wrong to use will this way; it's just that it may not mean what you want it to mean. In the case you mention, it means that you are commenting on the possibility that you may be willing to go there, which sounds at least odd, and seems very unlikely to be what you intend to mean. Briefly, will is not "the future tense" ; will is a modal auxiliary verb . That means it's got complic...

Props can mean compliment / respect / credit, for example: Erika gets props for the great work she did on the music. Wiktionary states that props is: ( slang ) proper respect or proper recognition for another person; an expression of approval or a special acknowledgment; accolade or accolades; praise. - I've got to give props to Roger for the way he handled that situation. How did this word come about? What is its etymology? Answer According to Etymonline : Props as slang shortening for proper respects (or something similar) appeared c.1999. There is an intermediate form propers , used in Otis Redding 's Respect , made popular by Aretha Franklin . give me my propers when ya get home

I have found much trouble identifying the old word 'tis . Does it mean "this is" or "it is?" I have done some research and found that the dictionaries conflict. One said 'tis :An old English word used in the place of this is ; a contraction of this is. I showed this to my brother and he showed me another one it said 'tis :an old English contraction of the words it is. as in: 'tis(this is) the voice of the lobster....or 'tis(it is) the voice of the lobster.... So how?

I have read the excellent answers to Why is it "geometric" but "theoretical" - my question is specifically about usage. Is there a best practice for deciding between the variants geometric and geometrical in writing? A google ngram search shows that geometrical was more popular until about 1965, when they switched. What grammatical rules, if any, would be relevant here? Answer The two adjectival forms: geometric, electric geometrical, electrical But the 2nd form is closer towards forming adverbs geometrically, electrically Some words skip the 1st form altogether, so that these words are not used or rarely used whimsic, theoretic Some words tend to discourage the use of the 2nd form fantastical Anecdotal evidence would indicate that statistically, empirically, or in most of the cases, the 1st form is directly adjectival, whereas, the 2nd form is suggestive of the 1st, suggesting that the descriptee is like the 1st form. e.g., human behaviour vs human-like beh...

What does phrase "we're up the block" mean? And specifically word block. Now it's two o'clock The club is closed and we're up the block

I always wonder how to denote date and time when I have to make an appointment. To make sure that I don't make typos, I always mention the weekday. What is the correct way to do so? Appointment at 2014-05-28, 14:00 Could we meet on Wednesday, the 28th of May at 2 o'clock p.m.? Could we meet on 28th of May at 9 o'clock (it's a Wednesday)? Could we meet at 2 o'clock p.m. on Wednesday the 28th of May? As far as I know it is very unusual to write 14:00. I think it's only used in military in English speaking countries. Is that correct? What is the best way to make an appointment? Are the four variants I've suggested correct? Do you write "a.m." or "a. m." (with a space)? According to wikipedia: Some stylebooks suggest the use of a space between the number and the a.m. or p.m. abbreviation.[citation needed] But the wikipedia article does not use spaces... I've looked it up in the "Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English". It...

I'm from Brasil and here we study the differences of using "Will" and "Going to" to talk about the future. But it is usually very confusing because we have a different kind of conjugation that uses no auxiliary verb, and the English Grammar has many explanations about the context we must use one or another. So my question is. What are the real differences and needs of the colloquial usage of "Will" and "Going to"?

I am applying for a job that my friend has told me about. He spoke with the employer about me and then told me I should send that employer an email. Because this will be is my first contact with the owner, I thought of composing a formal letter. As the title says, I want to put the subject of my letter as: Michael’s Referee (?) : Job Application What is the correct word instead of referee ?

Grammatically, for he/she/it we use "does" or "doesn't" like in, He doesn't eat meat. but these days I'm observing the usage of the above sentence(especially in American movies) like this, He don't eat meat. So, after a lot of observations, I'm assuming that both usages are correct. My assumption - When to use "don't"? In temporary situations like, He don't have a pen. when to use "doesn't"? In more of a permanent situation like, He doesn't speak French. Please correct if my assumption is wrong. Or tell me if both the below sentences are correct. He doesn't speak French. He don't speak French. Answer This is a sticky subject in the US and lots of varied opinions exist on whether "he don't" is correct or incorrect. The traditional way to say this is most certainly: He doesn't eat meat. But "he don't" is becoming increasingly common in various dialects. African American Ve...

I see the phrase ... I'm with stupid ... used in many occasions, especially on forums using a smiley similar to this one: It's almost exclusively used with a positive connotation, in the meaning: "I agree with the poster above". But I just don't get why you'd call someone you agree with 'stupid'. What is the origin and true meaning of this phrase? Answer It was sometime in the mid 1970's that T-Shirts with the phrase I'm with stupid and an arrow (or actually it was often a hand with the index finger extended) pointing to the left or right (so it points to your companion) were initially available. I don't think it means anything other than an attempt at wit. Think of it as a pre-internet meme This is the closest t-shirt I could find to what the originals looked like.

My phrase is "Spanish language TV spend" with respect to advertising on Spanish language TV ads. In this context, should the l in language be capitalized?

I recently got confused with the following choices while talking to a friend after class: I sent her an email that I wouldn't come to the class. I sent her an email that I wouldn't be coming to the class. I sent her an email that I won't be coming to the class. I sent her an email that I won't come to the class. Can we use the third and fourth sentence by any chance or is it completely ungrammatical? Some websites including the NYTimes have instances where both the past and future are mixed in their reports. Answer NB: I find it nicer to put "to say" before "that", though why I find that nicer is probably a subject for another post. I've done that here. If the class was in the past then the first example is fine. Lucy expected you in the class on Thursday. Where were you? Didn't she get the message? I sent her an email to say that I wouldn't come to the class. The second can be used when the class is in the past or future. It can also be...

For example, the pronunciation of "priv-" in the words privacy and private is different in British English. The former is pronounced as prɪv- whereas the latter as praɪv- . Yet, in the US, the pronunciation is the same. Meanwhile, the word privilege is, so far as I know, pronounced the same in both British and American English ( prɪv- ). There seems to be something very arbitrary in all this. But there must be an explanation. Any ideas?

I'm confused about the difference in pronouncing "er" in words such as "farmer" and "earth". I hear them the same, but they have different phonetic symbols. Is there any difference in pronouncing "er" in these words? example:

When someone states "I have a Masters in Computer Science" should the word masters have a capital M? I've seen arguments for both and can't determine which is correct. Answer The word "master's degree", used generically, means the degree attained by a master. For example, using it in this sentence is correct: I received my master's degree from the university last January. The capitalised form is usually used to refer to a specific master's degree by name: I received my Master['s] of Science degree from the University of Waterloo last January. Universities may use any of "Master", "Master's" or "Masters" when naming their specific master's degree, and you should use the same one.

These examples from wikipedia are shown as tests to find what is telic, or atelic. Fine: "John built a house in a month." Bad: *"John built a house for a month." → built a house is telic Bad: *"John built houses in a month." Fine: "John built houses for a month." I'm wondering if there are verb phrases that fit neither. I've been trying to think of what would be a verb like that, but I'm having no success. I'm also having trouble figuring this out by reading the article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telicity A related question What makes progressive verbs different from atelic, and can a verb be both atelic/telic, and/or progressive? Answer It can be difficult to determine the telicity of a verb, but all verbs must be telic or atelic in context. Imagining a verb that is neither telic nor atelic is rather like imagining a binary number that is neither 1 nor 0, or imagining an object that is neither tea nor not tea. Because ...

I've been asked by my employer to complete a "performance review". Within the context of my role at the company, it asks me for my "Long and Short Term Objectives" and my "Personal Goals". However, it seems to me that there is no difference between these two things. Can anyone explain what the difference might be. Answer In the bastardized language of business, a goal is a final destination. It's where you want to end up. An objective is a shorter term goal, used as a stepping stone on the way to the final goal. For example, The Allied goal in Europe WWII was to capture Berlin and force Hitler to surrender. An objective along the way was to establish a beachhead in Normandy to allow the deployment of troops on the mainland. In Business terms, your goal may be to retire as president of the corporation. An objective would be to become an Assistant Vice President in 5 years.

I've read a few articles as well as questions on this site about splitting infinitives. In the Wikipedia article, it claims: In Old English, infinitives were single words ending in -n or -an (compare modern Dutch and German -n, -en). Gerunds were formed using "to" followed by a verbal noun in the dative case, which ended in -anne or -enne (e.g. tō cumenne = "coming, to come"). I read a bit on the use of infinitives in Old English; apparently, Old English has a to-infinitive that became Modern English infinitive. For example, the following sentence from (I think) Alfred's English translation of "Consolation of Philosophy": he wilnað good to habbanne ond mid goode to bionne. "He wills good to have and mid good to be" Since the infinitives, "to habbanne" and "to bionne" are also two words, did the English speakers back then ever think of putting an adverb between them? For example, would Alfred or Bede have written someth...

It seems as if a shift occurred and the descriptive "Oriental" was replaced by "Asian" as the accepted term in polite society — what caused this shift? Answer A possible answer to this, in much more general terms and in a parallel vein to the historical account (which I do think best explains this particular case), is that de-adjectival nouns used to denote ethic groups seem to become pejorative(s). I'm sure you can all come up with your own examples... Thoughts?

What are general guidelines for the use of "me" and "myself"? Did I describe me or did I describe Maria? OR Did I describe myself or did I describe Maria? Answer The two parts separated by or are complete, independent sentences. As such, the presence of the second half ("did I describe Maria") has no impact on the first half at all. Thus, the question is, which of these two is correct: Did I describe me? Did I describe myself? The answer is (2), because myself is the object of the sentence, and I is the subject. Outside of stylized usage, if the (grammatical) subject and object are the same entity, the reflexive must be used for the object. John hit him. ( John and him are different people) John hit himself. ( John and himself are the same person) John hit John. (must be two different people named John ) So, to sum up: I hit him. (grammatical) *I hit himself. (ungrammatical, because subj. and obj. aren't same entity) *I hit me. (ungrammatical...

What is the difference between seeking an answer and seeking for an answer ? I found an ngram which says that seeking an answer is used much more often compared to seeking for an answer but how about the meaning? Do these two expressions mean the same? Answer 'For' is implied by 'seeking' and therefore redundant. In 'searching an answer,' 'for' is not implied and should be added. One of those English mysteries, I guess.

What is someone whose tendency/act is to leak the surprise called? Answer Some more generic terms for someone who talks too much or indiscreetly: prattler , blabbermouth , motormouth , bigmouth . If it's someone who can't act the part, I would simply say a bad actor or, if trying to be humorous, a person with limited thespian talents .

I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I'm wondering if there is a word for a class of circular shapes? Thinking about this hierarchically: * Shape * Polygon * Square * Rectangle * ??????? * Circle * Oval EDIT: Ok, so mathematically I'm not sure there is a correct answer to my question that's any better than the one Mehper so eloquently explained (round shape). Let's break down what we have so far: In the blue corner: Noldorin * Ellipsoid * Ellipse * Circle * Oval In the red corner: pretty much everyone else * Oval * Ellipse Now, my question for the red team is: where does a circle fit in? From what I understand a circle can't be an oval, but a circle is an ellipse. Those two facts make the following untrue: * Oval * Ellipse * Circle I'll stick with ellipsoid for now until I hear some better explanation. Also note this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsoid#Egg_shape An egg shape, which is an oval (not an ellipse) i...

Is there a word (or words) for a person who uses all resources to the maximum; for example, a person who keeps on using pencils even if they are very small?

Does a contraction allow for the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence? Take the following sentence, for example: Where is it at ( not correct grammar) and Where's it at? ( unknown ) You wouldn't say, for instance, Where is it at , but would the contraction Where's in the phrase Where's it at allow for a preposition at the end of a sentence? Answer Other answers have shown (or correctly claimed, at least) that the example questions are both wrong. They, however, do not answer the question, which is about whether a contraction allows a sentence to end in a proposition. A contraction is irrelevant to the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence. In English stranded propositions are actually allowed. The common belief that they are not allowed is the product of an attempt to make English more like Latin, in which they are not allowed. (See here for the story and for the defense of propositions at the end of sentences.) The problem, then, with "Wher...

I can't think of anything else to say. All I can find via Google is that it's because it's harder to create lather with hard water, but that doesn't seem very convincing to me.

When helping an Italian speaker with her written homework, a cover letter, I told her to change the expression nowadays to that of today . Her original sentence was the following: I would be delighted to work for your company, as it is one of the most important software companies nowadays. She asked why it was better to change that expression. I said it didn't sound "right". She looked at me quizzically, so I mumbled something about it being a question of register and collocation but frankly, I'm not sure. I had better add that she wants to sit the Cambridge English exam Advanced, CAE , so I was wondering whether an examiner would look unfavourably on the expression. Moreover, I would like to know if nowadays is considered a compound word? Until today, I thought it was made up of three words; now, a and days . But etymonline tells me that it was originally two words: now and adayes . Adayes used to mean "during the day", which I think is lovely and I w...

I am confused about whether one should put a comma before an "and" which is being used after a list of items containing at least one other "and". I don't use the Oxford comma, and I feel it's not necessary to put a comma before an "and" which is before the last item. I do know that if one item has an "and" in it, then we have to put a comma before the "and" to clear any ambiguity. But I am confused about a particular sentence which is mentioned below: I will certainly go to university with a more motivated and mature attitude and contribute to its multicultural environment. Here, I don't think a comma is necessary before the "and" which is before "contribute", as there is no ambiguity. So should I put a comma or not? If I do not put one, is it grammatically incorrect?

Referring to a picture, the question is "Who is he?" The answer I got back was "he is me". Is that correct? Shouldn't it be "It is me"?

A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of bazaar that rents space to people who want to sell or barter merchandise. Used goods, low quality items, and high quality items such as collectibles and antiques are commonly sold. Many markets offer fresh produce or baked goods, plants from local farms and vintage clothes. Wikipedia My question is the word " flea ", which is " a small wingless jumping insect that feeds on the blood of mammals and birds. It sometimes transmits diseases through its bite, including plague and myxomatosis. " Source , is not a nice term. SO, do people mean " flea market " is like the dirty market which has a lot of fleas? Answer Dictionary treatments of 'flea market' Here is a brief discussion of flea market in Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (1997): flea market. These bargain markets have nothing to do with fleas. Flea market has been an American expression as far back as the ...

Which is the appropriate word to be used in the sentence: The system we were testing was determined to be insecure/unsecure. The usage is in the context of security, specifically a lack thereof. I've always said insecure , because I didn't believe unsecure was a word (although unsecured is). Even as I type this, I'm getting a spell check complaint about it. However, I was laughed at once when I called a particular device "insecure." Answer I agree with Wayne Johnston, but will add some examples. Insecurity has always meant to me a lack or deficiency of security (in whatever context it is used), as opposed to a potentially secure system not being secure at this present time. Though, I don't think it's black and white. Here are some examples of how I might use in/un-secure . He was insecure and felt anxious when he went out with his friends. The system is insecure and needs work before we can roll it out to production. On the other hand: Your bike is unse...

I thought of precrastination at first but that appears to be the act of planning to procrastinate.

This happens specifically often in the technology press: There's no point trying to ascribe motives to what Redmond [instead of "Microsoft"] does. We'll see shortly if Cupertino [instead of "Apple"] thinks likewise ... I'm certain its use is much wider though I can't think of many examples right now. Using "Detroit" as another name for the US auto industry is slightly wider: Who says that Detroit does not sell cars Americans want to drive? Anyway, I have a suspicion there is a name for this so what is it? Answer You may be looking for metonymy . If you're looking for other examples, governments are often referred to like this—at least, Westminster for the UK parliament, and Washington for the US government. (In fact, looking up Westminster on Wikipedia was how I found metonym .)

Lately, something has struck me. I've been hearing several expressions in English, some clearly borrowed from French and preserving their noun-adjective form. Some examples are: Attorney General Secretary General Court Martial Notary Public I suspect there are more that I have missed. However, in each of the 4 cases listed above, I feel 'OK' saying them the 'English' way; that is, adjective-noun, which is the way we almost always do things except for these borrowed phrases. One might receive a statement from the General Attorney , or be sent to a Martial Court . My father is actually a lawyer and does indeed describe himself as a Public Notary . Doing things this way makes the plural sound a lot more sensible in English, too; which sounds better: General Secretaries, or Secretaries General? How common is it for people to flip these borrowed phrases around and say them the more standard English adjective-noun way? Might it be clearer in the long run if we did so? An...

So, according to the Oxford Dictionary (English Dictionary), Nana is defined as one's grandmother, and Nanna redirects to Nana . According to Dictionary.com (American Dictionary), Nana is one's grandmother, and Nanna is "The wife of Balder" (Scandinavian Mythology) or "The Sumerian god of the moon: the counterpart of the Akkadian god Sin". A question was raised at this. I am Australian and have always spelt Nana as Nana . My brother, however, spells it as Nanna . The spell checker in Firefox is currently detecting Nanna to be correct to Nana . My question is, in Australian/British English, how is Nana spelt? With one n or two? Answer In British English, it would generally be spelt as 'Nana' without the double n. But as with the first comment, as a personal 'nickname' it could be spelled either way.

I hear people saying, "He said it to my wife and I" when they would never say, "He said it to I." Why are people so inconsistent?

Is the "B" in Brussels Sprouts capitalized? What about the "F" or "F's" of French Fries? I suppose it's not standard to capitalize "F" in french fries... In that case what is the proper way to write it? Please cite sources. Answer From the Grammarphobia Blog : How to capitalize food names Q : I’m never sure about how food names are capitalized. Is it “Waldorf salad” or “waldorf salad”? “Swiss cheese” or “swiss cheese”? “French fries” or “french fries”? And so on. A : The one thing we can tell you for sure is that the generic noun in these dishes—the “salad,” the “fries,” and so on—is lowercased. But should the other part of the name be capitalized if it’s derived from a proper name, like “Waldorf” or “French” or “Caesar”? On that point, dictionaries and usage guides disagree. In some cases, their policies have more holes than swiss cheese. We’ll start with the argument against capitals, which can be found in The Chicago Manual of Style ...

If you refer to a name alone and not along with a person in dialog, do you put single quotation marks around it? E.g., "Yeah, I agree with you there. 'Jon' is pretty common, but the same could be said of 'Jeffrey,' too." E.g., "I could go with the name, Jon, sure, but I prefer 'Jeff' instead; or maybe since my last name's Thomas I'll go with 'Tommy.' Made up examples, but they convey what I'm iffy about fine I think. Thanks for the feedback!

You can also contact me to customize your template, or create a new unique one. Do I need to put a comma between the new and unique adjectives in this sentence? In my native language (if I am not mistaken) we don't put a comma if the adjectives are of a different type. Not sure about English though, and if it's the case here anyway. Any help would be appreciated! Answer If you need a comma is a classic case of "depends!" Have a look at this blog entry from grammar girl. The comma rule comes down to the difference between two kinds of adjectives: coordinate adjectives and cumulative adjectives. ... Just remember that if you can reverse your two adjectives or can place an “and” between them, you need a comma. So in this case, use a comma.

You often hear people follow up the word "absolutely" with words such as "fantastic", "amazing", "brilliant", "knackered". But to hear say someone say "That was absolutely good" or "I am absolutely tired" would sound ridiculous. Is there actually anything grammatically wrong with these 2 statements, or are they just so unconventional that they sound wrong? Answer In informal speech the word absolutely is often used to add emphasis to a superlative. You could just as easily say, "It was fantastic," as, "It was absolutely fantastic," but both really mean the same thing. Adding it to words like good doesn't have the same requirement for emphasis, as there is a superlative you could use instead, so you would rather write, "brilliant," than, "absolutely good."

I am unclear of the use of [these|those] objects. I am unsure when to use [these|those|them]. Please someone help me tell me which is correct in the previous sentences. This is not a dupe of What's the difference between "these" and "those"? Answer These, those and them may all be used as objects of a sentence or a preposition. Said when no books are present: I lost my books. Did you see them? Said while pointing toward a flock of geese: I see some geese. Do you see those? Said while holding a handful of diamonds. I found some diamonds. Did you see these? You can also use two of the three as modifiers for nouns: Did you those geese? Did you see these diamonds? But it is ungrammatical to say Did you see them books?

Apparently some parts of the US routinely pronounce the name of our island state as 'Hawaya.' At first, I thought this was just incorrect, but apparently it's a regional usage. Where do they call it Hawaya?

Does this recipe call for Cheddar cheese or cheddar cheese ? Does pizza have mozzarella or Mozzarella on it? Heck, I'm not even sure if this sandwich contains Swiss cheese or swiss cheese . Is there a convention here, or is it a matter of taste? Does it depend on whether the word was originally a proper noun ("Cheddar"), a proper adjective ("Swiss"), or something else ("bleu")? Answer Most writers do in fact capitalise Camembert... ...but usage isn't consistent. I'm not an expert with NGrams, but I think this chart suggests people are less likely to capitalise strong Cheddar when it's followed by the word cheese (i.e. - if the word "Cheddar" in isolation is used as a noun , we tend to capitalise; if it's an "adjectival" usage modifying the word "cheese", we don't). Obviously certain types of cheese ( Boursin , for example) are "trademarks" owned by specific producer companies, so they...

My high school English teacher taught us to never start a sentence with conjunctions, but throughout the years I have seen a lot of such usage in academic writings and novels. I have also read various articles, saying that such usage is now acceptable. Is it merely a preference of style or is it grammatically wrong? Does it otherwise imply different semantics from the usage that follows a comma(,)? For example, are the following sentences acceptable in terms of grammar/formality? "The organization should have taken the blame. Or, its leader can sacrifice himself for the well-being of all." "She is one of a kind – she displays high empathy on each and every strangers she meets. But, she lives in a fiction." "The city is wondrous, in spite of its proximity to my hometown. And, a highly regarded culture resides there." Thanks in advance. Answer Coördinating conjunctions, such as and, or and but , can be used to begin a new sentence. This was already widely ...

Acting like a div yesterday:- a stupid or foolish person I started to wonder how this term of abuse came about. Urban Dictionary has a quaint tale:- Actually originates from prison slang in the UK. A job often given to the lowest inmates was to put cardboard dividers into boxes. Someone given this job was a 'divider' or a 'div'. Now used as an insult to those who display stupidity. which sounds somewhat contrived to me. Collins has it:- C20: probably shortened and changed from deviant Inky Fool , a website new to me, offers two other explanations:- Div is a scouse word for idiot. It is short for divvy which in turn is a corruption of Deva. The Deva Hospital was a well known mental hospital (since renamed the West Cheshire Hospital) on the outskirts of Chester. Chester was founded by the Romans who named it Deva. and Derived from "individual needs child", a cruel schoolyard insult. Not at all politically correct. Someone who's "not quite normal...

I caught myself saying "to be more correct", is this strictly possible given that something is usually correct or incorrect. If this is a grammatical faux pas, what is it called? Answer "More correct" is acceptable (especially in the adverbial form "More correctly"). That said, you will usually see "More accurate" instead.

We went to an electronics showroom, where we chatted with a sales girl. She explained some technical stuff about the things we were interested in. When she had finished explaining, she said "By the way, I have been Jessica." This usage is not new to me: it's pretty common in the US, and in Hollywood movies. But I have always wondered about how it could be correct (if indeed it is). I understand what it means, I just don't see it as grammatical. What is the logic of taking it as grammatical? You have been Jessica. So what are you now? A lot of people in the comments are saying that they never heard nor saw anyone using this line to tell their name. Here is an example: Apple Store Scene in Captain America, The Winter Soldier at 00:25 Answer Although this usage is new to me, I think the formation of the idiom is fairly clear: It marks a (somewhat uneasy) merger of professional and personal registers as a sales technique. Thus, we wouldn't be surprised to hear a ser...

In sentences like "Two questions are what I wanted to ask", should I treat the subject, "Two questions", as singular or plural? It seems more natural to treat it as plural. But when I reverse the subjects I'll need to use the singular form instead : "What I wanted to ask is two questions" and this doesn't look very natural. Does the same apply to chronological sentences like "5 months is/are what I have left to finish this project of mine"?

I can't seem to remember this particular word/phrase. I'm almost certain it's a two-word phrase. It specifically refers to someone who is skilled with the ladies, ie, someone who knows the tricks of the trade. Usage: - "Unless you're a X-Y, that's not going to work with her." Edit : I'm not looking for 'ladies man', 'casanova', 'womanizer' etc. This phrase refers to someone who's more of a pro and one who is serious about his business. Answer You might also be looking for the phrase pickup artist. This used to be a synonym for a "ladies' man," someone who was good at the skills and techniques of seduction. However, it's recently begun to be associated with a specific subset of extremely creepy people who use a specific range of extremely creepy techniques to pick up women. If you are talking about people taking things "seriously," this might be what you mean--but you should be aware that most peo...

I often see e.g. used by non-native English speakers in the middle of a sentence like this: Along with custom software, our services include e.g. consulting, integration, auditing and networking. And: We have more experience of this, and especially e.g. complete solutions are our specialty. Now e.g. is an abbreviation Latin exempli gratia , meaning for example . But this usage sounds a bit unnatural to my ear. They are using e.g. where I would expect to find for example . But to me, e.g. isn't quite a drop-in replacement for for example , and the rule I have in my head is that the part of the sentence before e.g. needs to be a complete sentence, that the e.g. part is almost parenthetical. For example, "Along with custom software, our services include" and "We have more experience of this, and especially" are not full sentences on their own. This one looks fine to me: I like citrus fruits, e.g., tangerines, lemons, and limes. Because "I like citrus fru...

In this video with rapper Eminem, he makes the following rhymes: "I put my orange, four inch, door hinge, in storage, and ate porridge with george." Following the Types of Rhymes wikipedia article , I can only connect a few types of rhymes used here: imperfect (or near), assonance, and consonance Am I missing other types of rhymes he makes? Answer The core of the rhyming scheme is assonance: assonance: matching vowels. (shake, hate) Assonance is sometimes referred to as slant rhymes, along with consonance. Eminem is deliberately bending the pronunciation of each word so that they sound similar. This moves the vowel sounds of each rhyme into an assonance rhyme. An example of how "orange" in particular breaks down: "four inch" (assonance due to the g vs ch ) "door hinge" (perfect/feminine) "storage" (assonance due to the ng vs g ) "porridge" (assonance due to the ng vs dg ) "George" (assonance due to r vs g and ...

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj_aj_ashton_01.svg How would I describe the part of the desktop computer in this picture that isn't the monitor, keyboard or mouse? The part that contains the CPU, hard drives, CD drives, and other components.

Does English allow one to put parentheses around more than one paragraph? Example: Paragraph 1. (Paragraph 2. Paragraph 3.) Paragraph 4. (Of course, this is just a simple example. In reality, it looks more clean since the paragraphs are more than one line long, and are not separated by an empty line.) Answer "Does English allow..." is a problematic question, as English has no authoritative body to allow or disallow anything. As an attempt to provide a standard, several bodies issue "style guides", among the most influential of which are The Chicago Manual of Style , The MLA Style Manual , The MLA Handbook , and The AP Stylebook . They each have different histories and target audiences, so different editors and publications choose different ones for their own reasons. So to answer your question with authority you would need to consult the relevant style guide. For most purposes (writing that is neither academic nor journalistic) I use the Chicago Manual of Style. A...

I think I have always used these two words interchangeably without noticing until my professor was saying how some students misspelled the word and he was amazed. Can someone tell me when I should use paid over payed ? I searched for a similar question and got even more confused with this title: you paid for a persons drink and expect to be payed back . Answer Paid or payed is the past tense of pay depending on the sense of pay . The first sense is the usual one of giving someone money while the second sense is to seal (the deck or seams of a wooden ship) with pitch or tar to prevent leakage .