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How to correctly choose the preposition in "fire (at, on, in, to) target"? Answer on - shoot with purpose to hit and destroy/kill the target. at - shoot in direction of target, attempting to hit but possibly missing it, or not doing any significant damage. ("cover fire") in - shoot through the target which is hollow/open. "fire a rocket in the bunker through that hatch". to - describing maximum range, not actual target. "our mortars can fire to that hill range"

I'm quite surprised there doesn't seem to be a question about this yet. Depending on where you hail from, you've probably heard the word innit, an abbreviation of isn't it or ain't it . You may also have heard it used as a placeholder for any negative tag question, such as isn't he or don't you, much like the French n'est-ce pas . I get how innit could be understood as something like isn't that so, but I can't quite bring myself to use it that way. So what to do instead? I inflect it: Aren't I → areni ['ar(ɛ)naɪ] Aren't you → arencha* ['ar(ɛ)nʧə] Aren't we → arenwe* ['ar(ɛ)nwɪ] Isn't he → innhe* [ɪni] Isn't she → innshe [ɪnʃi] Aren't they → arenthey* [ar(ɛ)n(ð)ɛɪ] Don't I → dunni ['dʌnaɪ] Don't you → doncha* ['dəʊnʧə] Don't we → donwe ['dəʊ(n)wɪ] Doesn't he → dunnhe* ['dʌni] Doesn't she → dunnshe ['dʌnʃi] Don't they → dunney ['dʌnɛɪ] Those marked with asteri...

Our proofreader, a native speaker of American English, just won't let me use this word. Every single time I try to sneak it onto one of our sites, she replaces it with three times . Now, I do realize that thrice is quirky, but how quirky is it really? Is it awfully archaic? Is there a chance that native speakers won't understand it at all? I know I could just search a corpus or five, but I don't feel like looking at cold stats (or the Wiktionary usage notes , for that matter). Instead, I am asking members of this community for their very personal, highly subjective, extremely biased opinions.

A friend and I are trying to remember a word to describe someone who is overly proud of their education. An example usage would be: Does that email make me appear too _ __ ? Where the _ __ is the word I am looking for, in case that is not obvious. He thought the word was "erudite" but when that appears to just mean educated, it doesn't convey the sense of condescending pride we are looking for. What is the word I we are looking for? Answer In your example, I would probably use the word smartass or a more milder smartypants . I think condescending , a word you used later in your question, conveys perfectly well what you're trying to ask. Does that email make me sound too condescending?

Recently one of my friends told me that there is distinct difference between 'know of something' and 'know about something' expressions. 'know of' is used when you have personal experience with what you are talking about 'know about' is used when you have heard about the subject but never had any experience with it. This contradicts with my experience. To me it seems like 'know about' is used in every situation and the use of 'know of' is mostly limited to 'not that I know of' expression. Short google search seems to support my point of view, there are articles named '10 things I know about journalism' where person is speaking from the experience and not that many encounters of 'know of' expression anywhere. So, is my friend's statement true? Answer I would use the expression "I know Smith" if I have had personal experiences with the person. For me, "know about" means that I have heard many...

Which is correct? To back up data. To back data up. The context is the following: He was careful enough to perform tests and [back up data | back data up] to avoid any problems. Answer Back up data is by far the most common, (referencing two Google searches (1780000 results vs. 18200) and Ngrams ), and sounds the most natural. This is because back up , though written as two words in verb form, is spoken (and thought of) as one word. To split the "verb" up and put something in between (e.g. data ) would be to confuse the meaning of the sentence for most people. He was careful enough to perform tests and back up data to avoid any problems. Backup as one word is a noun/adjective, and is not applicable as a verb. The backup software on this computer is ancient. The backup runs from 12 AM to 1 AM every night. Edited to say that I wholeheartedly agree with @tdhsmith's comment: ...while keeping the "verb" whole is generally more readable with wordier objects, most n...

“-zation” vs “-sation”? Each post has an indicator which summarises who the post is shared. What is the difference between these two terms? Should I write summarises or summarizes ? Answer Compare the results from the COCA ( Corpus of Contemporary American English ) to the results from the BNC ( British Natural Corpus ): Summarize Summarise COCA 1135 10 BNC 199 264 Summarise is more common in British English, where summarize can also be found frequently. Summarize is more common in American English, where summarise is rarely used. Note: this page in the Wikipedia contains a long list of words that end with "ize" or "ise" depending on whether the usage is American English or British English. You will find words like summarize(ise), organize(ise), authorize(ise) and many others there.