Recent questions tagged english usage

Description : Is there a meaningful difference between referring to a Native American as "Pocahantas" and calling a black person a "n-word"?

Last Answer : In my opinion they are. Would like to hear from one of our right wing friends and see what they have to say.

Description : Do the British understand what "deism" is?

Last Answer : Examples, please, otherwise I think you might not be understanding what you are complaining about. Given the history of Deism and its development in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries, I would posit that more Britons understand it than do Americans, who more likely confuse it with Theism.

Description : If I used the word "dyspepsia" or "dyspeptic," would you know what I meant without looking it up?

Last Answer : Well, yes.

Description : Have you heard someone say, "a chester drawers?"?

Last Answer : No. What does it mean?

Description : English Help: I think I need help describing possessive nouns?

Last Answer : answer:The apostrophe is there to indicate possession. It is required. Pleiades' son = the son of Pleiades. Black swan's song = the song of the black swan. Black swan's songs = the songs of the black swan (his ... 's ladder = the ladder of Jacob. Hell's Angel = one of them Hell's Angel = two or more

Description : How to properly use the word substitute?

Last Answer : answer:The former. Although it would be technically incorrect, because if you have sausage and bacon you should probably use both.

Description : English homework help. What kind of sentence is this?

Last Answer : I believe it is an exclamatory statement.

Description : When do you stop being "late" and start being dead?

Last Answer : answer:If you can remember the person being alive, then they are “late.” The only dead people are those who died before you became aware of them. (This is just my impression. This is not a dictionary definition).

Description : What is the other word for text "overlapping"?

Last Answer : I would say that one line of text is superimposed on the other.

Description : How useful or sensible are euphemisms?

Last Answer : I suppose when it is to protect the feelings of a person, it is fine. But publicly, when they call it “department of defence” instead of the honest name “department of WAR”, then I condemn it.

Description : Use of "had to + verb" in a sentence?

Last Answer : answer:Is it necessary (say, as part of a lesson) to use to have to in the sentence? Because it's not usually the preferred way. You can say: Users are (or were for past tense) required to click ... to move to the next page. People had to click on the option check box to move to the next page.

Description : What does "fair enough" mean?

Last Answer : It means that you have come to a close enough understanding for things to be fair in their eyes. It may not be exactly what they want but its close enough and it would maybe be unfair and possibly selfish at times to argue it further. but it really depends on the situation.

Description : If the plural of mouse is mice, then what's the plural of spouse?

Last Answer : Bigamy.

Description : What do you exactly mean when you say "(S)he rocks"?

Last Answer : It means that they are cool, exciting, excellent, they have done something good.

Description : How would you explain the difference between affect and effect, and accept and except?

Last Answer : Affect is a verb. Effect is a noun.

Description : What do you call your family members around your other family members?

Last Answer : I say “did you talk to mom today”

Description : What is the english term for this?

Last Answer : “Head start”

Description : What does LOL mean?

Last Answer : to Laugh Out Loud It’s chatspeak. But usually people aren’t actually laughing out loud when they use it.

Description : I've taken a lot of showers, but have never put one back.

Last Answer : I realized recently that it’s odd that have and gave do not rhyme.

Description : How do you pronounce Sufjan Stevens?

Last Answer : I have heard it the first way, I believe. I even saw him in a movie, and his friends said his name many times, but I can’t recall the proper pronunciation. Darn. I tend to accidentally say Suff-yan. If only that was correct! Wow, that was incredibly un-helpful. Apologies.

Description : How do u feel abut using "hopefully" to mean "I" "one" "we" "he" etc. hopes.

Last Answer : Ever since I learned the 'correct' way, I prefer it.

Description : What do you writers recommend as a good modern book of English style and usage?

Last Answer : Are people still using THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE?

Description : What's the difference between "you will" and "you shall"?

Last Answer : From Bartleby.com: the traditional rules. The traditional rules state that you use shall to show what happens in the future only when I or we is the subject: I shall (not will) call you ... less open to misinterpretation, or you can make your meaning clear by adding an adverb such as certainly.

Description : What's the diff. between "I feel sick" and "I feel sickly"?

Last Answer : i think sickly implies a constant sort of icky, sick fatigue. sick is a physiological thing.

Description : What does the phrase 'missing the woods for the trees' mean? How did it originate?

Last Answer : answer:I think it means that we sometime's get caught in all the little, nitpicky, or pointless things in some situations and fail to see the bigger picture. ...sometimes people focus on ... they stepped back and observed the whole situation, they would find the forest they were looking for.

Description : What does "to shake a stick at" mean now?

Last Answer : answer:I think the actual origins on this are still unclear, but the "shaking of the stick part" seems to stem from a gesture of threatening with an actual stick, with the original meaning ... links: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha2.htm http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifmrthnycnshkstck.shtml

Description : How were "wert" and "wast" used?

Last Answer : answer:wert and wast are archaic forms of "be." Wert is second-person singular past, and wast is first and third-person singular past. So you're correct, the modern-day version of the Shelley ... " at wikipedia, although I can't vouch for its accuracy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Skylark