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The dictionaries define it as "practising law", which is not the case in these examples. I guess its an up-and-coming "new" word which is instantly familiar. What does it mean? Language issues. Combine English as a very second language + spec-lawyering + late-night meetings, and you have an ongoing headache. and How should I handle an 8 year old lawyering and quibbling? Answer An important part of a professional lawyer's job is looking for inconsistencies and loopholes. This may be preemptive , such as determining the exact wording of a contract, or it may be reactive ("You didn't actually say that it was required."). In the context of practicing law, this is both expected and laudable. Well, mostly laudable. See the case of Dickens' Jarndyce v Jarndyce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarndyce_and_Jarndyce , which serves as a classic literary example of the process run amok. Outside of the law, however, the same process can produce endless disc...

I tried to reference this , but this doesn`t comport with the context, from P151, How the Law Works, Gary Slapper. I'd guess that as of = by , but please explain or refute? ‘Excusal as of right’ meant that certain classes of people, including MPs and doctors, could be excused from service without the need to refer to any particular reason. Answer The definition of "as of right" in Your Dictionary is (law) by means of a legal entitlement, rather than through extenuating circumstances. The same source quotes Webster's New World Law Dictionary as defining the term this way: Description of a court action that a party may take without permission of the court, as opposed to requiring leave of court. Perhaps the easiest way to interpret the phrase "as of right," therefore, is as having the meaning "as a matter of right." Various early occurrences of the phrase seem to reinforce this reading. For example, Journals of the House of Lords (1610) has this ...

Baba ghanouj is a delicious Middle Eastern dip made from roast eggplant and garlic. I've found the name spelled a multitude of different ways on the internet, but there are two peculiar things about its pronunciation: The name is always spelled with "j" as the final consonant I've always heard the name pronounced with a final "sh" sound [ʃ] How did this peculiar situation arise? The word is obviously borrowed, though I don't know the source language, yet it seems like any reasonable transliteration would use a symbol other than "j" for [ʃ]. Answer The name "baba ghanouj" is Arabic, and is written differently depending on how you convert the Arabic script into English. Sometimes it is written with an "sh" instead of a "j". The final consonant in "baba ghanouj" is ج ; in Arabic, this is usually pronounced [dʒ] (as in the English "j" sound) or [ʒ] (like "Jacques"). (In Egypt, this even g...

Are "traitor" and "trader" distinguishable when spoken with any English accent? My English-speaking friends seem to pronounce them exactly the same way. Answer The allophones of /t/ in English are [tʰ] , [t] , [ɾ] , and [ʔ] . Which of those you get in any particular word and speaker depends on many, many factors. Both trader and traitor alike are indeed pronounced [ˈtʰɹeɪɾɚ] by most North Americans, particularly in casual or quick speech. Intervocalic /t/ almost always reduces to a single flap [ɾ] there. That’s why ladder and latter are homophonic, although kitten and kiddin’ are not. Indeed, kitten may become just [ˈkʰɪʔn̩] (sometimes written [ˈkʰɪʔən] ) , often enough. In contrast, intervocalic /t/ does not reduce to a flap in RP; it can sometimes do so in other British dialects, though. So RP would make traitor into [ˈtʰɹeɪtə] instead, with a linking [ɹ] at the end as needed for liaison only. In Scots English you might find [ˈtɾeɪtʰɚ] (sometimes...

I've come across the phrase "Listen carefully to what I say" and I'm really not sure why carefully has gone in between listen and to . It doesn't happen with other verbs; you don't "switch carefully on the light", for example. When can an adverb follow a verb, and when can it not?

In the UK, I've heard pants being used as slang for underpants (or was it in Bridget Jones' Diary ?), whereas in India it almost exclusively means "trousers". Describing the meaning of "put your pants on one leg at a time", this link says: To say that someone puts their pants on one leg at a time means that the person is a human being no different from anyone else. The idiom's origin seems to refer to trousers but I'm wondering whether someone reading this might think "underpants" rather than trousers? Answer In the UK "Pants" typically refers to underwear. (Where it is also a slang term for "bad". As in "That's pants".) In other parts of the world, notably the USA, "pants" refers to trousers.

In the phrase "to get all crazy" am I correct when I say that the "all crazy" is a particle phrase? Example: I'm up for tonight's party. I'm going to get all crazy .

Now, I never do this, but in some few cases I have seen people use multiple exclamation (or question) marks like this: Hey!!! Is that grammatically correct? (Or just okay). In case it is, how many marks are grammatically allowed/accepted? Answer 'Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind.' -- Eric, Terry Pratchett More on this subject on the Discworld and Pratchett Wiki . It's just for added emphasis. I do not believe it is strictly grammatically correct, but then using ALLCAPS is not, but people do that too, emphasis once again.

Consider the following sentence. The blue page is stapled to the red page. Although "stapled" is (apparently) past-tense, nonetheless the above sentence is clearly expressing something about the present. What gives? In particular, would it be wrong to label "stapled" as past-tense in that sentence? ( note: Er, actually the OP's question involves the difference between a passive construction and a construction with a predicative adjective -- F.E.) Answer The blue page is stapled to the red page. In particular, would it be wrong to label "stapled" as past-tense in the above sentence? Well, let's look at this a bit. First of all, your example sentence has only one tensed verb, and that is the verb "is" -- the verb "is" is present tense . There is no verb in your example sentence that is past tense . LONG VERSION: The word "stapled" is either a past-participle form of a verb in a passive-voice construction, or it is an...

Can you use the phrase ”the fact” without “that”? Consider the two sentences: The fact that it’s Sunday means that I can sleep all day. The fact it’s Sunday means that I can sleep all day. Clearly the first sentence is correct and in common use. The second doesn’t sound right to me, but I can’t find clear evidence to prove (to someone) that it is indeed wrong. Apart from answering, I would really like a reference, or an English rule, showing that the second is correct/incorrect. Answer Collins Cobuild English Usage (p238) has this entry on the expression the fact that : You can refer to a whole situation by using a clause beginning with the fact that . The fact that quick results are unlikely is no excuse for delay. Note that you must use that in clauses like these. You don't say, for example, ' The fact quick results are unlikely is no excuse for delay. ' Nevertheless, I suspect native speakers will commonly omit the that in informal spoken language - as I have in the ...

According to the dictionary: peak — the pointed top of a mountain; a mountain with a pointed top summit — the highest point of something, especially the top of a mountain In the picture of the “mountain” word entry in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary , they look the same: So, what is the difference between these two words in the meaning of a mountain top? Answer If you go by Wikipedia , In topography, a summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a local maximum in elevation. The topographic terms "acme", "apex", "peak", and "zenith" are synonyms . According to this glossary , The summit is the highest point. In theory , every mountain has exactly one summit. In practice , mountaineers will in many cases talk about multiple summits (eg Everest South Summit), thus blurring the distinction between "summit" and "peak" . Sometimes as...

When I am writing an essay, do I spell out times? How would I write AM or PM? Example: 11:45 PM How would I write that?

Certain English words are pronounced with two different vowels depending on the dialect of the speaker, namely with /ɑː/ or /æ/ (in IPA notation). These include: can't, last, fast, past, path, vast, dance Can you point me to a list of all common words with this property? I recently heard the word “path” in a sound recording pronounced as /pæθ/, and didn't recognize it despite repeatedly listening. I was aware that “can't” has two pronunciations, but I didn't know this about all these words. I am asking this question so that in the future I have less trouble understanding such words. Update: for search, here is a list of some such words that may be similar, based on the answer: advance, advantage, after, answer, ask, aunt, branch, brass, can't, cast, castle, chance, class, command, contrast, dance, demand, disaster, draft, enhance, example, fast, glass, glance, grant, graph, grass, half, last, laugh, mask, master, nasty, pass, past, path, photograph, plant, rather, s...

After starting to use the siunitx package for typesetting units (and the numerals before the units) in LaTeX, I noticed that it typesets a single space between a numeral and a unit (a space that is not as wide as a normal space). I have tried unsuccessfully to find a proper reference that calls for this. Wikipedia mentions it on Space (punctuation) , but the external reference given on the Wikipedia page, which is in this online .pdf brochure , does not say anything about thin spaces. It only mentions that there should be a space between numerals and units, but says nothing about the size of that space (in which case I think it is reasonable to assume that a normal space is referred to). I have added a question about this in the talk section for the Space article. What is the proper size of spaces between numerals and units? It would be interesting to know the source for the usage of thin spaces in siunitx, and if that is the way it "really should be". Answer As I understan...

At university I was introduced to various affixes; prefix, suffix, interfix. The latter, I was told, could be created by putting an adjective in the middle of a word, thus interrupting it; abso-bloody-lutely or done-diddely-one (as used by The Simpsons' character Ned Flanders). It is highly likely this kind of 'interruption' is mostly used in spoken language. However, according to Wikipedia, Glottopedia, and other sites, an interfix has no intrinsic meaning and is phonological, used to link two morphemes; speed-o-meter , for instance. What I would like to know is what to call an "interfix" that may have meaning, and/or is used as a form of exaggeration. Is it still considered an interfix? Answer Some disagree about the terminology, as should be expected, but semantic value is the distinction between an 'interfix' and an 'infix' in English. An 'interfix' is (linguistics) An empty morph inserted between two morphemes in the process of wor...

Where does this expression come from? I understand when it's used, but I was wondering about its origin. Answer I found a use of the phrase in The Sun of New London, Connecticut, January 13, 1917:

What is a good word(s) for someone who excessively asks for information that they have no business knowing? This person constantly asks what other people have on their schedule. This same person (and I apologize if I am getting too personal) was recently caught rifling through other employee schedules. I have terminated the employee and was issuing a termination letter.

Is the sentence below grammatically correct? Good writing requires hard work. Or should it read: Writing well requires hard work. Can a gerund be modified by an adjective or must it be modified necessarily by an adverb? If it can be modified by an adjective, when you diagram it, would the good come off of the word writing on the stilt, or would it go below the regular baseline?

Some time ago I learned the difference between a present participle and a gerund, so today I decided to pass any online test to make sure I understand it. I passed it having made only one mistake, which asked the difference between the two in this sentence: Nobody was surprised at John being absent. One needed to choose between present participle and gerund in reference to the word being . I chose present participle because the word being here plays a role of an adjective apart from a verb. I thought that if it had read John's being , then the word would have been a participle because it would be a noun in a form of a verb. I know, this question is a duplicate and I agree that it should be closed, but I just would like to find out whether it was me who made a mistake or whether it was the website that diddo. Answer It's a gerund. A gerund functions as noun. A noun is a thing. "John being absent" is a thing. It is the thing that nobody was surprised at. It's not ...

As the title suggests, what's a single word to call someone who writes literature? (By Literature, I refer to great works such as those written by Keats, Joyce, Faulkner, Bronte, etc.) Exempli gratia, we call someone who writes poetry a poet , a playwright writes drama etc. So, in general, what do we call someone who writes literature? (Mathematician+Physicist+Chemist+...)=Scientist Then, (Poet+Playwright+...)=? Any help is appreciated. EDIT: By literature, I mean fictional works such as poetry, play, short-story, novel. Science fiction can also be considered. Some Feynman-esque papers might suffice to fall in the category. Although it excludes text books, scientific papers and the equivalent. Answer I'd suggest, litterateur/littérateur Also , literator n. - One who is devoted to the study or writing of literature FOD Alternately, how about belletrist and literarian ? belletrist : a writer of belles-lettres FOD literarian n. — «A literarian is someone who loves literatu...

George Carlin has a famous sketch where he laments the dehumanising of ailments by “euphemisation”, illustrated by the use of “shell shock” during World War I, followed by “battle fatigue”, then “operational exhaustion”, and finally “post-traumatic stress disorder” (“PTSD”) today. Google Ngram Viewer does indicate that “operational exhaustion” never gained traction, and that “battle fatigue” never overtook “shell shock” completely, but “post-traumatic stress disorder” has left “shell shock” far behind: Other modern medical euphemisms which sprang to mind: As a counterexample, “influenza” is a very old term term which doesn't seem to have acquired a common scientific name . Are the forces behind the creation of such medical euphemisms known? Are they usually caused by political pressure, a wish to dissociate the professional from slang, some actual scientific reasoning, or some other force? Answer The move from “battle fatigue” to “post-traumatic stress disorder” is not euphemism...

A relatively modern dictionary (I don’t know which one, because we’ve cut out the pages and used them as wallpaper in our bathroom, but I know it’s less than 20 years old) indicates that R’s is one correct pluralization of R , as is Rs , but whichever dictionary this is, it’s kind of a no-name brand, so I’m not sure I trust it. I’ve always wondered what the best way was to pluralize single letters or numerals, like 2’s or 2s . What’s correct? Answer From this Wikipedia page : It is generally acceptable to use apostrophes to show plurals of single lower-case letters, such as be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's . Some style guides would prefer to use a change of font: dot your i s and cross your t s . Upper case letters need no apostrophe (I got three As in my exams) except when there is a risk of misreading, such as at the start of a sentence: A's are the highest marks achievable in these exams. For groups of years, the apostrophe at the end cannot be regarded a...

I would like to say something like The boy, Adam's, favorite toy was a bike. What is the proper way to say this? Answer Yes. That's right. The possessive -'s suffix has gone from being a paradigmatic Genitive Case suffix that marks the possessor noun in Old English (or Modern German ), to being a syntactic clitic marker in Modern English that marks the end of a Noun Phrase containing the possessor (e.g, the King of England's mistress ). Since the boy and Adam are both noun phrases in an apposition relation, that in itself constitutes an NP, and that NP ends with Adam . Hence that's where -'s may be placed. The boy, Adam's, favorite toy was a bike. However, -'s may also mark both of the apposed NPs, since they're NPs too, and they're both possessors. The boy's, Adam's, favorite toy was a bike. In writing, this last construction might be a good occasion to use a dash to set off the appositive. The boy's -- Adam's -- favorit...

Using the definite article before a country/state name I am from India, and I do not say that I am from “the India”. But someone from USA would say “I am from the United States of America.” Why do you need to use the extra “the” in the second case? Answer Very simply: If the country name is common nouns, use the - the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom. If it is a group of islands, use the - the Bahamas, the Maldives. If it the name is common nouns followed by 'of', use the - the United States of America, the Peoples Republic of China. If the name is taken from a geographical feature, you should use the - the Yemen, the Lebanon. This last one is declining though. India is just a plain old proper noun, like a persons name, and hence takes no article.

What does this sentence mean? This observation hit me like a two-by-four Source . Answer 2×4: Image courtesy of Wikipedia . Edit: Wikipedia has since corrected itself that this is indeed a 2×6, but you get the idea. Oh, and the sentence as a whole means that the observation was a big surprise or a great shock; an aha experience or a eureka moment ; an eye-opener .

I have the following sentence: I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability and outstanding coordination and communication skills. Using the Oxford comma, what is the correct way to write it? I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability, and outstanding coordination and communication skills. I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability and outstanding coordination, and communication skills. Answer The serial comma only comes into play if you have an actual list, i.e. three or more items. You only have two: excellent problem solving ability and outstanding coordination and communications skills To see this, look at the nouns, not the phrases describing them: ability and skills are two things. Within the phrase "outstanding coordination and communications skills", it is absolutely wrong to insert a comma before the "and". For the sentence as a whole, though, the issue isn't quite so clear-cut: it's...

I have 1210.802 units in a mutual fund. How do I write it in words? "One thousand two hundred and ten..." How do I write the decimal units here? Answer I wonder: if you must complete the form using words, is it necessary to include the fractional part? One could say: I own approximately twelve hundred and ten shares . or, I have just over one thousand, two hundred and ten units . If you must be absolutely precise, though, you might use: One thousand, two hundred and ten units, plus eight hundred and two thousandths of a unit . My goodness, though! After you write such a monstrosity, do what Barrie suggested, and put the number in parentheses.

The Washington Post (May 31, 2017) reports that “[President] Trump targets ‘negative press covfefe’ ” in his tweet : MORNING MIX: Trump targets ‘ negative press covfefe’ in garbled midnight tweet that becomes worldwide joke / Trump tweets ‘ covfefe ,’ inspiring a semi-comedic act of Congress As I couldn’t find out the meaning of “covfefe” in several English dictionaries at hand, I googled the word. There was no heading and definition of this word there. I heard a TV hostess seriously asking a male guest what “covfefe” means in a TV show tagged in the Washington Post , wherein he confidently explained it’s Yiddish meaning “go to bed.” But to me, this explanation doesn’t seem to fit the line, “President Trump targets ‘negative press covfefe’ ” at all. What does “covfefe” exactly mean in the context of “President Trump targets ‘negative press covfefe’ ”?

What is the correct word order between have/had , been , and already in statements like the following: By the time the product was officially announced, I had already been using it. Or: By the time the product was officially announced, I had been already using it. Or: By the time the product was officially announced, I had been using it already .

I was always under impression, that acronyms ought to be written all caps. However reading BBC News site very often I see some of the common acronyms written as proper names (first cap). For example "Nato" instead of "NATO" . I know that BBC is quite strict in proper English usage, so what would be the reason behind this? Answer The BBC is not as rigid about these matters as some other bodies. For example, it was recently written that the BBC had standardised on "CE" rather than "AD" for denoting years -- but in fact the BBC simply doesn't have a set of rigid standards for such things. The Guardian Style Guide , however, states: Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters: BBC, VAT, etc; if it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) spell out with initial capital, eg Nasa, Nato, unless it can be considered to have entered the language as an everyday word, such as awol, laser and, more recently, asbo, pin number...

I know et voilà is a French interjection and means there it is. It is very much used in the US. Why is the use of et voilà so popular in the US? Which historical fact has made it so popular?

I think both words mean a sort of crevice or corner. Presumably there must be some significant difference. The words are almost always used together: e.g. She searched in every nook and cranny Presumably they can be used separately. I think I may have heard "nook" on its own, but never "cranny". Interestingly the N-gram seems to suggest "nook" is more commonly used than "cranny". Answer In the OED’s definitions, nook seems to have the meaning of some kind of corner, whereas a cranny is some kind of opening or crack. Together they cover a range of possible places in which a thorough search might be conducted. I think either on its own would be rare in current English.

My wife and I are playing a game where you roll dice and move so many spaces in a grid "vertically or horizontally". In the use of English it is very common to say, this or the other when it comes to making a choice (exclusive or). Now I know that "or" can also be inclusive, for example "she couldn't read or write", or can be clearly used as an xor "you either come or not" making the statement true for only one of the options but not both. My issue is where it is not clear whether it is an inclusive/exclusive or, the best example being our game. I argue that you can move in either direction (inclusive) and the normal use of this conjunction in English should be inclusive unless specified otherwise. Is this right? Answer I agree with you (and have written to this effect here ) that English or is ambiguous. Alongside your “she couldn’t read or write” and Andrew Lazarus’ “You must be crazy or stupid” there are ordinary constructions like “Help...

'The Royal We' is the use of 'we' to refer only to the user. I had thought until I looked it up that 'Royal We' referred to the use of 'we' with the inference (whether obvious or subtle) that the person talking doesn't consider themselves to be included in 'we'. Is such usage of 'we' recognised in any phrase analogous to 'The Royal We'? Answer Yes, there is a we that is only used for another person (or people). It is sometimes called the "patronizing we" ( example ), the "all-inclusive we" ( example ), or the "nurse's we" ( example ). One paper says the following: Moreover, the patronizing we or all-inclusive we can be used in addressing instead of you . A doctor may use this to give hope to patients or to indicate that he is part of the situation. Making health communication accessible: A rhetorical analysis of radio health talk (see page 61) The corresponding definition in the OED is: U...

Real quick question If you listen real close... Can you swing by real quick... Sentences like the above two are what I often hear in daily life. If I didn't hear them in the real world, I would probably be more ready to say "If you listen really close..." and "Can you swing by really quick...". Is real being used as an adjective in this scenario? If so, is the usage of adj.+ adj. a common practice in English language? Answer As intensifiers (words that make an adjective stronger), the adjective form of a word (without the ly ) is used very often instead of the adverb form in English. As some of the other answers and comments have remarked, these words are indeed adverbs because they modify adjectives. For example: bloody stupid (U.K.), wicked cold (Boston), dead certain . If you said bloodily stupid in England, wickedly cold in Boston, or deadly certain pretty much anywhere, it would sound real funny. People say real hot but don't often say real true...

When giving addresses, what exactly is the meaning of "it's down the street" ? Go straight along the street and it's a little further. It's at the end of the street. It's somewhere in the end.

We've got things like 'inch closer' or 'miss by miles' but nothing common that uses the metric system as far as I know. Answer There are a lot of expressions using second , which is metric. Of course, here the fact that the unit predates the SI system is a strong influence. Gram is beginning to replace ounce , grain and other small units in expressions where it would once have been used, so we can find people using "gram of sense", "gram of truth" etc. Calorie appears in a few expressions related to health, diet and exercise and as such generally referring to a "large calorie" (kcal) rather than a "small calorie" (cal) since large calories are what are conventionally used by food. This unit used to be part of the metric system, and can be considered as part of it in conventional use, though it is no longer used in the SI and so you might decide not to include it as "metric" or not. Megahertz is sometimes used to...

eg. 1 I have to be sharp and clever lest I go hungry? (infinitive) eg. 2 John and his friends feared lest the inquiry promised into the extent of the hated forest areas would be carried out too rigorously? (past tense?). Are both examples acceptable? I've read somewhere that the clause after 'lest' is usually in subjunctive mood and therefore the tense should be an infinitive? Are there other possibilities? Thank you very much!

Long time no see is a typical example for Chinglish , though it is said that long time no see has been accepted by the mainstream English speakers. Recently, there is a neologism movement in the Mainland , and a few new Chinglish words have been invented to demonstrate the characteristics of the Mainland. The most outstanding examples (in my opinion) are: shitizen - a citizen without citizen rights freedamn - the freedom for shitizens (no freedom) democrazy - the democracy for shitizens (no democracy) smilence - the speeches under the freedamn of speech ( ref ) z-turn - to make effort in vain ( zheteng (Pinyin)) Here are my questions. Has there ever been any neologism movement in the history of English? What are the criteria to adopt new words into English? Answer For a phrase to be adopted into a language, enough people have to start using it. There is no set of criteria beyond popularity. There is no way to force a phrase into someone's language at an individual leve...

Can you help me find a synonym to this expression meaning to approach someone as if by grasping the person's garment to have his attention. Could it be used informally to describe boys' attitude to get girls' attention? Answer It's usually used in connection with someone with the proverbial bee in the bonnet, or someone with particularly urgent business. "I was buttonholed by a bible-thumper in the street". "She buttonholed him outside his office and demanded a decision". You wouldn't use it to describe a boy trying to get a girl's attention. You might say, "he came on to her" or "he got alongside her" or (in the north of England) "he tried to get his feet under the table".

Do you use “a” or “an” before acronyms? I got the following sentence from the book I'm reading: You can take a database-first approach by first creating a SQL Server database schema. From what I learned, I think it should be " an SQL Server database schema", not " a SQL Server database schema". So which one is correct? Answer This depends, I would think, on your pronunciation of SQL . It can be pronounced as "sequel", or spelled out as "S-Q-L". That perhaps doesn't help in written English. A thoroughly scientific survey of Google throws up many more hits for "an SQL" than "a SQL". This is also the form used on that Wikipedia article and elsewhere, such as this Microsoft SQL Server documentation entitled "Executing an SQL Query".

Some islands are called isle like "Isle of Man", "Isle of Tortuga" and the "British Isles". Other islands are called island, like "Island of Malta" or "Island of Cyprus". What is the difference between the words? How to know if a land mass confined by water is called an isle or an island? Answer In practice there is no difference, they can be used interchangeably, but isle is archaic. Anything called isle can also be referred to as an island. I had thought that isle was just an archaic version of island , but it turns out the words are actually not related: island (n.) 1590s, earlier yland (c.1300), from Old English igland "island," from ieg "island" (from Proto-Germanic *aujo "thing on the water," from PIE *akwa- "water;" see aqua-) + land "land." Spelling modified 15c. by association with similar but unrelated isle . An Old English cognate was ealand "river-land, watered plac...

This is a follow-up to this earlier question . I want to say that I met a person and they were drunk at the time. Which should I use: I saw intoxicated John. I saw the intoxicated John. I saw John intoxicated. I know I could say I saw John, who was intoxicated , but I want to say it with one clause. How does it work for present participles? I found sleeping John. I found the sleeping John. I found John sleeping. Any rule of thumb for that? Answer I saw John intoxicated [/drunk as a lord] [/happy once]. and I found John sleeping [like a log]. are 'object-orientated depictive constructions' ( Asada ). As these necessarily involve complex predicates, the adjectives (participial or otherwise) must follow the noun they modify (here, the object). Attributive adjectives can of course be used, but don't often sit well with proper nouns (or pronouns): */?I found tipsy John. *I found tipsy him. I found a / the tipsy man. Where both constructions are available, there can be a diffe...

I always have a hard time with the use of on and upon . I have looked at the general comments made in this question , but have the following specific use case in mind that does not seem covered to me: in the sentence we study the influence of anion size on/upon localisation , is one more common than the other? Answer As pointed out in the answers to the question you posted, the difference lies in the usage, not the meaning. "On" and "Upon" are both correct and would both be understood in the context you present. The key difference is whether you want your sentence to feel more old-fashioned (and by extension, more formal). In the context of writing a paper about negatively charged particles, one might want to use "on" to prevent said paper from feeling too outdated.

As far as I know, there are four verbs ( swear , bear , tear , and wear ) whose simple past forms used to be (archaically) sware , bare , tare , and ware ; but are now exclusively swore , bore , tore , and wore . There seems to be a pattern here — the simple past of -ear used to be -are , and is now -ore — but I've never heard an explanation of why that change occurred. I tried graphing sware and swore together (since bare , tare , and ware are all ambiguous) on Ngrams . According to this chart, the two forms were once coexistent, and swore has always been dominant; however, Ngrams has proven to be a less-than-satisfactory authority on issues such as this. Why did -are switch to -ore ?

I have been reading these two posts on would : Why "that would be me"? (part 1) & Why "that would be me"? (part 2) If you want a domestic SUV, then the best choice would be the Ford Escape Hybrid. If you want functional air filters, the best choice would have to be K&N Air Filter. If you really want to use WMA, the best choice would be 2-pass encoding. If you really need a fighter bay, the best choice by far would be a manta bay. Very similar examples exist with present-tense forms of to be: If you want real wood, the best choice is engineered flooring. If you want to stay in colonial Quito, the best choice is the Hotel Real Audiencia. If you want HD programming, Dish Network is the best choice. The post and its comments say that with respect to perceived speaker (un)certainty, perhaps the preterite makes the speaker seem more rather than less certain, by emphasizing that the logic of the hypothetical situation is being carefully evaluated. But I don...

I need help in how to spell the Arabic name (سعد). I previously asked the question Sa'ad : Correct spelling in English and French ; however, it got closed. I added a youtube video describing how it is pronounced, so experts can listen and try to describe how it would be spelled. Based on the FAQ, Spelling and punctuation are acceptable questions. Answer Transliterations of Arabic names tend to follow fairly set principles, but there is some variation when it comes treatment of ع (ayn). Which one you should go for depends largely on your target audience: The most formal, linguistically precise version is to use an open quote mark, “ ‘ ” (the closed quote “ ’ ” being reserved for the glottal stop). Hence, Sa‘ad . In some academic contexts, you’ll sometimes see “9” (e.g., here ). This may be because “ ’ ” is too easily overlooked (though I suspect the convention has crept in under the influence of Word, because some people can’t figure out how turn off smart quotes, and I emphatical...

My car has a funny knocking sound in the engine, so I telephone the garage. What do I say? 'I have a problem with my car'? or 'I have an issue with my car'? My cousin is suffering clinical depression. Is this an 'issue' or an 'illness'? My computer keeps crashing. I call the support people. Do I say my computer has an issue or that it is not working properly? The dinner is burning in the oven. Sorry, dear, there is an issue concerning tonight's meal? Right or wrong? A child is being bullied at school by an older child. Is this a 'pupil relationship issue' or is it 'child abuse'? My neighbour's dog keeps barking and keeps us awake at night, so eventually I go to the neighborhood mediator. Do I tell him there is an 'issue with the dog', or that the 'bloody dog needs shooting'? If there is dog's muck on the recreation ground where children play, is this an 'issue' or a 'disgrace'? The word 'iss...

One Word. A person that falsely, without valid proof, accuses you of something, such as a statement or act you said or did. Either because of his lack of knowledge about the proof or because of intent.

When did the term "my thing" as in " that is my thing " come into usage? Merriam-Webster offers very little help and limits itself to saying thing 7 a : something (such as an activity) that makes a strong appeal to the individual: forte , specialty letting students do their own thing —Newsweek I think travelling is very much a novelist's thing —Philip Larkin and further on 10 : an action or interest especially that someone enjoys very much Music is my thing . Answer 'My thing' as my métier, in 1841 and after The 1841 reference to "do your thing" that Josh61 cites appears to be a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay " Self-Reliance ," first published in 1841. Here is the relevant piece of that essay: What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for he whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will...

Today I had another English lesson and all students were instructed by teacher to ask each other few predefined questions and then to report them. I got the following questions: "What kind of computers do you have?", which I reported as "He asked me what kind of computers I have." "What music do you like?", which I reported as "She asked me what music I like." My logic is that in these cases the situation hasn't changed in the five minutes since the question was asked (I still liked the same music and my computers still weren't stolen) and it is OK to use the present tense here. But my teacher corrected me and insisted that I should always use past tense without any exceptions. What am I missing here? Update I've checked 'English Grammar in Use' by Cambridge University. Quoting Unit 48, "Reported speech 2": It is not always necessary to change the verb in reported speech. If you report something and the situation has...

Is there a better alternative to ambiguous for a word with a wide range of meanings, difficult to find, because they become different in connection with person's opinion.

I was told that saying Like I said isn't grammatically correct although it is used a lot. That we should use As I said instead. Is it true? Answer Like I said is much more informal than As I said , but the former isn't ungrammatical. In formal writing you may prefer to use as , but in speech or less formal writing like is fine.

I've seen many non-native speakers of English not making use of indefinite articles, presumably since their first language did not contain them. Thinking about this, and about the fact that even in English we get along fine without a plural indefinite article (only singular), I wonder why the indefinite article in theory is helpful. It seems to be an arbitrary particle, without the use of which we lose no meaning: A tall man saw a black dog. --> Tall man saw black dog. This sounds stilted; but if we switch gears to plural nouns, it sounds better without articles because English has no plural indefinite articles, only singular: Tall men saw black dogs. The presumption here is that we could understand the nouns in the above sentences as if they had invisible indefinite articles. Therefore, no article = indefinite article, as in many other languages, and as with English plural nouns. My basic question is this: What does the indefinite article accomplish? I'm not asking if we sh...

I noticed that there are a lot of last names that have an 'e' at the end. The pronunciation usually isn't changed from that of the base word. Poole Steele Browne Clarke Why do English words not have the e ? Maybe the answer to this question depends on which came first, pool or poole . Answer Looking up names like Steele and others with the e at the end reveals that before anything was standardized, there were many variations of every name, just as there were for every word. And that they still exist. Changes in spelling of names, as well as words, were effected by all of English's transformations, as well as its influences from many other languages. In the Middle Ages, for example, names like Steele could've been written as Steile , Steel , etc. depending on who was writing it. Whoever wrote at the time would spell things whichever way they heard them, and they may as well have all heard them differently. Checking out this page (of questionable reliability) sh...