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Which term best suits to describe a part/slice/share/portion of a piechart, disregarding what the chart is about ? Answer The correct term is slice , fitting the pie metaphor.

What is the proper way to punctuate a question that is posed within a statement like in the following example? Associated with my interest in the patterns that structure aquatic ecosystems is the question of what factors control the distribution and cycling of resources in aquatic systems. The second part of the sentence (after the what) is a question, but the sentence as a whole is a statement. Is the way I have it punctuated correct and what rules govern this sort of thing? Answer The sentence is fine as it stands. If you wanted to make it a bit clearer, you could break out the question, something like this: Associated with my interest in the patterns that structure aquatic ecosystems is this question: "What factors control the distribution and cycling of resources in aquatic systems?"

ie. Knowing that they have an unpaid debt, yet doesn't care. I suppose "he is renouncing his debt" would be fine, but it doesn't seem to flow well. "he is abandoning his debt" doesn't sound too good either, so are there any better alternatives? Answer In BrE, deliberately running away from a debt is "welshing". You welsh on a debt.

very often we see the description like this: Many people realize that they didn't do any wrongdoings, so they cannot understand why they have to be punished. or ...., so they cannot understand why do they have to be punished. or we ask "why do you fight?" can we omit the "do", say "why you fight?" Thanks!!

I have often heard that advice is uncountable and shouldn't be prefixed with an article. So I often force myself to say "a piece of advice". But I've seen it used with an article on a number of occasions. For example: BBC - Health: Domestic violence support contacts . (See archive.org for a copy of the original article.) In some cases it's even pluralized as advices . For example: Our latest advices from Santo Domingo state that the Spanish troops have almost entirely abandoned the island. New York Times Any idea? Answer Note that your BBC link does use advice as an uncountable: The websites and helplines below can offer help and advice on how to stay safe and how to get access to emergency refuge accommodation. They can also offer advice if you are worried about the safety of someone close to you. Not "an advice" but "advice". Note that help is also uncountable here. The page does mention: ... an advice line ... Here it is the line wh...

I already heard Americans use the term "mobile" for "cellphone" -- which I thought was chiefly BE -- and so I wish you could tell if such usage of "mobile" has any currency in GAE? Unless it might be called a "mobile" by Americans outside of the US or frequently traveling to Europe. Answer In common AE conversation you would say "cellphone" or just "phone". Mobile or mobile phone is recognized and used in marketing. Usage: "Where the hell did I leave my (cell) phone."

I cannot understand the difference between the comma and semicolon. Can you please clarify? Answer From eHow : Comma (,) 1) Use a comma to separate 2 independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction such as and, but and or. The key here is to have 2 subject verb pairs. Example: The students reviewed for the exam, and the teacher corrected the term papers. In this example we have 2 subject verb pairs: "students reviewed" and "teacher corrected." Example: The teacher corrected the papers and entered the grades in the grade book. In this example we use the coordinating conjunction "and" but have 1 subject and 2 verbs: "teacher corrected, entered"; therefore, no comma is used. 2) Use a comma to separate items in a series to avoid ambiguous meaning. Example: Uncle willed me his property, houses, and warehouses. In this example, we mean that uncle willed me 3 items--his houses, warehouses, and property. Example: Uncle willed me his property,...

With Youtube, I find myself learning about everything - in depth! Is there a word for someone who is a visual learner, who desires to learn everything about anything and everything? I am not a scholar or necessarily desire "book" learning. I just really enjoy learning about things that interest me, including the history of such things (as in knitting), the methodology of things (fishing, cooking, boating, gardening, etc. etc.!) Is there such a word?

Why do we call snail mail "snail mail"? So by default mail will refer to email? Answer "Snail mail" is an example of a retronym , coined to distinguish the old type of something (in this case "mail") from a newer meaning. In this case, the retronym is disparaging: neutral alternatives could be "letter mail" or "post". For some people it may be the case that "mail" will usually mean "e-mail", just as for some people "guitar" means "electric guitar" and "hockey" means "ice hockey". (I suspect this will be more true in the UK, where "post" is more common than "mail" for the traditional service). And in context, "mail" can certainly mean "e-mail". But out of context it won't necessarily have that meaning.

Is there a difference between aims and objectives ?

The situation is that someone asks me how my family are; I then want to answer that they all are fine. I want to know whether the sentences "They all are fine." and "They are all fine." have the same meaning. Is there any difference? To me as a non-native English speaker, "They all are fine." seems better — it should mean that each of my family members is fine whereas "They are all fine." should mean that each of my family members is completely fine. Please correct my understanding if there is anything wrong.

What does the phrase, carrot of profits , mean? The context is And for smaller companies, using the carrot of profits 20 years away isn’t likely to sway VCs who can see no further than three. A little of profit ?

In Logic Or signals a Logical disjuction it means an inclusive OR. I get into trouble when saying OR and mean inclusive OR. Is the person Black or Male? I usually get this considered a "wrong" question. How can I make it explicit that I mean inclusive OR, in a natural and formal way? And/or does not seem formal or natural.

What is it called when you use many words to describe the word you want to use? I know there is a technical word that's used in foreign language acquisition that means using many words to describe a word you don't know. I'm doing it now, just talking and beating around the bush until someone can tell me the word I'm looking for.

What decade? Any particular reason? This is an etymological/historical question, not a grammar question. Answer I think an NGram here is not too misleading: British English American English (note that "couldn't" and "could not" is indexed as the same by Google NGrams). So the answer to 'when' is roughly 1950 for the correct negative and 1960 for the erroneous positive for both BrE and AmE, but popularity for the positive rose quicker in the US to 2/5 of the negative compared to 1/7 for BrE. All the usual caveats for NGrams apply. As to reasons, without thorough and tedious scholarship (or being lucky which in this case I am not), I can only conjecture that the start in 1940 was in some novel or radio show that was popular in both US and UK, and similarly for the positive version in 1960. But that is empty speculation. If only the results from NGrams were sortable by date... Oh... It is sortable by date... The earliest instance given for 'couldn...

Which one should I prefer? Is it worth it? or Does it worth it? Additionally, is the following form (without it ) correct? Is it worth? Answer Which one should I prefer? Is it worth it? or Does it worth it? "Is it worth it?" is correct. Additionally, is the following form (without it) correct? Is it worth? No, that's wrong, worth always needs another word, like "worth twenty pounds" or something.

Can the facts literally speak for themselves , or is that phrase figurative? I'm unsure, because I'm not sure whether 'speak' or 'speak for' always involves speech. In the OED entry for 'speak' (subscription required) (there is no entry for the idiom): a. fig. Of things: To be expressive or significant; to make some revelation or disclosure. This is figurative. However, 15a seems to cover it a. To indicate, denote, or betoken; to reveal, make known. 1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits iii. 40 The solidity of the structures..speaks the industry of ages But that is transitive, and I think that there's no direct object in that phrase. However, there is also an entry to "speak for" To indicate; to betoken. 1832 Philol. Museum I. 335 The great mass of evidence that speaks for an intimate affinity between the Pelasgians and the Hellenes. So it could be literal, but says something slightly weird, that the facts indicate or are in some sense a sign of...

Having only seen this word in writing, I assumed it's pronounced "plate". howjsay (whose author is british) suggests the pronunciation that rhymes with "flat", but also offers the "plate" one. This thread , however, has several people who perceive the "plate" pronunciation to be completely wrong. So how would most people say this in the UK? Is it "plat", and would people in the UK consider the "plate" pronunciation wrong? Does it vary by location within the UK? Answer If it's the word that describes the way in which hair is sometimes bound together, twisting three strands one over the other, then it rhymes with flat in British pronunciation.

"She hasn't said but a few words to me since last winter." or "She has said but a few words to me since last winter." Which of these is right? I think the latter is heard more often, but the former makes more sense to me. It's saying that she hasn't said anything to me except a few words since last winter, whereas I can't break down the second in a similar fashion. I can also think of sentences constructed in a similar fashion to the second sentence that are in common usage, such as, "I have but one request to make." This doesn't make sense to me, except to the extent that it is idiomatic or uses "but" in a different sense (e.g. "only"?), and I suspect that this is idiomatic. Using "but" with a negative, however, makes more sense to me, if we use it to mean "except". Quite possibly, I could be wrong in everything I've said above. Answer Just as you do, I hear, "She hasn't said but a ...

I know there is no strict rule on pronunciation of words in English but here my question is about the words which begin with 'con' and 'com' , more than asking general rule. When I look at the words begin with 'con' and 'com' , I see mostly two patterns : One of them is schwa /ə/ sound and the other one is /o/ or /ɒ/ sound.But the second pronunciation can be pronounced slightly differently depending on dialect. An example word for the first pronunciation is the word computer whose pronunciation is represented /kəmˈpjuː.tər/ in Cambridge Online Dictionaries. An example for the second type of pronounciation for "co" could be the word contrast whose pronunciation is represented /ˈkɒn.trɑːst/ in Cambridge Online Dictionaries. So my question is there any rule/pattern which can help us guess how to pronounce these words correctly? I am not asking about the words like cool, come or coke. My question is about words like contract, combination,...

It sometimes happens that I am asked a question which I am uncomfortable answering for a variety of reasons (it invades my privacy, the answer may hurt the person asking, it is painful for me to discuss, it would violate a confidence etc.). I may also not feel comfortable explaining why I don't want to answer. I remember a colleague of mine introducing me to the Far Eastern concept of Mu (sometimes translated as "unask the question"), which seems to quite aptly capture what I'm looking for. What is the most polite way of expressing this in English?

Which preposition should follow the verb to upload — to , on , or something else? Answer Generally you "upload to" and "download from". You might express that you "uploaded from your laptop to your server", which uses both from and to . You might say that you "can do the upload on that machine in the corner", but that refers to the machine you performed the command to upload on (the one physically in front of you), not the one you uploaded to (often the one uploaded from, but not necessarily).

Is there a word that means doing the right thing for the wrong reason or getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions ?

What do you call a person who always has a pleasant smile on his face. Is there anything better than calling him a "Pleasing personality"? Answer I think this question really should have more context; it depends on whether or not the smile is genuine (and, if it is, it depends on the source of that person's happiness.) If the smile is phony (that is, the person always smiles, but in reality, they are very bitter on the inside), then I'd call that person plastic , or saccharine . On the other hand, if the smile is a sign of the person's pleasant nature, there several words that could be used to describe the person, depending on that person's source of joy and contentment, including: joyful, pleasant, happy, cheerful, and jocular . Is there anything better than calling him a "Pleasing personality"? One thing is certain, however, I would not call that person a "pleasing personality." You might say, "He has a pleasant personality,"...

Conversate: To converse, to participate in a conversation. My parents conversate with me over dinner every night. Is this a word? Spell check says no, but I have heard it used. Answer Conversate is a back-formation from conversation , similar to orientate (which is quite common in the UK), administrate , and others. While some back-formations can even become standard, conversate is decidedly nonstandard. However, it is not surprising that you have heard it used, because it is a word that is employed in some dialects. It is most commonly used in AAVE, a dialect of American English. Those who use conversate dialectally might be aware of the word converse , but choose not to use it either because conversate carries with it a difference in register/connotation that they want to employ, or because conversate has a slightly different meaning from converse in that dialect. These -ate back-formations happen because most nouns ending in -ation have a corresponding verb ending in -ate...

I have been studying the pronunciation of Greek-derived words in English, and I've found an odd anomaly. There are (at least) two possible pronunciation patterns for plural word-forms that end in -⁠mata (which correspond to singular word-forms that end in -⁠ma ). Antepenult stress (expected) It appears that it is always possible to place the stress on the antepenult (third-to-last) syllable, such as: This is what would be expected from the stress rules of Latin (I believe most or all of these words came through Latin before entering English), since the penultimate "a" in the original Greek words is short. Maybe Latin vowel quality and stress rules are not very relevant; certainly, few English speakers know about them nowadays. And even with antepenult stress, some of these pronunciations do not seem to follow all of the traditional rules for pronouncing Latin-derived terms in English. I was reminded by some comments in this Languagehat blog post that in antepenult stre...

When speaking to my female friends (who know me well enough to not take offense), I frequently use the term toots to refer to them. These are friends who know that I'm using it ironically as part of my enjoyment of using antiquated terminology (especially to sound like a 1930s gangster). In other words, I don't wish to engage in a debate on whether or not I'm a misogynist. (Let me be clear, I'm a misanthrope, not a misogynist. ;P) A few dictionary searches have shown that it is likely a shortening of the word tootsie , but a search on that does not shed any light on the origins. It merely suggests that the origin is obscure (and perhaps related to an obscure usage meaning a worthless person). The usage for the word meaning the sound a horn makes has a clear origins in 16th century Germanic usages. Can anyone point out a credible source of the origins of the usage above? Answer J.S. Farmer & W.E. Henley, Slang and Its Analogues (1904) has the following entry for t...

I faced a problem to answer a negative question, for example, when someone asks you: Don't you have any money? It's a yes/no question but how should one answer the question without ambiguity? When you answer "yes", does it mean "yes, I don't have any money"? or the other way "Yes, I do have money"? the questioner may think you are agreeing to the negative, that yes, you do not have any money. I know it's better to answer with "on the contrary" but is it possible to answer yes or no? Answer Use short answers : Don’t you have any money? — No, I don’t. Don’t you have any money? — Yes, I do. Let context guide the listener: Don’t you have any money? — No, I gave it all to Lucy. Don’t you have any money? — Yes, but not enough for this item. Use quantifiers , or intensifiers : Don’t you have any money? — None or None whatsoever. Don’t you have any money? — I have enough. In Early Modern English, there were specific words for that .

Today I have encountered a phrase: If not for you, I would be poor. I would think it is like "if there were not you", is it like that? On the other hand, how would I say the following as the meaning would be different: If not for you, whom do I cook the cake for? Answer The construction If not for X is an idiomatic phrase in English. The verb to be is normally left out when you use this construction, though if you restore it the full form would be: If it were not for you, I would be poor. However, the original version without it were is also correct: If not for you, I would be poor. Your version with if there were not you is grammatically incorrect. The construction There is X cannot be used with a pronoun in place of X under most circumstances. Your example sentence If not for you, whom do I cook the cake for? is also correct, but this is a completely different construction which superficially resembles the one in your question.

I had always seen that phrase as "from the outset", but recently I saw somebody writing "from the offset" (meaning "from the beginning"). Dictionary.com claims that "offset" can be a synonym for "outset": 2) the start, beginning, or outset. Would this mean that both of these phrases are correct? Do certain dialects prefer one over the other? US vs UK usage? Answer offset can mean the start of something when referring to distances in space: competitors in short races on oval tracks start at offset s from the nominal starting line to account for the curvatures of their lanes web page content might be rendered starting at a horizontal and vertical offset from the edge of the web browser, to allow room for ads computer data is stored physically in computer memory starting at an offset from the begining of the available memory so as not to overwrite memory already in use by other programs but not when referring to distances in time. An...

'The Hindu,' an Indian daily, reports : Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely casted his vote at Chimanbhai Patel Institute opposite Karnavati club. Does the verb cast have a form as casted ?

I'm looking for a word to describe a person or persons who are comfortable in their state of being or their position in life, who are unwilling or afraid to change for the better or even take a chance. I once read a book with the word in it, but I can't remember what it is.

The passage below comes from a book, What The F. It's about the anomaly in the rule of profane words. But jack-shit and its profane peers flout the rule. You can say You don’t know jack-shit , using it in a negative context, but you can also just as easily say You know jack-shit . Same with dick — I don’t draw dick unless the price is right is fine, as is I draw dick unless the price is right . In this I cannot figure out what draw dick means in this context. (Excuse my profanity.) My gut feeling says Don't draw dick means Don't care , but I am not sure. Answer "I draw dick unless the price is right" in this passage is probably meant to express "I draw nothing unless the price is right" (which would more commonly be expressed with the negation on the auxiliary, as "I don't draw anything unless the price is right"). It's not clear what the word "draw" means without more context, but it doesn't really matter. As Pete...

Is the phrase "combined with" or "coupled with" a nonessential phrase? For example": Her neat work combined with her pleasant nature makes her a pleasure to teach. Should it be "Her neat work [comma] combined with her pleasant nature [comma] makes her a pleasure to teach"?

This is something that has always bugged me. I am never sure where to place the question mark, or whether to place it at all when the end of the sentence does not finish with a question, or a number of questions from the begining For example: The question nagging me is to what extent can we encapsulate all what we observe in nature into a set of simple computational rules, within which we can leverage our existing knowledge. Should the final full-stop (period) be replaced by a question mark? Or perhaps even the comma? Answer A question within a sentence should be preceded by a comma, and end with a question mark. I am wondering, how long has that fish statue been there? There are three important issues that this committee must address. What was the chairman doing in that YouTube video? is not among them. If a question is particularly long or complex, then for clarity it could begin with a capital letter. In the daydreams of my youth I would look at the clouds and wonder, Will I find h...

Some background first: As I was reading some past answers on English L&U, I came across this old question , where the top accepted answer maintained there were distinct class differences in the use of the expression "cheers" amongst the British. Some people disagreed with the tone of the accepted answer; in particular, the answerer was accused of stereotyping in the comments, and his response was challenged by another user who in response gave what he obviously considered a laughable stereotype of upper-class English speaking: "Top drawer, what?!" I remembered then that I'd often seen and heard "wot wot" used in the same mocking way. For example, one of my childhood friends, if he wanted to play mock-Briton, might say something like: "Tally-ho, old bean, wot wot?" Googling informs me this usage isn't just idiosyncratic on his part; evidently, lots of people are interested in the history of this phrase, as Google suggests "wot wot...

In our English lesson, we talked about words that are derived from sounds. Our teacher said they are "anamatapic", but it seems I can't get the spelling right. Even google does not provide a good suggestion for a better spelling. So now I am looking for the word that sounds like "anamatapic" and describes the professional term for words that sound like the sound. Everything's clear? I have tried Close votes: thanks for the meta reference to good resources. The following online resources don't help: These will guide to correct results: So, yeah, maybe I could have found it there. And if you try Google now , you'll get a result from a strange website, which is not a dictionary, but some kind of Q&A style forum. Maybe we can put that one in the list of helpful resources, too :-D Also cool: if I would have type the title of this EL&U question into Google instead of the intended word, the first hit is the correct Wikipedia article. I'll try t...

Context: As a teacher who loves writing, I am interested in posting messages on the twitter. Which of the following options is correct? Please explain the reasoning. I am so interested in posting messages on the twitter that everyday I had no sooner returned home than I immediately turned on the computer to write something. I am so interested in posting messages on the twitter that everyday I have no sooner returned home than I immediately turn on the computer to write something. Answer The normal sequence of tenses would require the first sentence to be written as: I was so interested in posting messages on Twitter that every day I had no sooner returned home than I immediately turned on the computer to write something. The second sentence brings the events one stage forward in time, and uses the present perfect have . . . returned in place of the past perfect had . . . returned . What the present perfect does here is describe a present state resulting from an earlier event.

According to Google: hottie a sexually attractive person, especially a young woman. What's the male version of the word? Or it is also used in men? Example: "Who's that hottie?" I asked Anna, pointing at the man across the pool. Answer Merriam-Webster has a gender-free definition of " hottie :" a physically attractive person. A quick Google search on "he's a hottie" yields many results.

I frequently find myself needing a word to express happiness that acknowledges a tragic or unfortunate circumstance underpinning that happiness. Preferably the word could have both adjective and verb forms. For example, "Gregory [ verb -ed | felt adjective about] the balmy February day, suspecting it was yet another consequence of catastrophic and irreversible climate change." "Bittersweet" is close, but not precisely right. It implies ambivalence rather than genuine gladness. "Schadenfreude" is also in the neighborhood, but I don't want to imply that the tragic part of the situation is what causes the pleasure. (Also, I recognize that the word may not quite exist in English, and I don't know if this is forbidden for this forum, but I'd welcome a loan word or phrase if there's a better one.) Answer How about an alloyed pleasure , or maybe a tarnished pleasure . An unalloyed pleasure is a pleasure with no drawbacks, no downsides. In thi...

Letters in offensive words are often removed to make words less offensive, like f----ed, or n-gger. (Though this isn't just for offensive words—see G-d). What is the best typographic punctuation for the dash? A standard -, or an en-dash (–), or an em-dash (or dashes) for multiple dashes (e.g. f——d)? Answer Usually, asterisks are used. A single asterisk replaces a single character. Censor everything after and including the first vowel. f*** Or simply censor the first vowel. f*ck I personally prefer the former. Alternatively, one could use grawlixes, or assorted special characters f@#! This is most often used in cartoons. There is also, leet speak. This is most common on the internet. In this case, one finds a similar looking special character to a letter of an offensive word. Shit $#!+ Personally, I have never seen any form of hyphen or dash used.

As an American, a large part of my impoverished experience of British accents comes from ancient BBC comedy imports on PBS. I'd very much like to identify the regional accents the following actors are using: All four have distinct ways of speaking (not necessarily the same, but then that's the problem, I can't tell). Which accent does each of these four use? Answer Apart from Onslow, which is close to the actor's native Liverpool accent, the others are 'generic countryside' — pretty much the same as if an American actor was asked to do 'southern' or 'redneck' The standard country bumpkin accent is normally west county/sommerset - or at least you just have to pronounce it zummerset and say oo-arrgh a lot. Interesting aside the english actor who played Darth Vader (David Prowse) is from that area and has a strong west country accent - not quite in keeping with the dark lord of the sith. Even more aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is Austrian, wa...

1)The corporeal, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual sides of human life have all been stirred by the hurricane the likes of which has never been seen in the history of the Earth. From The Vakhtangov Sourcebook by Andrei Malaev-Babel 2)They finally destroy him in a steel works, in a fight to the death the likes of which have seldom been seen on the screen. From Movies of the 90s by Jürgen Müller "The likes of which" is both followed by have and has, and the result of Google book search is almost a tie. What is the correct usage?

Someone from Mars is called a Martian. Someone from America is called an American. Someone from Europe is a European. Someone from Hyrule is a Hyrulean. We are not far from colonizing other planets, let alone Earth's only moon. Obviously you wouldn't call someone from the moon a lunatic right? What if you are on Mars? What would I call a foreigner from Earth? Earthean doesn't sound right. Answer The word I have always seen used for this in science fiction is Terran .

When talking about statements that two terms are mathematically (un-)equal (e.g., 1 = 1 , 1 , or 1 != 2 ), what is the correct notion for such mathematical statements? Are there special cases w.r.t. "mixed" relations like x ? Can some notions be used interchangeably? It seems many online sources use "equation" and "inequality" but there is also a Wikipedia page about "inequation" . Apart from personal posts in forums, I have not found any sources using "equality" in such a situation, yet. Systematically, I would think that "equation" and "inequation" would make more sense than "equation" and "inequality", but not everything (probably very few things) in natural languages have developed according to a purely logical system. Note that this question is more general than How to express the relationship that two numbers are not equal? for that it particularly asks for the relation between the notion f...

What is the rule of thumb for using 'however' in the middle of the sentence? For example: Some people disagree with this theory, however, as it's never been proven right. Answer Nothing wrong with a however in the middle of a sentence. You often see a semi-colon in front of the comma, however, instead of a comma, particularly if the second half of the sentence could stand on its own as a complete sentence: Some people disagree with this theory; however, it's never been proven right. That said, the sentence above sounds awkward. The however should introduce some idea that's contrary to the preceding thought: Some people disagree with this theory; however, it's never been proven wrong. This makes more sense. It's another way of saying, " Even though some people disagree with this theory, it's never been proven wrong. " (You wouldn't disagree with a theory, unless you thought it was wrong - right ?) I hope this answers your question; howeve...

“My wife and I’s seafood collaboration dinner” What is the correct way of these two sentences? The queen of England's crown The queen's of England crown Strictly linguistically, sentence 2 should be the correct one, since the crown belongs to the queen and not to England but it sounds really awkward to pronounce. Answer It is a common misconception, partly because of bad use of terminology, that the English 's construction is closely equivalent to a genitive in languages like Latin, German etc with overt case marking. But in reality, 's works quite differently: it can be appended to the whole noun phrase, including adjuncts such as prepositional phrases and relative clauses. This means that the following are in principle perfectly common and grammatical: (a) [The girl next door]'s dog just died. (b) [That man I saw yesterday]'s car is parked in my space. (c) [The queen of England]'s crown is worth its weight in gold. Of course, if you find that having a len...

This has been bugging me for a while, does anyone know what this word is? Maybe I imagined it. I thought it might have been "superfluous", but I don't think that is it, then I thought it might have been "hyperbole" but I do not think that is it either. Any thoughts? Here is some context. Person A: If a billion people view my web site, my server will crash. Person B: That is a ___ example. The difference between the word that I am looking for and "hyperbolic" is that a hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally and this is. Hope that helps.

I have posted a topic using this sentence: I have picked some fictions to read lately. RegDwight edited this sentence to: I have recently picked up several works of fiction and begun to read them. What is the difference between lately and recently in this context, and why is it more appropriate to use recently? Answer I think the difference is that lately has more of a continuous or repetitive meaning (similar to the perfect aspect/tense), and doesn't work well for individual events, while recently can be used for both. For example, "I went to the library lately" is ungrammatical, but "I've been going to the library a lot lately" is fine. ("I went to the library recently" and "I've been going to the library a lot recently" are also both fine.) "I haven't seen her lately" and "I haven't seen her recently" are both fine. "Have you been to the movies lately?" and `Have you been to the movies recen...

Our young grandson, who is a Mancunian, says 'give it me', and 'give it me back', which is a northern British standard. It made me think that it is not only northerners who omit the indirect object preposition 'to'. Americans will say 'write me, and let me have some news'. In the latter case the pronoun 'me' appears as though it has actually become a direct object of an alternative verb 'to write' which is transitive, but with a slightly different meaning to that used in 'write the answer in the left hand column'. Does anyone else look at it in that way?

I just came across a course name: Geometric and Theoretical Optics . The mismatched endings bug me. Why do we have both -ical and -ic endings? Is there any difference in meaning between, say, theoretic and theoretical ? I know that acoustic and acoustical mean slightly different things, but is this difference inherent in the words, or is it just usage — we happen to use the former for sound, and the latter for ceilings? Answer Origin The suffix -ic comes from Greek -ikos , while -ical is a combination of -ic and the French suffix -al . Originally, -al was suffixed to scientific nouns ending in -ics , e.g. mathematics - mathematical . Eventually, the -ical portion of those words was reanalyzed as being a single unit. This is what Marchand (1969) had to say about -ic vs. -ical at this time in their history: There was, at the beginning, indiscriminate coexistence of two synonymous adjectives. But language does not like to have two words for one and the same notion, and competi...

Usage in sentence: Person A: Ooh - look at that crow! Person B: Well, actually, as someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. They're not the same thing. If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens. It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. Person A: Are you always such an XXX? "Pedant" is close, but not quite. It would be a mix of "know-it-all", "condescending" and "arrogant".

Almost no one does it except professors and cosmopolitans. Though some books will say that "what" should be pronounced "hwutt" and not "wutt", is it really recommended for us, the common folk, to espouse this pronunciation; or would we sound affected in doing so? Answer As others have noted, w(h)ether you should pronounce "wh" as /w/ or /ʍ/ depends on what the prevailing regional accent does. The big exception to this is singing; it pays to be fussy about pronunciation when you sing, even if you wouldn't in normal speech, because it helps the words to come through the texture. Incidentally, you shouldn't think of /ʍ/ as sounding like "hw". /ʍ/ is an unvoiced aspirant made with the "w" mouth shape, not an /h/ followed by a /w/.

Is there a specific word such as racism or sexism that describes discrimination based solely on handedness?

With the introduction of the iPad 2, I find myself hesitating when trying to refer to several of them. Is it iPads 2 or iPad 2's? Answer Since iPad 2 is the brand name, the plural form would be "iPad 2s". A search for "iPad 2s" reveals over 500 hits while "iPads 2" yields only 80. Normally I don't care much for Google search results as an indicator for grammar, but in this case it appears that many of the "iPad 2s" hits are from official vendors and reviewers. However, there is enough room for doubt that you are probably fine spelling it how you like.

I tend to use should when it's a suggestion I don't have a strong opinion on, i.e. it could be done in many other ways than the one I'm suggesting and it can still happen. You should stop by that gas station to go to the bathroom. On the other hand, I usually use must for things that have to happen in a certain way; any other way would make that thing not to happen. The problem is that some people find this usage harsh, as they receive it like if I'm giving them an order. You must cross the street to get to that store. To me, it's just a depiction of reality, not an order. But I'm neither a native speaker nor a regular person. :-) So, what's the proper use for must and should ? Does this use differ among the English dialects? Answer There isn't really any vagueness about when to use must and when to use should . Must always implies absolute obligation or certainty. Should always implies a request, suggestion, or expectation although in some cont...

How would I punctuate the following sentence: Furious, John strove to catch Jim by the shirt so that he might throw him against the wall, but once more, Jim was too quick. Where I'm getting stuck is on whether or not I need a comma before the "but once more" part of the sentence. I have a similar issue on another sentence that is fairly complex: When they broke apart, the old warrior bled from many wounds, and for the first time in decades, there was something close to worry in his eyes. Here, my issue is whether I need a comma before "and for the first time in decades" or if I should leave it out.

The article of May 21 New York Times written by Stanley Fish under the title, “What Do Spoilers Spoil?” begins with the following lines: Over 10 percent of the comments on my ‘Hunger Games’ column brought up the question of spoiler alerts. "Haven’t you heard of a spoiler alert ?", one exasperated reader asked. No. I haven’t heard of the word spoiler alert as of yet. The article ends with the following line: If ‘The Hunger Games’ is so shallow that it can be spoiled by a plot revelation, the alert doesn’t save much. If ‘The Hunger Games’ is a serious accomplishment, no plot revelation can spoil it. From the context of the column, I can interpret the meaning of “spoiler alert” two ways: It means a comment or warning to the effect of “the work isn't worth any further reading” to others, or Just “revelation of the end result of the story to others”. What does “spoiler alert” here mean? Does the question in Stanley Fish’s statement, “Haven’t you heard of a spoiler alert?” mea...

What is the meaning of this sentence? He never had taken nor will ever take such strong measures. Can never and nor be used in the same sentence?

What is the exact meaning of "names of sensitives" and "spoke"? does "spoke" refers to talking about something or not? Finally, above the monotonous horizon of human happenings there did actually appear a strange manifestation. There had been a legend that the spiritual gifts of earlier days would reassert themselves before the end, and here apparently was the forgotten gift of tongues coming back into the experience of mankind. It had begun in 1830 on the western side of Scotland, where the names of the sensitives , Campbell and MacDonald, spoke of that Celtic blood which has always been more alive to spiritual influences than the heavier Teutonic strain. The Albury Prophets were much exercised in their minds, and an emissary was sent from Mr. Irving's church to investigate and report. He found that the matter was very real. The people were of good repute, one of them, indeed, a woman whose character could best be described as saintly. The strange to...

Wikipedia says: A postscript may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added to, often hastily and incidentally, after the signature of a letter or (sometimes) the main body of an essay or book. When all letters were handwritten, and adding a new thought to the letter would have likely involved rewriting the entire letter, a postscript had obvious practicality. Now, however, one can just as easily add the thought to the main text. Answer I use a P.S. rather often in my emails, when the content of the P.S. is unrelated to the rest of the body of the message. For example, if I was writing two or three paragraphs about a database problem to a colleague, but I knew his wife had been recently released from the hospital, I might end the message with something like: P.S. I hope your wife is doing better. That's an easy way to make an abrupt transition to something unrelated to the rest of the message. Such modern usage isn't driven by an inability to convenient...

I have encountered the phrase "due diligence" in the business world. The usage examples I have seen (mostly emails) cannot exactly be considered grammatical canon. An internet search produces lackluster results. Most usage examples refer to the "due diligence process". But in my business it's not a formal process, but an ambiguous obligation. The usage I am familiar with is similar to the following: We need to do our due diligence to investigate this. We need to use due diligence to investigate this. We need to perform due diligence to investigate this. Is any of that correct? Answer A lawyer referring to the process of investigating a potential merger/investment might say: We need to perform due diligence. There is also business buzzword of "due diligence", derived from the legal meaning to mean the level of care/attention that one would reasonably be expected to take in this situation. In my (American) experience, this is commonly used in the bus...