texts: What's the meaning of "doing fifty five in a fifty four" in "99 problems" by Jay-Z

texts:
In the song "99 Problems" by Jay-Z the performer is rapping about getting pulled over by the police. The purported reason for being pulled over is given by the police officer as "doing fifty five in a fifty four".

My current interpretation is that the officer is talking about a speeding violation, and that Jay-Z was doing 55 miles per hour (mph) in a zone where the maximum speed limit is 54 mph, but that does not really make sense as "speed limits are typically posted in increments of five miles per hour (mph)".

Was the officer just making up some bogus offence, or is there a deeper meaning to the phrase "doing fifty five in a fifty four"?


texts:
I have seen a sentence below.

No matter how hard I try, I suck at Japanese. I mean, how am I EVER
gonna get better at this?

My first question - In this sentence, what is an actual meaning of "how"?

Is that "how" about "-for what reason : WHY from Collins dictionary & merriam-webster"?

e.g.)
How would I know if it's going to rain or not?
How can you talk such nonsense?
or

Is this "how" about "-You use how in expressions such as 'How can you...' and 'How could you...' to indicate that you disapprove of what someone has done or that you find it hard to believe. from Collins dictionary"?

e.g.)
[disapproval]
How can you tell him such awful lies?
How could such a writer be taken seriously?
How could he be so indiscreet?
.
My second question - Is this sentence rhetorical question?


texts: To cook a meal for dinner or to cook the meal for dinner?

texts: To cook a  meal for dinner or to cook the meal for dinner in the sentence like " I cooked the meal for dinner yesterday."? Which one is proper English?


texts: What is the difference between “anybody”, “nobody”, “everyone”, and “everybody”? How are they used?

texts: How are these pronouns placed and used in AmE?


texts: Since Mr. Joval IS absent or WAS absent?

texts:
I'm composing a minutes of the meeting, during that meeting Mr. Joval was absent, but I don't know which word should I use if is or was, could you please help me?

  Since Mr. Joval is absent

or

  Since Mr. Joval was absent


texts: Is there any particular expression for this?

texts:
Okay, the following is what I want to say. But it is too long. So I want to find a better way to express it (the bold), using some idioms or short phrases.

  Your friend caught a cold. So he took medicine. A week later he got better. He says he got recovered because he took medicine. However, I
  want to tell him that the cold went away not because he took
  medicine, but because it has run its course.

I asked people around and someone said that I can express it like
"You got better because it is time you recovered" (It is + past tense).
Is this the right expression? Or is there another way to express it?


texts:
We will do everything we can to help anybody, ____ his background, to
  go as far as his talents will take him.

The answer is supposed to be "whatever". But someone argues "whatever" must have a verb behind.

  ... whatever his background is ...

And I find this, said by Britain PM Teresa May,

  We will do everything we can to help anybody，whatever your
  background，to go as far as your talents will take you.


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase `to be dangerous`?

texts:
When I studied 'ruby' by an e-book, I couldn't understand this sentence:

  Learn Enough Command Line to be Dangerous.

What is the meaning of the phrase to be dangerous in the picture attached below?


texts: "There's no such thing as free lunch" is not as idiomatic, isn't it?

texts:
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, "lunch" can either be countable or uncountable.
Correspondingly, the famous saying could be

There's no such thing as free lunch

or

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Googling the former gets about 206K hits and 263K hits for the latter, which seems that both are basically equally common.
However, Ngram Viewer shows the former is much less common than the latter.
Which indicates that the former is not as idiomatic.
Is my understanding correct?


texts:
I'd like to know which is which! I don't know if I can use them correspondingly or not.
Is there any rule or I have to remember expressions?

You are totally/completely/entirely/fully correct.
I totally/completely/entirely/fully agree with you.
I totally/completely/entirely/fully forgot.
and so on.


texts: Pronunciation of "buy" diphthong. I've seen the first part of this diphthong transcribed with a /a/ sound ,

texts:
I've seen the first part of this diphthong transcribed with an /a/ sound(the most common and traditional one: Cambridge Dictionary for British English,Dictionary.com, Wiktionary...), an /ʌ/ sound ( Oxford Dictionary for British English) and an /ɑ/ sound (Cambridge Dictionary for American English)

I wonder what is the most common pronunciation nowadays for each variety of English. Do English Speakers distinguish between these sounds when someone says this diphthong with a  certain vowel or another?


texts:
I have some questions about the following phrases:

a picture of a naked woman
a naked picture of a woman

On first reading, the second phrase seems wrong.  The second phrase seems to be more popular online than the first phrase, however. Do the two phrases have the same meaning? How is the second valid?


texts: Word meaning "changing career paths often in a short period"

texts:
I'm currently writing a personal statement, and since English is not my native language I sometimes have trouble with transferring my ideas onto paper in English. Here's what's currently troubling me:

  I've always wanted to be a scientist. Throughout my younger years I __ ...

What I want in the blank is a word which conveys that before I chose physics, I actually went from scientific field to scientific field and read about a variety of scientific topics. Basically that I hopped from field to field before I settled for physics. What word can I use here?


texts: The verb explain a situation which you can not look at the sun?

texts:
I don't know how to put this question but imagine it is August in summer time and the time shows at noon.Because the sun is shining very strongly or the sun is too bright , even you can not look around or at the sun directly without sunglasses.

My question how can we write this situation.

Here are possible sentences came to mind.

  The sun/sunlight blinded my eyes so I could not look around.

  I was blinded by the sun/sunlight.

  The sun/sunlight hurted my eyes so I could not look around.

  The sun/sunlight dazzled my eyes/me.

By the way the situation I imply is not medical or permanent.

Thank you


texts:
The following quote is from Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

  The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines.

I don't understand this structurally.  What does the when clause explain?
I don't really understand the meaning, either.


texts:
Tell me please which preposition is correct to use in the following sentence.

  We are going to work the shoulders in/on the next workout.

I am leaning towards in, but not 100℅ sure if it is correct, if it is not, then why?


texts:
I want to dredge below and ask not about the definition; I don't duplicate this. I'd like to learn how to unravel 'bring to bear`, to determine its meaning (de novo).

For example, which definition of bear applies here? What's being brought?

Motivation: p 31, The English Legal System 2012-2013, Gary Slapper


texts:
Last year, he went on a foreign exchange program to the US.

I am quite confident that the sentence above is perfectly natural as I found several similar sentences in the COCA(Corpus of contemporary American English). However, I am not so sure whether these sound natural as well.

... he went to the US as a foreign exchange student.

or

... he went to the US for a foreign exchange program.

or

... he went to the US to join a foreign exchange program.

As regards the words marked in bold, which one sounds more natural to you?


texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct?

For nearly 30 years he has tried to persuade the Commission to let him walk across the Falls. At last he has been granted permission.
For nearly 30 years he has been trying to persuade the Commission to let him walk across the falls. At last he has been granted permission.

Which of the first sentences are correct? Or are both correct? And what are the differences?

Thank you in advance for your answers.


texts: What's more preferable: "method of obtaining" or "method to obtain"?

texts: In a scientific paper one describes a method to obtain some sort of formulas. But one always write "method of obtaining". Isn't it less natural then to write "method to obtain", or these are two equally usable wordings?


texts: We are hoping for ‘mutual divorce’ or ‘a/the mutual divorce’. Is divorce here countable or uncountable?

texts: How to recognise uncountable nouns.? When should we avoid using articles especially before the nouns that act as both countable and uncountable nouns?


texts:
The Guideline sets out criteria for evaluating the performance of officials.
  The Guideline sets out standards for evaluating the performance of officials.

In daily use, does criteria overlap with standards? If a guideline list a number of  factors to rate how an official perform, do we call these factors criteria or standards?


texts: "Your age" in the phrase of "a boy your age" modifies "a boy"?

texts:
But I'm amazed at how a boy "your age" understood what my job was.

I'd think that's a modifier because in the how clause, the subject of understood seems to be "a boy", not "your age". Yet, I'm not sure undoubtedly whether "your age" modifies "a boy". Is it possible for me to paraphrase "a boy your age" into "a boy of your age"? I'm grateful to you for reading my question.


texts: "started to say something" vs "began to say something"

texts:
Example:

She started/began to say something, but he'd already gotten up and left the house.

I think "start" is used for abrupt and long-lasting actions. And "began" is used for actions that start gradually and in the moment.
What is the most common choice and why?


texts:
I have a question about the usage of the preposition "to" here:

  The European migrant crisis refers to the rising number of illegal immigrant arrivals to the European Union across the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans from Africa and Southwest Asia.

Would "arrivals at the European Union" be better, since people normally write "they arrived at some place", not "they arrived to some place"?


texts: meaning of the phrase "follow oneself up on something in context

texts:
It is from this video. It is at 14 minute and 23 second.

  There is also a cardio component in all sports. Even you could make a nitpicky argument that powerlifting and weightlifting have some marginal cardio components, like if you can't follow yourself up on a lift, you are probably not going to do as well as you could.


texts: The usage of conditional with the pairs “neither/nor” and “either /or”

texts:
If I could neither eat nor drink, then I would certainly get sick soon.
If I did neither eat nor drink, then I would certainly get sick soon.
If I couldn’t either eat or drink, then I would certainly get sick soon.

I would like to know whether the above sentences are grammatically correct and what is the difference of their meaning.


texts: 'X' clinics - what should replace 'X'? The problem or the solution?

texts:
What comes at the place of 'X' is really fun to learn -

a) Obesity clinic - the clinic where obesity is treated. After some time, obesity is gone.  b)  Diabetes clinic - the clinic where diabetes is treated. After some time diabetes is gone. BUT...  c) Fertility clinic - the clinic where fertility infertility is treated. After some time, fertility infertility is gone.
In (a) and (b), the problem replaced the 'X' whereas in (c), the solution replaced the 'X'.

In this way, what should replace 'X' if the clinic is to remove hair from head and make a person bald. These days, bald is beautiful! It's fashion and many prefer it.

Hair clinic - the clinic where hair is treated. After some time, hair is gone! Really?

Certainly not; a hair clinic is where the problems of hair are treated. In fact, if you suffer from baldness, you are likely to visit hair clinic.
On the other hand, if you use baldness, it further creates ambiguity.

Baldness clinic - the clinic where baldness is treated. After some time, baldness is gone. But I want baldness.


texts: Sentence Meaning using "have always been"

texts:
My parents and teachers have always been supportive and have encouraged me

What is exact meaning of above sentence

if current month is September

1. They have been supportive from January till September
2. Thay have been supportive from January to September and in future also remain   supportive.
4. They were always supportive.
5. Or They have supported in past


texts: What does "lifeline" mean in this context?

texts:
I know, that "lifeline" is:

a thing on which someone or something depends or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation.
a rope or line used for life-saving, typically one thrown to rescue someone in difficulties in water or one used by sailors to secure themselves to a boat.

But I have no idea how to connect "name" and "lifeline" in the sentence below. Thank you for your kind help :)

The next thirty minutes are the longest and slowest of my
life. His words bounce around my head, refusing to stick:
Small cell lung cancer. Stage 4. It’s not good.
“Lex?” he says my name as if it’s a lifeline, and I realize I
haven’t said a word.
“How could this happen? You’re too young.”

Alison Hammer "You, Me, and Us"


texts: tense and aspect: had imagined or imagined?

texts:
In the following passage, could "had ever imagined" be replaced by "ever imagined"? Any difference of meaning?

  More than ever before, our language and our ideas about language are changing as rapidly as the world around us. Our Information Age has been made possible, of course, by the ever-expanding technology of computers and the extraordinary explosion of information from the Internet and World Wide Web. We are receiving more information than we had ever imagined possible.

I'd appreciate your help.


texts:
Here is an example:

  My father did not visit the exhibition and neither did I.

Is it OK to say the same in the following way:

  My father did not visit the exhibition and so did I.

Is there any difference in the meaning?


texts: I always wonder about 'to let'. The origin, the meaning, the concept

texts:
OxfordDictionaries has an entry for this -

  to let - (Of a room or property) available for rent

But then how is that? Is it a verb phrase? How does it mean "available for rent?" Is it something to do with to let anyone come in the house? :)


texts: which one is more correct?has/had to have been

texts:
If he found the knife that quickly, then it … to have been on the
  kitchen table

which one is correct? Has / had? Or maybe both?


texts:
These following two paragraphs are from one book and come one after another.

  While this treatise might not appear to meet the normal requirements
  of an academic paper, let it be said that such was not even our
  intention. This is a work composed by a scientist and a religious
  leader. If science and religion are to live side by side in mutual
  non-judgment, there needs to be a new model for dialogue, one that
  takes into account the interests of both sides. Religious people don't
  really "do" numbers. Scientists can't get dates and don't have a
  clue what real people think. By collecting and presenting a different
  kind of data, we aim to appeal to "Bible thumpers" and "brainiacs"
  alike. Just getting those epithets out on the table can make a
  difference.

  In fact, we feel better already. Too many resources are being wasted
  in trying to prove intelligence in all we see around us. Wouldn't it
  be better just to throw in the towel, call a spade a spade, and admit
  that our Creator is a dumbass?

I'm confused by the meaning of the phrase get something out on the table, and by the sentence following it as its meaning relies on the previous sentence.

Maybe getting something out on the table means calling something what it is, calling something like one sees it?

I've searched the phrase on Google Ngram which resulted in this one useful excerpt from this book.

  SHG: All right, I think there is something to what you say. I mean we
  might not have heard all the different perpectives that the students
  expressed had you not asked them about their views on premarital sex.
  And the fact that you enphasized the contrast between the boys' and
  girls' view may have allowed each group to push its position more
  fully.

  MP: So you think I was right to ask all those questions?

  SHG: I think you got their views out on the table. Or did you?

  MP: What do you mean?

  SHG: Now that I think about it, I wonder: Did James and the other boys
  really believe all those things they were saying about other boys
  wanting to be satisfied and not caring who they slept with? Maybe that
  was just "macho" talk. And did Colette ever explain why she thought
  sex outside of marriage was "nasty"? I can't recall that she did. Even
  Marcy did not tell us why she thought premarital sex was acceptable if
  the partners loved each other. So maybe we really didn't get their
  views out on the table.

  MP: Look, it seems to me that we learned a lot more about their ideas
  than we would have if I hadn't asked them those questions, if we'd
  just stuck to Shakespeare. Even if James was talking "macho," there
  are people who feel the way he and Michael described themselves as
  feeling. So it was a view that needed to come out on the table. As for
  Colette and Marcy, well, maybe I should have asked them more about why
  they held the views they expressed. But at least we got it started.


texts:
By the end of the century, almost enough rail track to encircle the world covered this small island, altering the nature of travel for ever and contributing to the industrial revolution.

This sentence is taken from a test question, I cannot understand why after the comma in the beginning of sentence there is not any verb. I mean it needs something like this. (There has been built almost enough rail track to encircle....)


texts: What is the difference between width and breadth?

texts:
I have looked this in dictionaries and they both mean: a distance from side to side.

I looked in google and the links say that they have a similar meaning with a slight difference but none pf them clearly explains what is that difference.

I understand that they are synonyms so please don't tell me that again.  I'm specifically looking for the slight difference in their usage. Please explain that to me with some examples.


texts: What is the difference between "come in" and "come inside"?

texts: What's the difference between come in and come inside? When it is raining, a mother would say her daughter, come inside but when a guest comes, come in, please. I think the former is a polite way while the latter is like an order. Am I right?


texts: Grammar - is or are based on technical document

texts:
In the following sentence, I am unsure as to whether the fact the invention (singular) is made up of claims (plural) makes the subject singular or plural and therefore requires is or are. If one of the lovely folks here could help. and maybe explain why? I would be very grateful, Thanks :)

The newly claimed invention defined by present claims 1 and 9 are submitted to be novel over the prior art…

OR

The newly claimed invention defined by present claims 1 and 9 is submitted to be novel over the prior art…


texts:
In the following sentence

Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Modi as a “true friend”, and a “tremendously successful leader”, who he credited with India’s progress.

I think whom should be used.


texts: you turned out -- what exactly does that mean?

texts:
From the movie Road to Perdition (2002) starring Tom Hanks

Long story short, the main character played by Tom Hanks is a gangster who works for a rich mafiosi. He's a hitman—he kills people that the boss doesn't like. He's got a son, but the son doesn't know what his daddy really does for a living. And one day his son decides to find that out. So, basically one night he follows him out and sees how his dad and another gangster kill a man. But the dad catches him and everybody knows that his son saw what happened. The following is a short dialog between the daddy and the mafiosi:

  — How is Michael? ls he okay?
  — I've spoken to him. He understands.
  — That's tough seeing that for the first time. Well, you turned out. You can't protect them forever. If it wasn't this, it'd be something else. Natural law.

I'm not really sure what he means by you turned out.


texts:
Could this sentence mean - how long is your stay? and it is known that my stay is temporary

If "i have been on a holiday for two weeks" could be used when i am currently on a holiday.


texts: Difference between 'enrage' and 'get somebody angry'

texts:
What difference, if any, is there between between enrage and get somebody angry ?

  New tax policy will do nothing but enrage people.
  New tax policy will do nothing but get people angry.


texts:
He bought the house with a big backyard. This combination tells the listener which specific house he bought.

  He bought a house with a big backyard. This combination tells the listener what kind of house he bought, but not the specific house he
  bought.

I always thought that I can say "the house with a big backyard" whether the listener knows about the house or not.

But in the previous question regarding articles, I received an answer saying ""the" won't work if the listener does not have any information about the house before hearing about it", and said one should use "a" if the listener does not have any background information about it.

So I realized that "a" and "the" are entirely governend by whether the listener already knows it or not, not whether you are trying to specify the item or not.

I was living happily with this knowledge, until another question came into my mind.

Take a look at this conversation:

  John: What did you do yesterday?

  Sam (a prosecutor): I was hearing a reason a murderer killed the
  victim being justified.

John did not know anything about the trial, and "reason the murderer killed the victim" is new information to him. John did not know about it till Sam told him. Thus, in this case, use of indefinite article should be natural.

But it doesn't sound natural. It sounds strange.

My gut tells me that "the" should be used in that case, even though the idea is introduced for the first time, and the listener knew nothing about it.

I think the only time that "a" can be used in this sentence with "reason" is if there were more than one reason. But there was only one reason.

But why can I not use "a" in that case? Or is it actually possible?

(the dialogue is made up)

EDIT: I found a valid instance;

  (2)     That wasn’t a reason I left Pittsburgh, it was the reason.

From https://msu.edu/~abbottb/support.htm


texts: help me make sense of the following sentence

texts:
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-bad-russia-start-hoarding-063454177.html

  The ruble has sunk 19 percent this month to 61 per dollar even after posting a 10 percent rebound on Wednesday triggered by the government's sale of dollars and central bank measures to help companies refinance looming foreign-currency debt. The currency's down 46 percent this year through yesterday, the result of tumbling prices for oil, Russia's top export, and international sanctions tied to the Ukraine conflict.

I can't find the subject and verb in that sentence. Is currency's in the possessive case or is 's just a contraction form of is? Which part of the sentence is Russia's top export grammatically aligned with?


texts:
There are times where I am unable to tell when should I use present/past tense for such sentences.

Can anyone explain when/how should I apply the correct tense when dealing with interrogative sentences?

"I never take this for granted" or "I never took this for granted"?
"Did you take the keys" or "Did you took the keys"?


texts:
Although functions in JavaScript are a kind of object, the typeof operator considers functions to be sufficiently different that they have their own return value.

I don't understand in what aspect the clause following that relates to the rest of the sentence. But, if I change that to in that, the sentence actually makes perfect sense.


texts: No issue or No issues. Which is correct?

texts: I have a quick doubt. Which is the correct usage of English, 'No issue' or 'No issues'? When we didn't get any issue, it represents null, so, ideally it has to be 'no issue'. Please correct me.


texts:
Which do English talkers recognize "I want to fix it." as
(1) "I want to modify/change/repair it" or
(2) "I don't want to modify/change/repair it anymore"?
Since the both have the opposite meaning in the software engineering, I often confused it. I also want to know whether the English talkers has the same confusion in this word.


texts: Relative pronoun "whose" as an object rather than a subject

texts:
Is it grammatical to say

  I have a friend whose father I respect so much

when there are the following facts:

I have a friend
I respect his/her father so much


texts:
Try I did. But I couldn't succeed.

I remember hearing this, but I don't understand the nuance of this inversion.


texts: "I hope you write those letters thick." is correct?

texts:
I am not a native English speaker,
but to me, the sentence below sounds natural.

  "I hope you write those letters thick."

But I also definitely know that the following sentence is correct.

  "I hope you write those letters thickly."

Is the former also correct?


texts: What is the meaning of Andrew words: " One still is all thumbs"?

texts:
In English fantasy movie, Bicentennial Man, Little Miss invites Andrew
 (Robot) to her marriage.

  Little Miss: It would mean so much to me, if you would be an Usher at
  my wedding.

  Andrew:One is unfamiliar with this term. How does one "ush"?

  Little Miss:You help people to their seats. You wear a tuxedo.

  Andrew:One would wear clothing?

  Little Miss: Yes.

  Andrew: One has never been asked to wear clothing. It would be an
  honor.

  Little Miss: Great.

  Andrew: One still is all thumbs.

Actually before having this conversation, Andrew(robot) lose his thumb while cutting something.


texts:
I yesterday read an article about a poet in which the phrase, "as a" was missing.It was like:

  Raju is a great leader. The king of Sultanpur, he works hard and places himself before anyone.

In this, as a is omitted before The  king. It is grammatical or just an informal way of speaking?


texts: What article do we need in this example?

texts:
They offer several payment methods, one of them being a credit card.
They offer several payment methods, one of them being the credit card.
They offer several payment methods, one of them being credit card.


texts: I feel like to eat vs I feel like eating?

texts:
First, are these two expressions "I feel like to .." and "I feel like ..ing .."  correct?

So, What's the meaning of them?

And what's the difference between them?


texts: How do we use the word "since" with a question of "how many"?

texts:
What I want to ask, is if you have a sentence like:

  He has bought his new car since 2015.

What will be the shape of that sentence if we begin it with "How many"? Which of these should it be?

  How many years, has he bought his new car since?
  How many years have been since he bought his new car?
  How many years since he bought his new car?


texts: Verbs that can be changed into passive contruction?

texts:
A transitive verb that expresses an action can be transformed into passive construction. For example, "The boys carried the piano into the house" can be revised into "The piano was carried by the boys into the house". And a transitive verbs that expresses a state cannot be transformed into passive constructions. For example "He has a new car" cannot be revised into "A new car was had by him."

In addition, an "intransitive verb +preposition" that can be followed by an object and express an action can be transformed into passive construction. For example, "Someone broke into my house last week" can be revised into "My house was broken into last week". And an "intransitive verb +preposition" that can be followed by an object and express a state cannot be transformed into passive constructions such as "This book belong to me" cannot be revised into "I was belonged to by the book".

In conclusion,  a transitive verb and an "intransitive verb +preposition" that express an action and can be followed by an object can be transformed into passive construction. So it is not accurate to say that transitive verbs have passive constructions while intransitive verbs don't. Am I right?


texts: How to write this sentences in a work proposal?

texts:
I am writing a formal work proposal, and I have a question about how to list the items in the index of my proposal. Because English is not my first language (Spanish is), I'd like some help making sure I index these correctly.

For example, in my index, should I use:

Description of the project or Project Description
Benefits of this proposal  or  Proposal benefits
Preliminary schedule of the project or just Preliminary schedule

Are there any rules or guidelines that would help me know the best way to set up my index for entries that could be listed in more than one way?


texts: Suggestion on avoiding same word multiple times in Resume writing

texts:
I'm writing my resume and don't want to repeat same word multiple times in a small paragraph of profile section. Currently my write up is below:

  With 7 years’ experience in the software implementation with strong background in health care industry, I’ve written code, automate things and tested them with  flexible and analytical skills with a keen eye for details. After working in India and the UK I believe a true diversified culture with strong work ethics can fulfill business requirement in more balanced way and I’m in a search for the same. Besides my professional career I like to keep myself busy with some practice design and development work and few of them are available at my portfolio on GitHub.

Any suggestions on modifying the highlighted areas?

I'm not fond of solid background or solid foundation and I believe strong work ethics sounds better.


texts: What is the meaning of "as well" in this context?

texts:
This is the context:

  One of the classic philosophical problems, the problem of other minds—How do you know
  that anybody has a mind? How do you know who or what has a mind?—is cropping up practically in some
  ways within the science of consciousness. How do we know that animals are conscious? How do we know
  that computers are or are not conscious? And in Niko’s work, how do we know that people coming out of
  coma and some vegetative states are conscious?
  What we find is that people are very imaginative and creative, and there are techniques that are being
  developed that, while they don’t solve the philosophical problem, are criteria for consciousness that seem
  to fit with our normal practices of ascribing consciousness to people in everyday life and elsewhere.
  There is beginning to be a field of what we might call “the psychology of other minds,” which is what Danny is alluding to, in which the aim is to determine the criteria that ordinary people use for ascribing
  consciousness. It turns out the criteria for consciousness seem to include things like pain and emotion, and
  so on. Simply being a thinking thing, without emotion, does not correlate as well with consciousness.

  source: The enigma of human consciousness.New York Academy of Sciences.

In the bold sentence, the "as well" makes me confused. I Don't think it means also or too, right? can you explain the meaning of the sentence and the "as well" part"?

My take of it:

  simply being a thinking thing, without emotion, does not correlate, as when a thinking thing has emotion, with consciousness.


texts: What is the grammatical role of emerging out?

texts:
What are the grammatical role and the meaning of "emerging out" in the following sentence?

  The most widely accepted theory, championed by anthropologists in the
  late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries envisions theater as
  emerging out of myth and ritual.


texts: How to describe Past situation in answer?

texts:
Why you left your boyfriend?

Which answer is correct and why?

  a) He was already having a girlfriend. b) He had already had a girlfriend.  c) He already had a girlfriend.d) He already had had a girlfriend.


texts: What does the command "move it out" mean?

texts:
I have come aross it in the movie Ful Metal Jacket. Here is the scene. It's at around 10 seconds.

It should take 10 seconds to negotiate this obstacle. Quickly move it out!


texts: What is the meaning of "you would think that someone had beat me to it”?

texts:
The following is a sentence from the article Paging Dr. Carson of The New Yorker:

  Carson mentioned that operation in the first Republican Presidential debate, last month. “I’m the only one to separate Siamese twins,” he said. “The only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat me to it.” It was a Carson shot.

I cannot understand the meaning of the second sentence in bold type. I would be grateful if someone could help me understand it.


texts: What does it mean for wind to blow due north?

texts:
I was solving a math problem which said that "the wind is blowing due north."

This could be interpreted in two different ways and I don't know which one is correct:

  "the wind is blowing from due north."
  "the wind is blowing to/towards due north."

It could mean that the wind comes from north towards south (#1). Or it comes from south towards north (#2).

My questions are:

Which meaning is the correct one?
and, Are there any other ways to tell others the direction of the wind?


texts: Are phrases 'in another word' and 'not another word' correct?

texts:
I have two questions here:

Can 'in another word' mean 'in other words'? I see the example in the dictionary on my cellphone:

  In another word, Jesus got the abandon that we deserved.

Is 'not another word' a phrase? I guess it means 'not saying another word' or 'don't say this any more'. Have I got it right?

Here is another example:


texts: Why do we use present perfect if we have never done an action before?

texts:
Example:
She has never read this book.
I haven't met her before.
"past activities that have a present result"
Why does past tense exist in this context? If she never read the book before, why is this still considered to be the past?


texts: Why did the author cite "Paris" in this article?

texts:
The restaurant is in Barcelona, but the author cited "Paris" and said "They must be starving in Paris".
Why?

  La Vermuteria del Tano

  OK, so Paris has its pavement bars and quaint lampposts. But we’ve got bodegas like Tano's. A door covered in stickers, marble tables, the smell of long-gone cigars still somehow lingering, and the young woman with the Sunday paper under her arm who chats away as she sips on her vermouth and snacks on anchovies, olives and cockles. They must be starving in Paris.

source: https://www.timeout.com/barcelona/restaurants/la-vermuteria-del-tano


texts:
Twain has survived his celebrity, as will Hemingway, and for the same reason: They wrote wonderful books. But both writers have been admitted to the canon despite the off-putting aroma of publicity that surrounds them. So certain questions impose themselves. Why was Hemingway, like Twain, inclined to present himself - or some versions of himself - to public view? Knowing the risks, as he certainly did, why did he take the chance? Was there something in the water he drank or the air he breathed growing up in Oak Park, Illinois, which drove him to seek not only accomplishment but fame?

Actually the sentence in bold is somehow unclear to me.

Dose it mean that why did Hemingway want to show himself to public view? and Dose "some versions of himself" mean: not always just in some period?


texts: "Would have" or "would" in a conditional sentence

texts:
Athenians loved a good argument…they loved to be entertained…and most
  of the time you could find both of those things in the courthouse.
  Athenians would have been HUGE fans of Judge Judy…or back then
  it would’ve been “Judge Judicles”…

(Source)

Why "would have + v3" form was used in these sentences? Why not just "would + infinitive". What does these marked phrases mean in these particular sentences?


texts: Difference between the questions starting with Did/Had/Have

texts:
What's the difference between below questions? Are they the same?

Did you see the movie?
Have you seen the movie?
Had you seen the movie?

I have used question 1 and 2 in situations when I have to enquire if the subject has performed the action.

For example:
Have you completed your homework?
Have you done the laundry?
Did you send the mail?
Did you finish writing your essay?

Am I correct to use 1 and 2 this way?   Is there any difference between the two.

I am not sure when to I use question 3?
Can somebody give examples of questions using had.


texts: Is there a term to describe a paper or project that carries a lot of marks/weight?

texts:
I am trying to write a sentence where I say that I worked on a course project/paper that carried a lot of weight/marks (i.e., the paper carried around 75% of the total grade). The size of the paper was something like 50 pages; hence, not a typical assignment.
How do I say that succinctly?

For my XYZ course, I wrote a [substantial??] research paper reviewing ...

Is "substantial" the best choice? It means "of considerable importance, size, or worth." The problem with using "substantial" is that it might create ambiguity. For example, one might think I am talking about a 300 page paper. I want to clearly indicate it carried a lot of weight/marks.


texts:
I already did some previous researches and found a lot of explanations about the differences between "dark and "darkness", including answers to a question here in StackExchange, but I'm still in doubt about which one to use in some situations - and  it's also hard to be sure when they are interchangeable or not.

For instance, in the sentences below is the use of "dark" correct (or acceptable) or should I use "darkness" instead? Or maybe both words can be used without changing the meaning of the sentence.

  Can you see that strange light blinking in the dark? It’s being up
  there for more than an hour and none of us have any idea about what it
  may be.

  And, even with all those clouds in the sky, we were still able to see
  that tiny star shining far away in the dark.


texts:
Are these correct sentences? If they are correct, can you explain to me how many verbs are in each sentence and the tenses that are used to help me understand the full meaning?

Rina who is wearing a hairband was sitting under the tree and reading a book.
I saw a small boy accompanying his mother while holding a few balloons.


texts:
I was reading this question - "Is this sentence grammatically correct? (compare the social life in x neighborhoods with those in y neighborhoods)" and thought about a few different structures to this one.

Well, the OP there asks whether is it okay to use "those" to substitute the objects.

I would like to ask whether we can also use "ones" instead of "those" to substitute objects:

I want to compare the batch of apples from Abkhazia to ones from Kazakhstan.
I want to compare the batch of apples from Abkhazia to those from Kazakhstan.

Does using "ones" instead of "those" make anything change? When is it more suitable to use "ones" and when "those"?

I would also like to know if we can (and whether it is correct to) use both words "those ones":

I want to compare the batch of apples from Abkhazia to those ones from Kazakhstan.

Should there also be a definite article before "ones"?


texts: perfect continuous for a completed action

texts:
I have cleaned my car :

this means I have finished cleaning my entire car and it focuses on the result = clean car

  I have been cleaning my car:

this doesn`t necessarily mean I have finished cleaning my entire car and it focuses on the activity = what I have been doing.

My question is: is it possible to say I have been cleaning my car, even when I have cleaned my entire car, but I just want to emphasize the activity? For example: What have you been doing today? I have been cleaning my car. (meaning my entire car) or do I have to say I have cleaned my car?


texts:
In trucker forums, I can see drivers referring to their trucks by pronoun  “she”. Similarly a site about an older airplane writes about  “restoring her”.

I would expect using “it” for all things (which are not persons).

What is the logic here behind using “she” instead of “it”?
In what other cases (not referring to people) is this applied?
Would using “it” sound unnatural in these contexts?

Note: there is already a similar question if a car should be “he” or “she”, but this one is sligthly different.


texts: How can I use the world "neighboring " and associate it with a country?

texts:
I'm trying to say the following context, but I'm not sure which structure I can go with ??
Different Versions of the context :
1- I'm just reciting USA'S neighboring countries.
2-  I'm just reciting the neighboring countries to USA.
3-  I'm just reciting  neighboring countries of USA.
4-  I'm just reciting   countries neighboring USA.


texts: The grammar lying under "I'm no Superman."

texts: I'm living in a non-English-speaking country, so I usually contact English only through mass media (drama, for example). I've seen some use cases where no is used as if it's interchangeable to not a, like in the example "I'm no Superman" from the drama Scrubs, but I'm not sure if it's a standard (or formal) usage or not. Is there an underlying grammar behind this, or is it just a slang?


texts: Can I use 'commencement date' to describe the day I start to work in a company?

texts:
From what I looked, 'commencement date' is a legal term, which means the starting date of a contract. http://thelawdictionary.org/commencement-date/

But I am interested to know that s it correct to write like this:

We have already discussed the commencement/commencing date of my employment and I am supposed to be on duty next Monday.

Or should I write 'starting date' in this case? Thank you!


texts: "By using","with use of" or just "using" (no preposition)

texts:
I doubted whether I should use the preposition "with", "by" or no preposition at all in the following sentence:

  I do not estimate equation (#) by using/with use of/using [name of some econometric method] because [explaining the reasons].

To answer this question myself I did some research. The following web page says that one uses the preposition "by" to indicate a mean or method. As I refer to a particular (econometric) method, it could be an option to use "by". However, I checked how other authors did it in the literature I write about and I came to the conclusion that it should be:

  I do not estimate equation (#) using [name of some econometric method] because [explaining the reasons].

However, this sounds a bit odd to a non-native English speaker. Is it the last quote correct anyway?


texts: Is there any difference between "work all night," "work the whole night" and "work through the whole night"?

texts:
Could you tell me if there is any difference between work all night, work the whole night and work through the whole night? For example:

We are exhausted because we had work all night.
We are exhausted because we had work the whole night.
We are exhausted because we had work through the whole night.

Are all of them natural?


texts: "Both John and Christina takes an apple." or "Both John and Christina take an apple."?

texts:
Both John and Christina takes an apple

  Both John and Christina take an apple.

Which one is correct? Why?


texts:
Which of these two is the correct form to say?

  I would sell my book if you give me 100 dollars

or

  I would sell my book if you pay me 100 dollars

Are there alternatives to say the same?


texts: 'possess of' vs 'possess with' vs 'possess + another preposition'?

texts:
A.  If you can prove your innocence, or you want to give an account, you can do that in your lawyer's office. If you have concrete evidence, then give it to your lawyer. He or she can provide the evidence to the police or Crown and deal with them on an equal footing, possessed of complete rather than selective information.
possess [with object] = 1.2 Have as an ability, quality, or characteristic: ...
(be possessed of) a fading blonde possessed of a powerful soprano voice

I see and so ask NOT about the definition, which I instead want to burrow into. What are the similarities and differences? Does be possessed with mean the same? What other prepositions could be used after possess? Is be possessed of the only choice of preposition?


texts: Another interpretation of this second conditional sentence

texts:
Consider:

  If I met John, I would call my mom.

I know this sentence is a second conditional example, which relates to a hypothetical situation.

But I don't know whether I can also understand it in such a way if the covert context is:

  I may have met him, but I am not quite sure about that. My memory
  can't last that long. The only thing I am sure about is that
  whenever I meet him, I will call my mom immediately. Thus, if one day I find out I indeed met John before, I will be sure that I
  called my mom immediately on that occasion.


texts:
I came across this word in some software code written by someone else. I knew what it meant (in Dutch we call it voormiddag), but I didn't know the word exists.

I've always heard/seen people refer to morning and afternoon, never to forenoon and afternoon. Is it a word people commonly use?


texts: Can "either" be used in negative sentences?

texts:
Previously, I was asking help for some right words to describe a conversation that swaps between On and Off states. In the question, I wrote this,

  My spoken English is not very good, my Vocabulary is weak either.

And some time later, I received some suggestion to improve my question, and the word, Either has been replaced by Too.

I came across some English web sites where the authors said that "either" is used in negative sentences. My understanding is that "weak" and "poor" are words that will make negative meaning in sentences.


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct? Present + Past Tense

texts:
Could you please tell me if this sentence is correct?

I understood what the components of a pc are.


texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?

  It is common for a native American who has never driven a car to move to another part of the country and have to learn to do it.

My guess is that the sentence is wrong because in this part: "have to learn to do it", "have" must agree with the subject, i.e. "a native American", which is singular. Hence, it should be "has to learn to do it".


texts:
Here's an audio file. In number three (1:25) a woman seems to be speaking to her secretary. From what I understand she says:

  Also could you bring the file on the Rx accounts?

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

on: about, e.g. a book on South Africa
Rx: the written abbreviation for a doctor’s prescription
account: a written record of money that is owed to a business and of money that has been paid by it, e.g. to keep the accounts up to date

The meaning of each word seems to be clear. However, I don't understand the meaning of the whole phrase.

P.S. Just a guess: can RX be a proper noun in this context?


texts: "Why does it not work" Vs. "Why is it not working"?

texts:
Normally when talking about something that is happening now we use present progressive, and when we talk about that happens as a habit, custom, etc. we use the present simple. That is clear. But if I'm not mistaken I noticed that when people talk about working of device or machine -at the moment- they're used to use present simple rather than present progressive. They say:

"Why does it not work"

Instead of:

"Why is it not working"?

Does it reflect the norm or the most native speakers and it is like an idiom or is it just a mistake?


texts: Can I say "Similar functionalities to Tool B"?

texts:
I want to express

Tool A provides some functionalities.
The functionalities of Tool A are similar to those of Tool B.

Can I simplify the two sentences as

Tool A provides similar functionalities to Tool B

or

Tool A provides similar functionalities to those of Tool B

?


texts:
What is the passive voice of the following sentence?

  The thief climbed over the wall without being seen.

Will it be

  The wall was climbed over by the thief without being seen.

or

  Without being seen, the thief climbed over the wall.


texts: The use of "over" in the following sentence

texts:
He was despondent over the breakup of his marriage.

You could say

A. He was despondent regarding/concerning the breakup of his marriage

B. He was despondent because of/due to/as a result of the breakup of his marriage.

There is no difference in the meaning whether "because of" or "concerning" is used here. Am I right?
"Over" could mean any one of "A & B" . Am I right?


texts: Is "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" okay to be used as a word description or expression?

texts: As I have search this word (supercalifragilisticexpialidocious), this is the longest word. Which happen to have various meanings related to "amazing".


texts: Should I capitalize more specific topic/field such as Computational Science and Discrete Math?

texts:
Should I capitalize abstract topics such as  Discrete Math, Data Structures, Graph Theory, Computational Physics, Artificial Neural Network, Natural Language Processing?

I know that specific course names such as Physics 101, English 102,and History of Economics and Welfare 106 should be capitalized, and on the other hand, chemistry, physics, and literature should not be capitalized. But Graph Theory seems to lie in the middle.


texts: 'He does more than just "fool" or "fooling" around?'

texts:
I've just read another question, “more than pack” or “more than packing”, and it made me curious. The reason of my curiosity is that even though I prefer the phrase

  "... finds sugar does more than just pack on the pounds.",

the other alternative

  "... finds sugar does more than just packing on the pounds."

doesn't sound utterly wrong to me. (I think does is really tricky here.)

So I would like to simplify it a little and ask: which one of the following sentences is correct?

  He does more than just fool around.
  He does more than just fooling around.


texts: What does the "seven to four" imply or what does the speaker mean by saying "seven to four"?

texts:
I have trouble in understanding the meaning or the implication of "seven to four" in this sentence. I could not get any related explanation in the dictionary.
My guess is: I would volunteer to work for a free day just to see that look on Will again??  But why seven to four?  If not, Could anyone help please?

The context is:

“I” am a medical carer of Will who is a quadriplegic in wheelchair, and I took care of him for two years and saw him in a lot pain. Louisa is Will's new carer recently hired. The two had just come back from a wedding reception the day before, and had spent the night in a hotel, only because both of them got so drunk on the wedding and nothing else happened( Will is a quadriplegic). The conspiracy in the text is referring to a trip the two persons are planning and later they were asking if "I" could go with them.

Here is the sentence:

  Louisa looked a bit shaken but he had gone over and murmured something
  to her, and that was the point at which I saw it. She went kind of
  pink and laughed, the kind of laugh you do when you know you shouldn’t
  be laughing. The kind of laugh that spoke of a conspiracy. And then
  Will turned to her and told her to take it easy for the rest of the
  day. Go home, get changed, maybe catch forty winks.

  ‘I can’t be walking around the castle with someone who has so clearly
  just done the walk of shame,’ he said.

  ‘Walk of shame?’ I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice.

  ‘Not that walk of shame,’ Louisa said, flicking me with her scarf, and
  grabbed her coat to leave.

  ‘Take the car,’ he called out. ‘It’ll be easier for you to get back.’

  I watched Will’s eyes follow her all the way to the back door.

  I would have offered you seven to four just on the basis of that
  look alone.

  Me Before You by Jojo Moyes


texts:
You are standing in a rather shallow pool (about 1 meter in height), then you start to jump up and down.
Does water medium affect the way we express ideas?
Is it correct to say "I am jumping up and down on the bottom of the pool" or "I am jumping up and down from the bottom of the pool"?


texts: How to differ a verb with different meanings using grammar rules

texts:
Do you see the difference in the verb meaning between two sentences?

I miss your excellent cooking!

vs

I am missing your excellent cooking!

As to me, I suggest the first one is about yearning for it, but the second one - about skipping. Of course, it's only my thought how it's possible sometimes to differ some verbs with different meanings if we don't have additional information about the context. Am I right?


texts:
In the afternoon, he'd attended a funeral.

What's the meaning of "he'd attended"?

Is it "he had attended"?! if so then why should we use past perfect instead of simple past?

Is it "he would attended"? What is this structure? I am not familiar with it.


texts: How could we describe someone as “a native speaker”

texts:
Oxford advanced dictionary: native speaker

a person who speaks a language as their first language and has not learned it as a foreign language

Collins dictionary: native speaker
A native speaker of a language is someone who speaks that language as their first language rather than having learned it as a foreign language.

  Could someone speak three language: Germany, Italian, and English, described as “a native speaker of three language”?

Consider someone whose father is American, mother is Italian, and he was born in Germany and raised there.

Would he be a native speaker of three languages?

  He would Learn English from his father, Italian from his mother, and Germany from friends, school and street.


texts:
Viral encephalitis is a disease transmitted by mosquitoes from infected small animals**, usually birds and rodents,** to humans.

In this sentence, what is the structure of ''usually birds and rodents''? Is it ''appositive structure'' or ''elips''?


texts: what does mobile mean in the expression?

texts:
what is mobile refer to in this sentence?

Mobile Clothes Hanger

is it mean the hanger that can be move?
can we use it without hanger. for example, we only say "mobile". I see it in a sentence that use it without hanger.


texts: Difference between "so rude" and "too rude"

texts:
What's different between

  You are so rude.

and

  You are too rude.

I want to know difference in grammar, social communication, rigor, manner and where they are used! (other things as well).


texts: The baby is crying all the time or has been crying all the time?

texts:
Where are you? the baby has been crying all the time.

or

  Where are you? the baby is crying all the time.

which one is correct?

and also, is it correct to say:

  Babies are crying all the time; I do not know why.

or should it be in Present Simple because it is a fact?

Sorry, the Grammar is badly delivered to students in my university. It is just driving me crazy.


texts:
Passage:

  Arms bending and stretching!' she rapped out. 'Take your time by me. One, two,
  three, four! One, two, three, four! Come on, comrades, put a bit of life into it!

(George Orwell 1984)

Question:

  What does the phrase 'take your time by me' mean?

Link to the book (page #40)


texts:
Are prior and previous interchangeable in this context?

  ... including datasets from previous work.

And,

  ... including datasets from prior work.

Can you clarify please what is the difference between them?


texts: Meaning of 《are to》and《go-ahead》and《ever-closer》in this news article

texts:
Mr. Schäuble stressed that he was not pushing the Greeks to take any particular course and that in any case he was only talking about a temporary exit from the euro. But coming a day before German lawmakers are to give the go-ahead to negotiate the details of the bailout package for Athens, his remarks were evidence of a continuing deep ambivalence among conservatives in Germany about the costs of keeping Greece in the currency zone and a greater willingness to question whether the goal of “ever-closer union” in Europe should be reassessed.

My first question has to do with are to.  Does it mean are going to or something else?  Is it a grammatical matter?

I think go-ahead is a noun and ever-closer is an adjective but I have no idea what they really mean.


texts: A popular source of information **is** social networks of users

texts:
Consider this sentence:

  A popular source of information is social networks of users.

What I mean here is that social networks in general (not any particular social network and not all of social networks combined together) are a popular source of information for ... . However, the verb is "is" but social networks is plural. Is the sentence correct? If not, how should I correct it?


texts:
I found this question while doing an exercise:

---Find the mistake:

     -"This is abook of mine."

I think the answer is:

    -"This is a book of mine.", Isn't it?

And is it right to say:

     -"This is a book of my own."

Does this make difference?


texts:
I’m an English teacher of young learners.
I ‘ve got a question about a sentence from an online present simple exercise:
Here is the example:
(she / dance often)?
That's the correct answer given by the author of the exercise:
[ Does she dance often? ]
I thougth the proper word order is
[ Does she often dance?}
My question is:
Is it a problem if OFTEN is at the end of the sentence?
Is it too wierd about grammar exercises for students of A2 level or it's OK?
I've found here the following piece of information, which mainly answers my question but I will be happy if someone else shares their opinion.
P.S. Is it ok if I use "their" instead of "his/ her" in my previous sentence? (I've noticed recently unisex words are very trendy, although not a big fan of that trend.)  Which one sounds better "their" or "his/ her"?
What about /answerS/ and /shareS/ is the S-form of the third person of the proper usage here?

Adverbs as (sometimes, seldom, usually) we can put into the beginning,
end, between pronoun and verb
but the adverb 'always' sounds good only between pronoun and verb, in
other cases, it sounds weird (Always, I do it in the morning AND I do
it in the morning always)


texts:
what's the opposite to "physical job" ? I mean there are some jobs such as :  a cleaner, a builder (or construction worker???) , a waiter,  so you work mostly physically. What do I call jobs where I have to solve many problems using my intelligence, specialists like a programmer, an architect and so on.

Should I say "mental work"? Or "mental job" , sounds weird for me. I am talking particularly about jobs not about work like a process.

Thanks.


texts:
An old man is sitting on the bench.

Or

  There is an old man sitting on the bench.


texts:
Alternative energy sources are renewable and are thought to be "free"
  energy sources. They all have lower carbon emissions compared to
  conventional energy resources. These include Biomass Energy, Wind
  Energy, Solar Energy,...

(http://www.altenergy.org)

It's not about the distance thing.
So, Why "these"?


texts: Noun to adjective and adjective to adverb

texts:
For example, there are biological science and scientific news. Can I say it 'biologically scientific news'?
In this context, 'biological' means 'relating to biology,' and 'scientific' means 'relating to science.'


texts:
She climbed out of the swimming pool.
The ball flew out the window.
He went out the door.

Why do we use the preposition OF in the first sentence, but not in the last two sentences.


texts: What is the correct verb when a company stops using services from another company?

texts:
Lets say a company was using another company's services, but decided to move away to a different company. What is the correct verb for that?

I've looked in the dictionary for antonyms of cooperation but most of them didn't feel right. For example, if I use disjoint it seems like they were working together.

Should I use unsubscribe?


texts: Is "paywall" suitable for an offline event?

texts:
I learned that

A paywall is a method of restricting access to content

And after reading the Wikipedia page I thought the content implies only digital content, like journals and news. It also appears in describing online events like live streaming.
But I wonder if it can be utilized in the following scenario:
A guy in a chat room posted an offline event but didn't mention whether it is paywalled or not. The moment I wanted to ask I thought I should rephrase the question to sound more grammatical, then I asked: should we pay for that?
I wonder if I can ask: is it paywalled? Or is it a paywalled event? By the way, could you please recommend some native expressions to me?


texts:
There is a sentence in my homework that I don't know how to do it :

I spent my holiday in a country which is peaceful and picturesque

The instruction tells me to correct one of the bold words and the answer is " a " but I don't understand why and I don't know how to correct it either.


texts: What does 'imaginative consciousness' mean?

texts:
60% down the page: We aren’t really used to that exchange onscreen. “A hot medium is one that extends one single sense in ‘high definition,’ ” Marshall McLuhan wrote in his famous, meandering study of different media forms. “Hot media are, therefore, low in participation and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience.” Slow TV is high-definition in its visual information, yet it gets its meaning from viewers’ imaginative consciousness. As entertainment, it is backward: it appears to do its job by casting viewers into their own minds.

To try to understand, I replaced consciousness with the linked definition 2: imaginative awareness/perception. Yet how does this differ from simply 'imagination'? I contend with these abstract terms/notions. What does the bolded mean here?


texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  I saw a gray and a black elephants.
  (With meaning: I saw two elephants, one was gray, and the other was black).


texts: When to say 'dog', and when to say 'hound'?

texts:
When refrerring to Canis lupus familiaris, what word is better to use, dog or hound? Wikipedia translates it as dog, but I've heard also the word hound in many contexts, and that version is a lot easier for me to remember because it resembles the German hund.

I think the word hound is older and Germanic in origin, but it was later replaced by dog, and now it's used mostly in poetry expressions such as hounds of hell. Am I right?


texts: Is " I need a one dance " grammatically correct?

texts:
This song on the internet says.
" I need a one dance"

How can somebody use "one" and "a" together?
Is there another meaning for "one dance" as a phrase or something?

Here is the link to the lyrics


texts: Negative-polarity adverbs and inversion sentences

texts:
I asked a question here:
Some questions about Inversion sentences

Now, I know that certain negative-polarity adverbs with the main adverb are what triggers inversion, like "not only", "only when", "only after", "not until", and etc.

I just wonder what about sentences like below. The negative-polarity adverbs in them trigger inversion? or These sentences are fine?
(I am sorry if this has been answered in my previous post. Because my English is not good enough to know if this has been answered or not. )

    When he only eats chips, he gets fat.

    When I only do simple things, I can concentrate.

    When a man only thinks of himself, he loses his friends.


texts: Plausibility notwithstanding and Otherwise?

texts:
I looked up the dictionary but these two terms are very difficult to get. could any body clarify on me?

  Plausibility notwithstanding, rumors about unwitting folks engaged in otherwise low-risk activities contracting HIV have circulated for decades. Similar versions involved a booby-trapped gas pump, deliberately tainted ketchup dispensers, and adulterated pizza purposefully contaminated with infected bodily fluids.

Source:snopes.com


texts: Is it acceptable to use positive form of adjectives + not, instead of negative form with prefix (im- in- etc.)?

texts:
Is it acceptable to use "not polite" instead of "impolite"?

And generally speaking about other words in their negative form? By adding a prefix only? Can I use "not + the positive form" instead?

For example:

  It's incorrect. > It's not correct.

  It's impossible > It's not possible.

  It's irreversible > It's not reversible

  It's unbelievable > It's not believable.

  It's imperfect > It's not perfect.

Are both sentences valid or acceptable?


texts: Should I use 'are' or 'were' in the sentence?

texts:
The original sentence is:

It is said that the President's New Deal created thousands of jobs.

I changed this sentence to:

Thousands of jobs are/were said to be created by the President's New Deal.

Should I use are or were?


texts:
Does "a campaign" here refer to "a campaign of general election" - that it, the campaign includes Democratic, Republican and Independent campaigns.

The Associated Press tweeted on Nov 8:
JOE BIDEN DEFEATS PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
The Associated Press declares Joe Biden the winner of a grueling campaign for the American presidency. He will lead a polarized nation through a historic collision of health, economic and social crises.


texts:
Suppose there is a certain condition with the time interval, only during which it holds. For example,

  Condition: High humidity / Interval: June to September

What I want now is describing that 'there are some texts like above', but
I prefer it as concise as possible as in the business context. I guess it is grammatically safe to write as below,

  A condition with the interval during which it holds.

but can I shrink it down further by using 'for' instead of 'during'?

  A condition with the interval that it holds for.


texts: I don't get the cereal part of this joke.


texts:
I am a little confused about this specially when answering arithmetic problems. Help me with this: what does "subtract A to B" mean?

A-B
B-A


texts: What do native speakers think of when they are speaking?

texts:
I know this question might seem somehow ridiculous to you or silly. You may ask me why don't answer these questions by thinking of what you do in your native language. The thing is that I didn't want to generalize since English has a different grammar structure and every language is different from another one even at the smallest scale. Also you may ask me since you type in English why can't you answer the questions. The thing is the question is asked at a deeper level, when speaking or when thinking, by last I mean when you hear your inner voice in your mind. The ultimate objective of an English learner, in my opinion, is to have the ability to think integrally and with easiness in English and also by doing so the speaker will get the capability of speaking with the others at an extensive level. And lastly and thank you for also reading this small description, if you could tell me more about how you think in English I would be extremely thankful.

Do native speakers think of the structure of the sentence (placing the order of the words, choosing a word in favor of another one, the tense they want to use etc.) or do it automatically?
What is the element of morphology that drives you to say the sentences with so much confidence? The noun, the verb or something else?
Do you visualize in your mind the words you are thinking of? If so, you visualize mainly the nouns? How do you do it when you have a more abstract word that isn't an object such as 'calm'?


texts: "As you say," or "As you write," in a comment section

texts:
As you yourself write, women who run for a public office are equally likely to get elected as men.

Is write or say more fitting in this example? Is it OK to use speach-related vocabulary in a written internet comment (for ex. what I'm saying is, or I'm talking about...)?
Is this a standard use of yourself?


texts:
I'm preparing for academic IELTS by writing some essays and then correcting those using a grammar correction app.
In the following sentence,

Since most of the people tend to concentrate in cities these days, ...

The app suggests using "most people" instead of "most of the people".
Is this critical or is it just a minor flaw?


texts: "She does Sinjit" What does this "Sinjit" mean?

texts:
I found the following word in English vocabulary in use book. The lessen describe how to use do / did / done.

  She does Sinjit.

What does the Sinjit mean?

I couldn't find it in dictionaries.


texts:
I have always thought when people use the phrase "That would be correct", it is always followed by some "if" statement; for example,

  Jane: "Is it correct to say that people are allowed to turn right when the traffic light is red?"
  Tom: "That would be correct if they live in Canada or US."

But how should I interpret the sentence "That would be correct" when there is no "if" statement that follows? For example, I was having some conversation with my teacher:

  me: "Is this statement correct?"
  Teacher: "Yes. That statement would be correct."

How should I interpret the teacher's sentence?


texts:
It might shore up flagging economic growth.
To shore up his flagging popularity.

The first is found in an article about currency devaluation, the second is about some politician embracing the far right.
What does a flagging something mean in general?


texts:
There's a case in which a woman fell into the water. A key witness is missing. The female officer wants to focus on the case itself, but another male officer wants to focus on finding the missing witness.
She asks, "what if we couldn't find the witness?"
He answers, "we'll go ahead and give the jury what we have."
She replies, "What you have and two-fifty will get you on the E train"

What does that mean?


texts:
In this blog, I think objective form of pronoun "me" is wrong.

  As always, I give you ONLY the facts. You decide for yourself whether he is right or me.

Can I rephrase the sentence as follows?

  As always, I give you ONLY the facts. You decide for yourself whether he is right or I am.


texts: Difference between "call it the night" and "call it a night"

texts:
What difference has "call it the night" and "call it a night"?

According to the google search the both expressions are correct.

call it the night: 20,800,000 hits
call it a night: 9,150,000 hits

Maybe the meaning are same?


texts: "He ought to love her forever" or "He oughts to love her forever"

texts: Can anyone explain to me? But I found that most of the sentences use 'he ought'.


texts:
Which one of the following is correct:

What do residential areas in a big city look like, and who lives there?

What do residential areas in a big city look like, and who live there?

There are more people there, so would "live" be correct?


texts: It isn’t raining - I wish it would rain. Why not "I wish it was raining"?

texts:
I thought I understood the wish clauses but I have just found this example:

  Situation:    It isn’t raining.
   Your wish:  I wish it would rain.

Isn't this the situation where I should use the past tense, as this is contrafactual? I have seen many examples with the opposite situation:

  It is raining. I wish it was not raining.

Why does the first example then use "would"?
Why not

  "I wish it was raining"?

EDIT: However, I have also found this sentence in various sources, so I assume it is correct too. But would appreciate some insight from native speakers.


texts: Can you answer my question about tense usage in common English conversations?

texts:
The video st 0:39

In an anime, people discover that the masked evil man is none other than Obito who was supposed to be dead during the last war. A comrade of his says:

  I thought you died.

I wonder how would it be different if he had said:

  I thought you were dead.

What's the difference in usage between the two?


texts: Using different tenses in single sentence!

texts:
here is a sentence from this animation Incredibles 2 :

  Any thought we had about being Supers again is fantasy.

I can't understand the logic behind tenses here... we have thought and had which are past tense and then in the same sentence is which is simple present!

I'm confused may you please help...

And here is the full context:

  What are we gonna do?

  I don't know.

  Maybe Dicker will find something?

  Dicker is done, Bob.

  > Any thought we had about being Supers again is fantasy.

  One of us has gotta get a job.

  One of us?

  ...


texts: What's the differences between "quasi" and "semi"?

texts: I recently learned the word quasi and found it's very similar to semi. I looked up in the dictionary and found many examples, like quasi-governmental. Out of curiosity, I searched "semi-governmental" in Google books and the result surprised me. There are a lot of "semi-governmental" being used. What's the differences between quasi and semi? Can I use them interchangeably?


texts: Is there a word/phrase for the relationship between my parent and my parent-in-law?

texts: When my mother introduces my mother-in-law, she would say "This is ___". I know English hasn't many relationship terms, so is it just "This is my daughter-in-law's mum"?


texts: "electronics on the vehicle" VS "electronics in the vehicle"

texts:
The requirements for electronics on the new energy vehicles are higher than that on traditional vehicles.
  The requirements for electronics in the new energy vehicles are higher than that in traditional vehicles.

If I want to express that electronics on/in the new energy vehicles are more demanding in performance requirements, which one should I opt for?


texts: Counterpart to “given” in a mathematical problem statement

texts:
Often mathematical problem statements start by describing some given objects and continue by requesting some objective, something to be computed from these given objects. What's the established title for that second part, the unknown object to be computed?

In German, the first would by titled “Gegeben:”, the second “Gesucht:”. Possible terms that come to my mind include “Find:”, “Requested:”, “Goal:” or “Objective:”, but I don't know which of these is established in actual mathematical practice.

Does it matter whether it's a single sentence which could be read out loud, or whether it's more like a headline that doesn't fit in well with reading it in context? I can imagine “Given … find …” as a single sentence, but somehow “Find:” as a title feels odd to me.

Example:

  Problem 123: (i.e. on a worksheet or similar)
  Given: two integers a, b
  ‹your word here›: integers x and y such that ax + by = gcd(a, b)


texts:
Mr. Hollande was the French President at the time the deal was
  agreed to in 2015.

But if I construct it the following way:

  Mr. Hollande was the French President at the time the deal was
  agreed in 2015.

I think the second construction is correct. Because verb+preposition is used for passive forms with some words only like hope.


texts: What are differences between "during" and "while"?

texts:
They arrived while we were having dinner.

Can I use "during" instead of "while" in that sentence? How about this sentence:

  Would you look after the children while I do the shopping?


texts: usage of "to" in sentecences , and its relationship with noun preceding it and with verb in the sentence

texts:
I've been struggling for such a long time over making sense of a particular usage of "to". Please take a look at the sentence:

  "I've hired a new manager to attempt to increase the company's profits."

Is "to attempt to increase the company's profits" explaining why the action in question (hiring) is undertaken by the subject, as in "I hired a manager because I want to increase the profits" or is it emphasizing the new manager as in "I hired a manager who will increase the profits"?


texts: What does “'wheres' and 'whys'” mean in Queen's I Want It All?

texts:
In the song I Want It All by Queen, there are these lyrics:

  I'm a man with a one track mind
  So much to do in one lifetime (people do you hear me?)
  Not a man for compromise and 'wheres' and 'whys' and living lies
  So I'm living it all (yes I'm living it all)
  And I'm giving it all (and I'm giving it all)

I can find a similar phrase "whys and wherefores", which seems very old and roughly means "reason".

In the song here, I guess it means "no excuse"? Is it natural to say with this phrase? Is there some subtleties in using it? The song is so emotional.


texts:
I am not sure about which forms are correct.

  That money is enough to donate to charity

  That money is enough to donate it to charity

--

  This car is very luxury to buy.

  This car is very luxury to buy it.

Should we use a pronoun in the infinitive clause?

I think that the sentences without pronouns are correct.

Do you agree?


texts: How to parse or rearrange 'upon this our advertisements given him'? (1575 Late April, UK)

texts:
Source: pp 101-102, Lives and letters of the Devereux, earls of Essex, by Walter Bourchier Devereux

  [continued herefrom]..., and how sorry we were to see your honourable mind wounded with so just cause of grief as seemeth to have grown of our Deputy’s over-strait dealing towards you, to whom we have by our letters presently sent unto him signified how greatly we do mislike the same: as also commanded him not only to [1.] further hereafter your service to the uttermost of his power, but also to seek by all the means he may to repair the decay of your reputation and credit, that lately hath ensued by his hasty and violent breaking of the said enterprize: [2.] wherein our hope is that he will so deal, [3.] upon this our advertisements given him, as our service shall be furthered, your honor repaired, aid the disagreement that appearth to be between you removed.

1. Please confirm if 'further' is just used a verb (ie: with the meaning of 'promote')?

2. Definition 1 states that this means 'in which', but what's the antecedent of the pronun 'which'?

3. As written, this clause is grammatically and syntactically wrong, so how do I reorder it to understand it?


texts: "I have been given it on the condition that I do not pass it on." What does that mean?

texts:
I was reading an article from The New Yorker and I came across one sentence that I couldn't really understand.

  The map runs to sixteen laminated foolscap pages, or about ten square feet, when I tile the pages together. I have been given it on the condition that I do not pass it on. It is not like any map I have ever seen, and I have seen some strange maps in my time.

Is there anybody that could help me to explain/rephrase the second sentence so that the structure or the meaning could be more lucid to understand?

Here's the link for the original article.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-invisible-city-beneath-paris


texts: Motorcycle fairing or motorcycle cowling?

texts:
What is the difference between these two when used within the context of a motorcycle?

  "Fairing" and "Cowling".

Is it a British-English / American-English distinction?

An image search on Google brings up the same pictures. Although, the use of fairings in "normal" web search, returns the best result.

"Cowling" would be the direct equivalent to the word in my own language.


texts: What is the difference between "break down the wall" and "break the wall down"?

texts:
Could anyone tell me the difference between"break down the wall" and "break the wall down"?
What would be the correct usage?


texts: Had been listening vs have been listening

texts:
Which one of these sentence is grammatically correct ?

  I had been listening to his songs since childhood
  I have been listening to his songs since childhood


texts: What are possibly synonyms for "hands-on experience" on a technical subject?

texts:
I would like to know what are possibly synonyms for:
"hands-on experience on ..." to be placed on technical documentation or a resume, for instance I have a phrase with some duplication as
"With 5 plus years of professional experience, and hands-on experience using C#", (experience is mentioned twice).


texts: What would be the name for a shameful pride?

texts:
I am having a conversation about a struggle that a pioneer would have (to be more specific, the status of Medical Sciences Stack Exchange). I want to make this sentence:

I'm saying this not to be __________ to ourselves, but to simply say that these are what every pioneer would have to get with

What would be a suitable word to fill the blank? Being a pioneer you will ultimately have a pride for that, but in this context it's distracting, or even going off the rail. I have thought about "hubris", but it's too strong.
Here is a list of synonyms of "pride": pleasure, joy, delight, gratification, fulfillment, satisfaction, sense of achievement, comfort, content, contentment


texts: The difference between ‘in a good mood’ and ‘in a good spirits’?

texts:
What is the difference between ‘in a good mood’ and ‘in a good spirits’?

I see those in the same book.


texts:
There is a sentence in an English exercise book of mine:

"Place your knife and fork together on your plate, with the prongs of the fork facing upwards, __ others know that you have finished eating."

The blank part should be filled with the correct form of "let". I wrote "letting", but the solution says it's "to let".

Why isn't "letting" the/a correct?


texts:
I understand the usage of "stand" in these:

  1 "The review board let the decision stand"
  2 "The offer/agreement still stands"
  3 "They allow the ruling to stand"

But I am confused about a phrase I found on the web:

  "The government let an injustice stand"

An injustice is not something official.  It is just an action.  So, how does it "stand"?  Could it be an error?  Is there a dictionary definition that would fit this example?


texts: What is the male counterpart called for a damsel?

texts:
I know the word 'damsel'. It means a young, unmarried woman. What is the word for a young unmarried man?

Internet gives me results like "lad" and "dude", but I am not sure.


texts: Is it ok to use the Frequent adverbs eg. always,often,usually,etc in past tense?

texts:
Is it OK to use the 'frequent' adverbs e.g. always, often, usually, etc. in the past tense? For example:

  She always went to park.
  She usually ate bananas.


texts: 'Speaking in general' or 'Writing in general'?

texts:
I posted a text and someone commented on it but they kind of missed the point, so I replied:

I was actually speaking in general.

Is that correct?
Is it natural to use "I was writing in general"?


texts: Using "of/about" after the word "review"

texts:
a systematic review and meta analysis of consent in clinical trials

or

  a systematic review and meta analysis about consent in clinical trials

Which one is correct?


texts:
I have a doubt about this sentence:
'Long practice sessions are best.'

It's from a book, so supossedly it's correct. Why do they use 'best'? Shouldn't they use 'better'? Is it a trend? I've heard it many times. Thank you in advance.


texts: which word has the higher chance? Maybe or possibly?

texts: Both "maybe" and "possibly" can be used to express something might happen. I am wondering which word has the higher chance?


texts: What does "shooting for the ministry" mean?

texts:
This is quoted from the novel White Single Woman.

  “So I’m a fucking sinner! Who are you, Mother Teresa? Isn’t a human
  being allowed one mistake? For God’s sakes, are you shooting for the
  ministry? I need you, Allie!”

I looked up "Shoot for". It means "To strive for something; to aspire to some goal. "

But I can't understand "shooting for the ministry". I think "ministry" means the department of one sector. Such as Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...


texts:
It is from this article. It is in the heading.

  African women on the shame of hair loss.

Does it just mean they feel shame?


texts: "suffice to say" vs "it suffices to say" vs "suffice it to say"

texts:
What should I consider when choosing between these phrases:

suffice to say
it suffices to say
suffice it to say

I don't know about the second and third one but I can speculate that the first one ("suffice to say") is not obsolete, at least in the USA. For instance, in an episode of the TV series, Dexter, there is a conversation that goes like this:

[Dexter]: Deb found out what I am. She knows everything.
[Dr. Vogel]: Everything? How?
[Dexter]: It's a long story. Just suffice to say she's not handling it well.

So, I assume in similar situations it would be safe to use the phrase "suffice to say", yet I don't know when I'd need to switch to another alternative (after all, I don't like to mess with the Mr. Potato Head!).


texts: Can I say "the colors are ranging from green to red"?

texts:
I had to describe a map and I said :

The map is a Mercator projection of the world, the countries colors
are ranging from green (for lower "usage") to red (for higher
"usage").

My teacher didn't think it was correct but I searched for this way of telling it and I did found examples where this form was used in what seems to be very similar contexts to the one of my sentence, for example :

Yields are ranging from 0 to 40 acres.

Do the examples I found apply to my sentence, or is my teacher correct that "are ranging" isn't the right way to phrase it?


texts: If Master is used as a title for writing the name of a young boy (as in Master William), what is used before the name of a young girl?


texts:
Dr Anne McClaren says that the primary motive
  was an ethical one. When  __________ about the Frozen Ark, she jokingly said:
  ‘I think Noah would have been proud of this project.’

I've already known that in the blank should be "inteviewed", but don't know why. My first guess was for "was interviewed" and one word for the passive form seemed weird.


texts: What is the meaning of Andrew words "one does not know"?

texts:
In English fantasy movie, Bicentennial Man, Sir Richard teach some Joke to Andrew (Robot),

  Sir Richard: Knock-knock.

  Andrew: "Knock-knock"?

  Sir Richard: No, knock-knock, someone's at the door.

  Andrew: Shall one get it, sir?

  Sir Richard: No, no. No. Y-you say, "who's there," Andrew.

  Andrew: Who's there, Andrew?

  Sir Richard: No, just "who's there?"

  Andrew: One does not know, sir.

Andrew says he don't know. So here know means refers to what exactly here?


texts: How to differentiate if *Would* used for Past repetitive action or future hypothesis in English Sentence?

texts:
“Her family wouldn’t appreciate her being known for playing a sport"

What would be the meaning of above sentence without knowing context?.

a) Past representative, Her family never appreciated her of being a sportswomen.

b) Future hypothesis, Her family may not appreciate her of being a sportswomen when the will come to know.

Refer below link for sentence

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/meet-thamim-35-year-old-burqa-clad-football-coach-who-is-training-girls-in-chennai-for-the-nationals-354783.html


texts: Is it correct to say "Mother is my life"?

texts:
I need this phrase for some design as today is Mother's day. Basically, I want to say:

  My mother is my life.

This is the graphic I designed which inspired me

Is “My mother is my life” grammatically, morally, ethically right to say this?

Mother is a very important person for everyone. So I don't want to make a mistake while using such phrase. I am asking this because I couldn't find Google search results for this phrase. Is it correct to use it?


texts: Difference between killer, murderer, slayer?

texts:
What is the difference in British English of the words usage for killer, murderer, and slayer?

I found these definitions in the Free Dictionary:

  killer -  a person or thing that kills.
  murderer -  one who commits murder.
  slayer - one who murders another.

Should I use more specific word slayer instead of killer when I'm trying to explain the war units? Should I use for instance murderer instead killer in the victim illegal shot death explanation? Is it right that in talking about animals I must use only killer?


texts:
Three statements:

  It weighs about a pound.

about = adjective or preposition??

'about' here adds information to the noun 'pound'. Therefore I believe it should be an adjective. But in regular sentences, 'about' functions either as a preposition or an adverb. So, what is it here?

  He was only a yard off me.

I believe 'only' is an adjective because it adds information to the noun 'yard'. Am I thinking right?

'off' is a preposition in my opinion as it relates 'me' to the rest of the sentence.

  I will watch while you sleep.

What is 'while' here?

Additional & useful discussion on the first sentence: English Language & Usage


texts: know a thing about something vs. know about something

texts:
What's the difference in meaning between two sentences?

None of us knew a thing about driving a horse.
None of us knew about driving a horse.


texts:
Does "major" in the phrase "major purveyors of viral spread" mean:
(1) main; greater or more important (like in ‘he got the major share of the spoils’)
(2) significant, important.
Which?   If (1), then when come to proportions, it is at least bigger than 55%.    If (2), then 30% is still counted as an important propotion.

The United States and many parts of the world have now lost control of the Covid-19 pandemic owing to the respiratory spread of SARS-CoV-2 and to inconsistent adherence to effective public health measures, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. Persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 are frequently asymptomatic, yet they have high respiratory viral loads, and they are major purveyors of viral spread. These factors have led to the current explosion of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths, with Covid-19 now a major cause of death in the United States.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine    (Editorial)
A New Vaccine to Battle Covid-19


texts:
When pronouncing the word changed, how to do that? It is giving me a hard time because of the G and D part. It is so difficult to pronounce. Can I skip the G and pronounce chaned or what is the alternate way?
I don't know much phonetic symbol but I learned some and here is it from a dictionary:

change ➜ /tʃeɪnd͡ʒ/ + /d/ (-ed ending)
changed ➜ /tʃeɪnd͡ʒd/

How do natives deal with this?


texts: Can I put 'which' in place of 'where' in this sentence?

texts:
The following passage is the excerpt from a school textbook. What I want to know is whether 'where' in the passage can be replaced with 'which.'

I know the verb 'hit' can be used both as transitive verb and as intransitive verb.

In this context, can I put 'which' in place of 'where' and use 'hit' as transitive? I think it makes no difference.

  Here is a story of a young man who survived Hurricane Sandy, one of
  the most violent storms ever to hit the United States. A lady named
  Christine at Toms River, New Jersey, where the hurricane hit hard,
  was lucky enough to escape from her house before the storm hit. When
  she returned to her damaged house, after the storm had passed, she
  found a note.


texts:
In the following sentence

  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has approached World Cup winners Madan Lal and Gautam Gambhir, the former India cricketers, to be a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). Both the former Delhi giants confirmed to The Hindu that they are willing to be a part of CAC.

 Link

I think instead of to be a part of to make them a part of should be used.


texts:
"I've been on an exchange to England and it was great."
Is that correct? I am no longer on an exchange but it is an experience that influences the present.


texts: 'It's okay, It's my first time. ' Does it make sense?

texts: I want to get a tatoo with the phrase "It's okay. It's my first time." But I'm not sure this sentence makes sense. It means It's my first life, so It's okay to be a little clumsy. But I am worried that this phrase is awkward and might be taken in a wrong way.


texts: 'is equal to' versus 'equals' when reading '=' in math

texts:
Even though this question is about too basic a thing, I'd like to ask due to the significance it holds in math.
And this question might have a duplication issue as in other questions like Why do so many people say "equals to" in maths? similar topics were dealt with.
But as there is no question precisely focusing on the difference between the two when used in math, I have come to ask this.
In math, is '=' read as either 'equals' or 'is equal to' and is there no difference between them at all? Are there no cases in math one can be used and the other can't?
For instance, when you read 3 + 2 = 5, can I read it as either
three plus two equals five or three plus two is equal to five, and the same rule applies to an equation where there are variables as in A + 2 = 5, A = 3?


texts:
Dear fellow learners and teachers,
When I was going through a book a sentence caught my eye, and it goes like this:

  I guess it might have been Jasmine who stole that necklace.

The question is, can I also use 'might have been J who has stolen that necklace'? Are the two tenses interchangeable?

Looking forward to your answers.


texts:
In researching whether to write 1960s or 1960's, I have found several sources stating that 1960s is correct: one, two, three.

On the other hand, this source states that:

  In British usage, we do not use an apostrophe in pluralizing dates:

        This research was carried out in the 1970s.

  American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here:

        (A) This research was carried out in the 1970's.

  You should not adopt this practice unless you are specifically writing for an American audience.

This is contradicted by a forum post stating that this is simply incorrect.

Now I'm not sure anymore.  Considering the sources I'm pretty sure 1960s is correct, but is there any situation, in any recognised English orthography, in which the spelling 1960's is also correct in referring to the decade (as opposed to a property of the year 1960)?


texts:
While I was preparing a test paper for my students, I came across a reference where the fill in the blank read:

  Although a variety of therapeutic interventions are available for this condition, none of them are specific or long-lasting, and they __________________ cause side effects, which decrease adherence to treatment.

Options were:

  can all/all can/all-can/can-all

Obviously, the last two are out, and I selected 'all can'. To my great surprise, the answer is 'can all'.

Enlighten me please.


texts:
I am Korean English learner:)

Here is my question.

  However, last year, my university invested a significant amount of money to introduce a greater number or healthy food options at its cafeterias.

This sentence is from the TOEFL passage.

I am curious about the word invest in this sentence.
I learned we use preposition "in" after the word "invest".
However, in this sentence I cannot find "in" but "to".

Thus I found this usage and meaning in the dictionary, and it said using invest both < invest + object + pp > and < invest + object >.
I think the sentence used invest as usage of < invest + object + pp > then why there is no in in the sentence but to? (before the introduce)


texts: The simple present tense has been used with "since"

texts:
I love you since forever.

In the sentence, the simple present tense has been used with "since". I'd
like to know whether it is possible or not.


texts: In the sentence "if I see him, I will tell him", what part of speech is 'tell'?

texts: Intuitively, tell is a verb, but a verb that comes after a modal auxiliary is usually a bare infinitive, meaning it is a verbal and doesn't function as an 'actual' verb. Would it be correct to describe 'tell' as an adverb modifying will?


texts: What tense should I use when speaking about somebody's death?

texts:
In Italian, to say when I was born, I would use the present tense followed by the past participle.

  Sono nato il 18 marzo 1970. (I was born on 3/18/1970.)

The reasoning behind that is that I am talking about a fact that is still relevant nowadays (i.e., I am still alive).

The same would be true if I say about somebody's death: For example, talking about J.F. Kennedy, I would say J.F. Kennedy è morto il 22 novembre 1963.

In English, what tense should I use when talking about somebody's date of death, the simple past, the present perfect, or the simple present?


texts: What is the difference between using these two structures (Noun + noun or ('s + noun) )?

texts: Should I say "a boy's name" or "a boy name"? and if both are correct, then what is the difference?


texts: Does the phrasal verb "show X around" need an indirect object?

texts:
I am not sure if the phrasal verb "show X around" needs an indirect object, X being a direct object. I am thinking you need to show a person around somewhere, but I am also thinking it might not be necessary given the context might make it clear, but I am not sure if you can just omit it.

Here's an example sentence, so that the question is more easily understood:

  The plant manager showed investors around the plant.


texts:
The phrase in it does not sound familiar to me, but I might be wrong.

  The XXX is the most critical part of our work. In it, [description]

Does in it sound correct?