texts:
I was with some colleagues and an English native today. We talked about the work we still have to do, and he mentioned kind of "tracking the outstanding items".
I was taught at school that "outstanding" means something like "extraordinary", so I asked him and he explained that both ("extraordinary" as well as "something to be done") is correct and commonly used.

This seemed acceptable, but I'm in doubt about how one can distinguish what is meant. Imagine sentences like these:
"Let's talk about your outstanding work"
-> Can I expect to be complimented or should I better be afraid?

"He's keen on delivering outstanding work products"
-> Is he just keen on getting work done, or is he keen on doing the very best one can do?

Or would the perfect English speaker never use the above constructions?
Or are they just wrong?
Would the perfect English speaker have an eye on the context and possibly decide to better use a different word than "outstanding"?


texts:
I am confused about how to use "is" or "has" in one way or the other.

Is it correct to say " he is gone to the back gate "
or it should be "he has gone to the back gate"

because I think "gone is a participle form of "go"
so it needs a perfect helping verb like "has " and not "is"


texts:
Suppose the following sentence

  Safety of a typical car depends on correctness and toughness of its body, of all its wheels and of its engine.

In this sentence, can I omit two last of without this sentence being ungrammatical? In other words, is the following sentence usual and grammatical at all?

  Safety of a typical car depends on correctness and toughness of its body, all its wheels and its engine.

If this one is also grammatical, so as a native English speaker, you prefer to say/write which one?


texts: Incorrect sentence : I had been to mumbai when he came to meet me

texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  I had been to mumbai when he came to meet me

It was written in a book but my friend and I think it is not correct.


texts:
What's the idiomatic way of describing a question by its recipient?

Is "pointed on [someone]" idiomatic?

  He willingly answers his teacher's questions that are pointed individually on
  him, but usually doesn't take much initiative in answering questions
  pointed on the whole class in general.


texts:
You might belong in Gryffindor,  Where dwell the brave at
  heart,  Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  Set Gryffindors
  apart;  (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

It seems somewhat awkward that we say both ‘at heart’ modifies the previous noun, and it functions as an adverbial. What does it mean, and what role does it take?


texts: Which one is the right one here? ('d / 've) / (gathering / meeting) / (before / until)

texts:
I'd had a high school reuion party at Hongdae, but the party was over too early. So, some of us decided to drink more at a park located in Hongdae. At the park, there were a group of girls sitting on a bench, holding a bottle of beer. And, most of them were pretty, so we decided to go there and talk to them. It was a lot of fun because I ('d/'ve) never done that before. The (gathering / meeting) was over about an hour later. We had been talking to them for about an hour (before/until) the time when I had to go home to be on time for the last bus.

I think 'd is right because I'm talking about my experience until I met them.
I don't know what I should choose. can you give me an advice?
I think until could imply that we had been talking more than one hour, so that I missed the bus. but before would never imply that because the event of talking to them has to be finished before the time I had to go home. I think depending on what I mean, I can choose which I should use, right?


texts:
Why is there present simple in the first sentence? Why is there no present continuous?

I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair – it just won’t behave,
and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal. I should be
studying for my final exams, which are next week, yet here I am trying to brush my hair
into submission.


texts: >too many efforts - is this correct gramatically?

texts:
Is saying

  too much effort

the same as

  too many efforts

?

Is effort countable or not, or does it depend on the context in which it is used? And if so, how?


texts:
Here is the situation:

A math teacher (me) wrote on the board:

  25% of an investment is accounted for $1500. Evaluate the amount of the investment.

An observer (another math teacher) mentioned afterwards that my sentence was a problem and needed to be more "defined". I asked the person what I should have written instead. He added the word "as" to the sentence:
"25% of an investment is accounted for as $1500."

Am I correct? Is he correct? Are we both correct?

or

Does the word "as" add anything to the sentence?


texts: "There is no SINGULAR NOUN" and "There are no PLURAL NOUN"

texts:
I wonder if both of these sentences, "There is no frog" and "There are no frogs", grammatical in North American English.

From what I know, "no" can mean "not a/an" and "not any" based on the book, Oxford "how English works" (by Michael Swan & Catherine Walter). Can anyone confirm this?


texts: What is the difference between "What for?" and "For what?"

texts:
I am going to die.

  For what?
  What for?

What is the difference between "For what?" and "What for?" in this context?


texts: Can I omit the object of a transitive verb?

texts:
Is the sentences:"I eat" grammatical? Here, "eat" is transitive, but I don't use any object.

Regards


texts: It will not happen overnight, anything worth obtaining or doing rarely does

texts: I didn't understand the uses of this “does”  here in the sentence


texts: what does "as in" mean, how do I use it correctly?

texts:
the video is talking (https://youtu.be/4kuhQzbc2Tw?t=76)

  "Kind" is a word you've probably heard before.
  "She is a kind woman.", "He has a kind face."
  And we mean nice and friendly.
  Now, you might not be aware that it also is a noun, "as in" category.

I am aware the meaning of what he is saying, namely, "kind" has a meaning of "category".

the speaker uses "as in" there, what does that mean, how do I use it correctly?


texts: Where should I place "last night" for this to be natural?

texts:
Mom: How's it going with Dad and his new girlfriend? (she's asking because her son has told her earlier that they argue a lot.)

Son: Last night I heard them yell./I heard them yell last night./Last night I heard them yelling./I heard them yelling last night.

Where should I place "last night" for it to sound natural?

Also, would using the present continuous tense be better here? (yell/yelling)


texts: with regard to Vs with reference to Vs in connection with

texts:
The manager wanted to meet you ..............the theft in the office.

A with regard to

B with reference to

C in connection with

For me All are correct, I don't seem any difference b/w their meaning? Dictionary says meaning of "with reference to" means "in connection with something". So they means same.
but I know I am wrong here. Can you explain the difference b/w A, B and C.

Thank you


texts: Which is the appropriate preposition: "at" or "on"?

texts:
The detector is placed at the center of the brick.

or

  The detector is placed on the center of the brick.

If I mean to say the detector is placed on top of the brick but at its center, which one of these sentences is correct? Or are both wrong?

I think 'at' would be wrong because it's on its surface, not inside the brick, but I'm not sure.


texts: Is it grammatically correct to say “Will be off the work at...!”

texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
“Will be off the work at...!” Something like:

  “(Dave) will be off the work at (5 o’clock)”

Does this sentence need a subject?


texts: What does "due to" mean in the sentence?

texts:
A sentence from a news webpage (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-quake-toll-idUSKCN1110FV):

  A day of national mourning was announced, with flags due to fly at half mast around the country for the dead, who include a number of foreigners.

What does "due to" mean in this sentence?


texts: "Thank you in advance" - how to replace?

texts:
When writing emails, I often ended it with "thank you in advance". Even more, I used to have it in my signature for a certain time (mea culpa).
However, recently I've been told that it is not appropriate or even rude.

I checked on the Web and found some links (1), (2) that confirm this point.

There's also a discussion at ELU on this matter.

Instead of "thank you in advance", they usually suggest something like "I appreciate any help that you can provide" or "I will be grateful if you can..."

OTOH, in my native language there are two distinct types of appreciation: appreciation "after" is merely like English "thank you", but appreciation "before" can be translated something like "let the divine providence be with you" or "...give you power (to do what I'm asking)", or, simply speaking (not very accurate, though), "bless you (to do what I'm asking)".

I'm trying to combine both things, i.e. avoid using "thank you in advance" and preserve the meaning of above. Is it possible?

Thank you in advance! :-)


texts:
'Please take any book you like'.

'Thanks! I'll take this, this and that'.


texts: What's the meaning of this line from an American TV drama?

texts:
So here is a line I couldn't understand from the TV drama Manifest (2018)

[Look, I don't understand. I was trying to race to you so I can get you my research off of the portal.]

Said by a medical researcher to her superior. And her superior answered:

[I got your research five years ago.]

--------background info line------------------

SO I know [get you my research off] means give my research to you, but what's the meaning of [of the portal]?

The researcher was one of the passengers of a commercial airliner who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for five years. It would be nice if anybody can answer, I'm an English learner~


texts: Is there a unique adjective describing someone who always sleeps soundly?

texts:
I'm curious to find a word for those who sleep "like a log", very deeply. Those who once asleep are very difficult to wake.

For example in all Iranian languages, there is an expression which translates literally as:

  My sleep is heavy.

  His sleep is very heavy.

  How heavy your sleep is!

In addition, I already found an adjective (sound asleep) which is very rare to use.


texts: Do we say "She fell on her head", "She fell with her head onto the floor", "She fell and hit her head onto the floor", "She dived into the floor"?

texts:
Consider a person who falls with their head coming into contact with the floor first before other parts of their body (back, legs, etc).
Do we say "She fell on her head", "She fell with her head onto the floor", "She fell and hit her head onto the floor", "She dived into the floor", "She fell & dived into the floor"? (And for "dive", do people do it on purpose not accidentally like "fall"?)


texts: "I no longer think that." or "I no longer thought that." - what tense to use with "no longer"?

texts:
I'm not sure if I should write "I no longer think that." or "I no longer thought that." in this excerpt:

  "I used to think romantic love was a neurosis shared by two, a supreme
  foolishness. I no longer thought that. There's nothing foolish in
  loving anyone. Thinking you'll be loved in return is what's foolish."


texts:
Want to kick back and relax without having to bust out your laptop?

I see this sentence in the dictionary on my phone. I don't understand what kick back means here.


texts: What is the common negative adjective that expresses a woman or girl who tried too much to show to others that she is attractive and pretty?

texts:
What is the common negative adjective that expresses a woman or girl who tried too much to show to others that she is attractive and pretty, for example, she might shake her hips when walking, put on too much makeup, or say really girly words?

Note: She might not promote any sexuality, she just tries hard to be charming and make people think she is pretty and girly. It could be used for a little girl as well. So, It does not refer to sexuality.

Words such as Suggestive, Flirtatious, Sluttish are not suitable.

It could be used to talk about "men" that behave like women.

I asked this question because I wanted to translate the Vietnamese word "điệu" to English. The Vietnamese English dictionary says "feminine". But I didn't trust it very much.

I think "girlish" or "girly" might be suitable.


texts: "Her this behavior" vs "this behavior of her"

texts:
Suppose a girl did something wrong that showed us her real face. Now if I want to say that I don't like her behavior, how do I say?

I don't like her this behavior
I don't like this behavior of her.

In the first sentence, I feel that "this" and "her" next to each other sound unnatural (two modifiers) while sentence no. 2 is verbose and does not sound very natural to me.
By "this", I mean the current behavior, the one she is acting at this time.
Is there any other way to say that?


texts: Expression for when the sea is not calm?

texts: I went to the beach today but didn't get in the sea because it wasn't calm at all. I want to tell my friends that speak English about it and I wonder how should I tell them that. Should I just tell them that the tide was high or is there a better word to describe it?


texts:
The noun NEET is called 啃老 in Chinese. Which means an adult keep getting money from the parents with no job.

There's a good description at Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEET

The question is how to use this word in Verb? or Are there any verbs that have same meaning?

For example:

let the verb be X,

  You have to stop X-ing, and find a job.

  X-ing can't solve anything.


texts: "install it in place" - install what in place?

texts:
From a dessicant humidifier manual (I have no illustrations, only an excerpt)

Continuous Water Drainage.
The unit features a continuous drainage port. Using a plastic pipe (with an inner diameter of 10mm), insert into drain hole (on intermediate plate), reach out from side of water tank, install it in place, and arrange the drain pipe.

My understanding is that the user is asked to extend his hand (reach out) from the side of the water tank (the unit's cavity that is used to accomodate the water tank), and when to install something in its proper place.
But install what? To install the pipe? To install the intermediate plate? Or the water tank?
I can't imagine the contraption. A pipe inserted into the water tank which is then installed in its place? A pipe inserted instead of the water tank? A pipe-plate combination inserted somewhere?
After the mysterious "intermediate plate" (is it an integral part of the construction, or something like a flat bushing?), the sentence is a puzzle.


texts: What's the meaning of "should not have been"?

texts:
Arguably, the drug should not have been made available.

What's the meaning of this sentence? Could you paraphrase it? Why should is added?


texts: Is "if rain wouldn't come," grammatically correct?

texts:
I would like to ask if the two following expressions are correct;

A) If rain wouldn't come, I could go on a picnic.
B) If rain didn't come, I could go on a picnic.


texts:
Is there any alternative idiom or phrase to replace a heavy cross to bear in the context of the following sentence

The murder incident was so tragic, where the phrase a heavy cross to bear comes to mind

And what does the word cross in the idiom actually mean? Does it mean the marking X Or the object which is used for crucification?


texts: How to remove ambiguity: "... lives in the city of H, the capital of the province of NS, WHERE the unemployment rate is ..."?

texts:
The sentence here is quite confusing. I wrote this.

  Jessica lives in the city of Halifax, the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, where the unemployment rate is 5 percent.

A fellow reader is confused: Is the writer talking about the unemployment rate of Halifax or Nova Scotia?

I want to say the rate in Halifax is 5 percent. How do I establish clarity without breaking the sentence in two and repeating "Halifax"?


texts: Does "significant improvement connection" seem ok?

texts:
Is this sentence a legal sentence in English?

  Company has required significant improvement connection between
  devices and IT systems.


texts: Which is more appropriate to use in sentences like these, you or your?

texts:
I remember your talking about how your father died.

I remember you talking about how your father died.

Are both these sentences grammatically correct?
What's the difference in their meaning?


texts: them vs. there, which of the two fits in better in the sentence?

texts:
Selina Walker, publisher of Century and Arrow, attributed the recent
  rise of psychological thrillers to __________ being “a sort of
  ‘melding’ of the women’s relationship and detective genres”.

their or them?? Please provide the explanation as well.

edit : replaced "there" by "their"


texts:
Not only is it unclear how impartial we should be; it's unclear
what would make an answer to this question the right one. Is there a
single correct way for everyone to strike the balance between what he
cares about personally and what matters impartially? Or will the
answer vary from person to person depending on the strength of their
different motives?

[What does it all mean? Nagel, Chapter VII]
How should I understand the words "what matters impartially"? I think it means "what is important equally for everyone? Is my understanding correct?


texts:
In a book (Clean Architecture, Robert C. Martin, page 46) I read

  (e.g., jar files, DLLs, or Gem files)

I wonder about the use of commas and or. I would have expected

  (e.g. jar files, DLLs or Gem files)

Are the two additional commas wrong, irrelevant or do they provide additional meaning here?


texts: Subject and Predicate in 'The cackling of geese saved Rome.'

texts:
In the question

In the following sentence separate the subject and the predicate: The cackling of geese saved Rome.

I think the sentence is talking about how Rome was saved due to cackling of geese therefore the main subject should be Rome, but answers I was given are otherwise. Can someone please explain the actual meaning of sentence to me?


texts: What is the difference between: "I had eaten X before I ate...: and "I had eaten X when I ate..."

texts:
what is the difference between :

I had eaten a pound of chocolate before I ate my dinner.
I had eaten a pound of chocolate when I ate my dinner.


texts: Is there a proverb meaning that "one cannot give what one does not herself have"?

texts: Is there an proverb meaning that "one cannot give what one does not herself have"?


texts: Using just Past Simple in the Third conditional

texts:
Genderson: I told you not to take the turnpike.

  KRAMER: I thought we would blend in.

  Genderson: If we took the Palisades, this never would've happened.

  KRAMER: Then we would've had all that bridge traffic.

  Genderson: Ah, just drive.

I don't like took in the conditional sentence. Instead of took it should be had taken. What is it: a different grammar structure or just a colloquialism?


texts:
There is a line in the movie The Alamo by John Wayne's character Colonel Crockett talking to his men:

  Davy Crockett: First, the young lady and I will take a pasear. Gather up your possibles and I'll meet up with you later.

He then leaves with the young lady, before sending her off and coming back to join his band to march to the Alamo. Possible as noun appears to mean "possibiliy", according to Oxford Online Dictionaries. But what does it mean here? Judging from the context, my hunch is that Crockett here is telling others to gather their things/belongings, but I can't find this meaning under possible.


texts:
I am asking the following question from purely understanding English language perspective. In this post, it doesn't matter to me how the policy maker interprets it.

My health insurance provides reimbursement for gym membership, subject to at least 50 workout sessions in 6 months, which I guess is approximately 2 workout sessions per week in average.

Here is how a workout session is defined:

  To qualify for one workout session, you must exercise once during a 24-hour period.  There must be at least eight
  hours between workouts.

I am not sure whether my English is too bad to understand the quote or  the quote was written in bad English.

What does "exercise once during a 24-hour period" mean?
Is "exercise once during a 24-hour period" contrary to "at least eight  hours between workouts"?

Thanks.


texts: Comma and conjunctions. Is the sentence truly an idependent one?

texts:
I am correcting a text for a friend. She wrote:

  You can find biodiversity in wild meadows, but these areas decrease by seven percent annually.

A comma should be used if there are 2 independent clauses. To me, "these areas..." is not truly independent. If I read this on its own I would not know  "these areas" actually are, right? Therefore there shouldn't be a comma?!

I encountered the same problem when correcting a longer text about a certain topic. In a paragraph, some of the sentences could not be really understood if you had not read the preceding ones first although they didn't use "this" or "these". I don´t know if these sentences should be called independent at all?


texts: 'I made it' and 'I did it' vs 'I have made it' and 'I have done it'

texts: Why do English speakers say 'I made it!' and 'I did it!' instead of 'I have made it!' and 'I have done it!' when talking about succeed results of their actions. As far as I know, they should say 'have/has done' when talking about results.


texts:
Restlessly roaming the corridors of the hospital while her mom is in surgery, Joan comes by/past the room where the old man she talked to last month had been. The room was now empty.
(Joan doesn't intend to go there. She just comes by/past it by accident and remembers that it was that room. She doesn't necessarily enters the room, just comes by/past it in the corridor.)
Should it be "comes by" or "comes past"?


texts:
I have made up the example below.
(1) I am very excited about next month. That will be the first time I will go skydiving.
Is it okay to use the future tense "will" twice in the second sentence?


texts: What do we call these kind of structures?

texts:
I don't have Instagram installed on my phone.

Does it mean the same as

  I haven't installed Instagram on my phone.


texts: use of preposition after verb prefer 'over' vs 'to'

texts:
Look at the examples below and please tell if both the uses are correct or there is any distinction in the meaning.

  I prefer tea to coffee.

  I prefer tea over coffee.

Now if they are both correct. Is it possible in English that two separate prepositions can convey the same meaning?


texts:
I mean, if any is right:

The least you could have done is have won.
The least you could have done is won.
The least you could have done was won.
The least you could have done was win.
The least you could have done was had won.
The least you could have done was have won.

Also, could you teach me how to use this kind of structure? Just a simple explanation would suffice.


texts: What is the grammatical function of "knowing" in the sentence "he's grown up knowing your name."?

texts:
Is the following a reduced form?

  He's grown up knowing your name.

If yes, what has the original form been?


texts: Why do we use present progressive in this case?

texts:
We learned that present progressive form is not available when related to the human emotion we have.
But I can see the example using 'present progressive' in the sentence.
for example, 'I am still loving you.' or ' I am lovin' it'
What is the reason why we can use the present progressive form in the sentence?
Please, tell me.


texts: How to understand this sentence "Identify issues that you needs to escalate to appropriate people in AAA"?

texts:
Suppose AAA is the company name I work for.

When a new person joins to the company, there will be a "buddy" assigned to him/her, and he/she will receive a letter tells what a buddy will do for him/her:

Identify issues that you needs to escalate to appropriate people in AAA

As the buddy, I found I can't understand this sentence correctly. After discussed with some colleagues, I found two explanations:

I will help the new person find what he/she needs to do or to improve, so he/she can be a good employee
I will help the new person to find other proper people to solve his/her problems when I can't solve it by myself

Which one is correct, or neither?

(PS: is the word needs correct in the sentence? Or should it be need?)


texts:
For unordered lists, use asterisks.

Whether to use asterisks or hyphens for unordered lists [a comma?] is up to you.

As far as I know, in imperative sentences like the first one, the comma before "use" is mandatory.
The second sentence looks very similar to me, but it's not clear whether the comma should (not) or must (not) be used. Could you explain it?


texts: "Will make and will continue" or " will make and continue"

texts:
The Group will make strategic move to strengthen its market shares and will continue to invest in product design and development.

Can I omit the second "will" and write as:-

The Group will make strategic move to strengthen its market shares and continue to invest in product design and development.


texts: Does *first of all* always go with *second of all*?

texts:
According to Ngram, first of all is twice as popular as firstly, but secondly is a hundred times more popular than second of all.

When I present two points, do I have to be consistent in the choice of these phrases (if I use firstly, should the other be secondly)?

Because If I choose the most popular, my sentence would be like "First of all he is rich, secondly he is also smart." Which exhibits kind of inconsistency. How does it sound?


texts: Can the phase “make it” be used in this sentence?

texts:
I wrote one sentence as follows. In this sentence, I want to express that although the work is very hard, I finally overcome many barriers and succeed.

Although implementing my idea was very challenging, I finally made it.

But somebody reviewing my sentence used “succeeded” to replace “made it”. Now the new sentence is as follows:

Although implementing my idea was very challenging, I finally succeeded.

I did not know why he changed “made it” to “succeed”. May I ask that is there anything wrong when I used “make it” in my sentence?
And I think the second sentence can express my initial meaning, but the second sentence just sounds like “OK, it is hard. Then I succeeded.”. Its tone is not that much strong. I want to emphasize the hardship of my success. So can “make it” express my initial meaning? If not, is there any other words can be used here?


texts: Does this sentence make sense? (using "be referred to by")

texts:
The participants' codes are referred to by placing a randomly generated 4 digit number after the initial of their last names e.g. J3926 for last name John.

I am not sure how does "be referred to by" works. This is a sentence I wrote
based on the structure of a sentence I am trying to understand.
And I wonder the sentence I wrote above makes sense.

(Please understand: I am not in liberty to write the exact sentence online;
Basically I only changed the subject and object, the structure hasn't been changed.)

Thank you.


texts: Can we say "turn around something" to mean "rotate/revolve around something"?

texts:
I know we can use the phrase "turn around something" to mean "cause something to face the opposite direction" like in "He turned around the phone to see the camera." What I wonder is, whether we can say "turn around something" to mean "revolve/rotate around something". I am asking you this because I could not find examples of this kind of usage in dictionaries. Let me make up some example sentences to help you understand what I mean better:
Can we use "turn around" to mean "rotate/revolve around" in sentences like these?

"Jordan turned around his defender and got the pass."

"The lion turned around its prey once before attacking it."

"The world turns around the sun."

"The motorcycle convoy started turning around the pole."


texts:
Where shall we go?
Where should we go?
Shall we eat outside?
Should we eat outside?

Which is correct and why? Thank you in advance.


texts: What's the meaning of a long sentence about baseball

texts:
Part of me still believes that my best days are ahead of me. I see it
  happen all the time to people. I have a lovely wife, I have lovely
  children. They get you through a lot of it. But it really, it is
  devastating to have gone up to bat and hit a grand slam, and hit
  doubles and triples from that point on. None of it’s good enough. So,
  I can’t remember who said it, but I just recently heard somebody say,
  “I started at the top and worked my way down.” Sad but true.
  ?

I can't figure out the meaning of "have gone up to bat and hit a grand slam, and hit doubles and triples from that point on."


texts: What is the difference in using /wɪð/ and /wɪθ/?

texts:
I found a while ago that the preposition with has two pronunciations: /wɪð/ and /wɪθ/.

Some dictionaries have both of them for AmE and BrE (OALD), but some have only /wɪð/ for BrE and both for AmE (Cambridge Dictionaries).

Are these pronunciations interchangeable, and if it is an American thing, is there a difference in using the two in AmE?


texts: Is there a term to describe this "humourous" strikethrough commonly seen on internet nowadays?

texts:
This article "Paying Taxes on Technical Debt" on thedailywtf.com has an example of this "humorous" strikethrough that is prevalent on the internet:

  Just to make it needlessly complicated interesting, in many cases, the numbers need to be transformed via some formula before copying, and the formulas vary from form to form, and from state to state.

The author strikes off what they really think, and then write what is more acceptable to show off how smart they are add humour. Is there a term to describe this kind of strikethrough?


texts: Is "Millions more" the same as "More than millions"?

texts:
1) I want to know the exact meaning of "Millons more".
ex) The famine killed nearly forty-five million people, and millions more died from disease.

Does the "millions more" mean "more than millions of people" or "addiontional millions of people(to the previous number, that is, forty-five million people)"?

2) How about this?
ex) Millions more have wallowed in the break-up of his marriage after revelations that he fathered a son with a maid.
Is the "Millions more" in this sentence also the same as that of 1)?

3) How about this?
ex) The retail rollout that began in May 2017 is now complete, meaning there are hundreds more locations (384, to be exact!)


texts: Can clauses interchanging positions render a sentence grammatically incorrect?

texts:
Out of four different structures of a sentence, only one is supposed to be correct.

  To reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threat to its national security, a comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force.
  The Arabian Army and Air Force carried a comprehensive joint exercise, to reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threat to its national security.
  A comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force to reflect on the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threats to its national security.
  A comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force to reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threats to its national security.

Now, in structure 3. on is the mistake. In structure 2. it should have been carried out and not carried.

Then, what I understand, 1 and 4 are the exact same sentence having only the clauses interchange positions. So both should be correct grammatically.Am I wrong?


texts: Is there a word for something that's politically sensitive to talk about? Politically sensitive in the sense it's something you are not suppose to say as a politicians because it's a dirty secret that every politicians knows about, but you shouldn't say it loud. I am not sure if there's a word for it.


texts: which one is grammatically correct? I'm a total beginner, please help me to understand past tense and present perfect


texts: How to know whether "over" means more than or during?

texts:
Over has two meaning;

  : more than (a specified number or amount)
  : throughout or during (a particular amount of time)

We can distinguish it in context but sometimes it's ambiguous for me.

For example

  I lived there over 5 years.
  It's been over a minute.

This kind of sentence is confusing for me. Above all, is it preposition or adverb?

If it's preposition, I copied two examples more from Merriam-Webster.

  I've been waiting for over an hour.
  happening/occurring/developing over a period of 20 years.

According to the dictionary, it means more than in first sentence but it means during in second sentence. How to know whether over means more than or during?

Plus, what if second sentence was happening/occurring/developing over 20 years.?


texts: Are there any differences between "exclusive bus lane" and "bus only"?

texts:
"exclusive bus lane" and "bus only" means the same?
what's the differences about using "exclusive" and "only"?
For example: "handicapped parking only" but in Taiwan, we use "handicapped exclusive parking space".  Is it correct?


texts: Proper usage of from "starting date" to now

texts:
What is the proper usage of the phrase from starting date "to now"?

Which of the follows is/are correct and which do you recommend when you ask your friend for their notes?

Can you show me your notes from March to now.
Can you show me your notes from March up to now.
Can you show me your notes from March till now.
Can you show me your notes from March up until now.
Can you show me your notes from March to date.


texts:
History, stubborn in its nuance, proved Buchanan, Gingrich, and the rest of their lot wrong.

What does in its nuance mean? I found that nuance means

  a quality of something that is not easy to notice but may be important

but I don't think it's what the author means.


texts: Does an adverb go before or after a prepositional phrase?

texts:
For example:

He spoke optimistically to the people.
vs.
He spoke to the people optimistically.
vs.
He optimistically spoke to the people.
vs.
Optimistically, he spoke to the people.


texts: Difference between "what do you see" and "what are you seeing"

texts:
Is there any difference between the two?

  What do you see?

  What are you seeing?


texts:
What does this sentence mean:

  My girlfriend ticked at me.

I did not find any meaning for that .


texts: Verifying that workers put in the right amount of hours at work

texts:
I'm developing an application for remote workers to be able to check in and out of work and I've stumbled upon a concept I don't know how to translate into worker.

A worker's manager is supposed to verify that each worker is putting in the correct amount of hours, to make sure that no one is slacking off. In Spanish we'd call this "control of hours" or "hourly control", but I've never come across a similar concept in English. Could you tell me of any similar concepts?

Thank you!


texts: What does the sentence mean in the given context?

texts:
I am confused about the meaning of the following sentence:

  He started with a scanned sketch that he traced over, alternating
  between the two different  tools to re-create the line work.

Does the phrases "traced over" and "re-create the line work" signify a single action of tracing? Or is the action signifies by "traced over" is finished in the first clause and another action of "re-creating the line" starts in the second clause?

The text is regarding a photo editing app.


texts:
In the sentence:

"Would you like some tea or would you like some coffee instead?"

What's my best option to rephrase this sentence so that it includes the word "rather" to imply the meaning of [instead]?

I was thinking of these examples:

Would you rather like some tea or coffee?
Would you like some tea or rather have coffee?
Would you like some tea or would you rather prefer coffee?
Would you like some tea rather than coffee?
Would you like to rather have some tea or coffee?


texts: How do I refer to the people living in the particular city? Is it random always?

texts:
Where do demonyms come from? At times they take -ite, some times -an, -er and this one is jaw-dropping '-siders!'

  A person living in New York is a New Yorker (-er)   A person living in Delhi is Delhiite (-ite)  A person living in Sydney is Sydneysider (-sider -OMG! Really?)   A person living in Las Vegas is Las Vegan (-an)

There are innumerable cities across the world and remembering a demonym for each of them does not seem practical.

I don't get demonyms without searching them on the Internet (and trust me, even after searching I fail to get them for some cities' residents!).

This becomes further difficult when the city name is long - say St. Louis, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro (Cariocas -full marks who knew this!) and many more.

Is there any way we can assume/know the demonym of the city by looking at its spelling?


texts:
If I were to describe the words left, right, front and back, I could say, those are positions.

But what if I need to divide those into smaller groups: left and right, front and back?

How could I describe those smaller groups?


texts: Why does "is" have /z/ sound and "this" have /s/ sound?

texts:
The standard pronunciation of "is" is /ɪz/. I looked up its etymology and saw that its pronunciation in Middle English was /iːs/, with /s/. In Old English, it was also /iːs/
On the other hand, the word "this" is pronounced as /ðɪs/ in standard Englishes, with /s/. And its etymology suggests that it was also /θis/ with /s/ in Old ENglish. It is constant, its pronunciation did not change.
So why did the /s/ change to /z/ in "is"? Or why didn't the /s/ change to /z/ in "this"?
(I just noticed that the Old English pronunciation of "this" has /θ/ but now it has /ð/ but I am not asking about that. Ignoring that would be better. My main question is about the ending "s").


texts:
I don't understand the meaning of "uncomprehending" here. Does it mean that Scott was unable to understand the article"? Or does it mean the article or the author of the article didn't understand him correctly?

Steven Pinker (Harvard University professor) tweeted:
National treasure Scott Alexander on the uncomprehending New York Times article about him.


texts: Using 'want' to talk about future-in-past desires

texts: 'I thought I would be a doctor' This is a sentence expressing a past plan, or technically a future-in-past statement. Can I say 'I wanted I would be a doctor' while I would be a doctor is the object of want? Is it grammatically or idiomatically correct?


texts:
We use perfect to denote our finished,fulfilled actions for example.

I have done my homework

İt implies that the action has been achieved,fulfilled and now my homework is done.

I have been here for 2 hours

When it comes to a state verb we use their perfect forms only with a duration as continuative perfect sentences to denote how long we have been in a state or for the actions that starts in the past and is performed for a duration and still ongoing at the reference time.

I know that a perfect action implies an action which has been achieved but what about state verbs is there a perfect concept for stative verbs?I am confused about without a duration,time span how can a state be achieved?Can we say that the state is achieved if I am currently in that state?


texts: The order of letters in the English alphabet

texts: On what logical basis are the English letters in the alphabet (a, b, c, ... x, y, z serially arranged? Is there a pattern in the occurrence of vowels (a, e, i, o, and u)? Is the sequence they follow adopted from another language?


texts: Newton's first law, unless + past participle

texts:
I was reading Newton's first law:

  An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in
  motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon
  by an unbalanced force.

In the part:

  unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

The meaning is clear but I had never seen this construction:

unless + verb (pp)

Is this construction correct?

Also if you can explain all the grammar of this last part (unless....) I would appreciate it so much


texts: There is a family of 4 people - is it right?

texts:
I know I can say:

  There is a group of 4 girls standing on a bench.

How about this?

  There is a family of 4 people.

or

  There are four people family.

Is there the best option other than these?


texts: What would you call, for the lack of a better way to put it, "benign nationalism"?

texts: The terms 'nationalist' or 'nationalism' bring back memories of things like Nazi Germany or, at least, former US president Donald Trump's platform. But a political force, without demeaning other nationalities or any jingoism, can simply promote national identity, using and teaching national language at schools, especially when those things are suppressed (for example, in Belarus, Lukashenko discourages using Belarusian which is seen as some sort of opposition agenda). What would you call such a political group or politician, if not nationalist? What is the equivalent of that word but with neutral or positive connotations?


texts:
I am very confused by this article title in New Yorker:

How Much Do Pacquiao-Mayweather Tickets Cost?

Shouldn't it be "How much does"? Why do?


texts: What is the meaning of this sentence "as their jump ropes slap hot concrete"?

texts:
She is the one the girls sing about as their jump ropes slap hot concrete.

Can anybody explain the meaning of "as their jump ropes slap hot concrete"?


texts: hearing the story vs. listening to the story

texts:
Are the following sentences both correct? If so, what's the difference?

Hearing the story, John started a bit.

Listening to the story, John started a bit.


texts:
I know that we have to use "the" when the object we mention is specific. But in this case I wonder whether to use "a" or "the"

  First our team should identify a / the specific need in the community and then carry out a project to address that need.


texts:
I would like to use both in my sentence. However, I really confused about it. I fell that it is incorrect.

For example,

The number of variables in both simulation and real data is fixed to five variables.

Is my sentence correct?


texts:
While scanning through an article on the qualities of good research, I came across a sentence that was formatted with extra spacing within the sentence subject
 It read as followed...

There are still important qualities upon success: contentment and willingness to be of service   Contentment is good.

The ending of the sentence is where my question (of weather it the spacing format is a typo, or simply stylistic) arises. Why the extra space between the words “service” and  “Contentment”? Also does the fact that the second word have anything to do with it? Is this something that happens in writing?


texts: What does "She’s nice to see and she’s soft to touch" mean?

texts:
I read a following poem in Les Miserables.

There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren’t any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.
There is a room that’s full of toys,
There are a hundred boys and girls,
Nobody shouts or talks too loud,
Not in my castle on a cloud.
There is a lady all in white.
Holds me and sings a lullaby,
She's nice to see and she’s soft to touch,
She says "Cosette, I love you very much."
I know a place where no one's lost,
I know a place where no one cries,
Crying at all is not allowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud
-- Les Miserables Musical -  lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

I have two explanations of "She's nice to see and she's soft to touch":

When she sees me, she is nice and she touches me softly.

I see her and she is nice and I touch her and she is soft.

I don't know which explanation is right and how to parse this sentence.


texts: Which tense to use in the following context?

texts:
I lived in Mexico from 1990 to 2000.

Or

  I had lived in Mexico from 1990 to 2000.

Or

  I have lived  in Mexico from 1990 to 2000.

Which of these are grammatically correct?


texts:
Mrs. Pritchard was to accompany me on the train that would take me on
the overnight trip from Nairobi to Mombasa, where I would board the ship.
For three days I had resisted wearing Valerie’s clothes, but now I had to put
them on. Mrs. Pritchard herself had altered the clothes to fit me, sitting by the
hour, tears dropping onto the silks and linens as she took in seams and
shortened hems. Seeing her unhappiness, my dislike began to melt away.

I checked the meaning of "by the hour" on the net as every hour, but in this context I think its meaning is something different.
Does it mean:

She sat fitting the clothes for an hour?

or

She sat fitting the clothes for hours?

Source: Listening for Lions by
Gloria Whelan


texts: the first space of character -- what makes "character" a mass noun in this case?

texts:
Source: short audio clip

Transcript:

  As you first start authoring HTML, you're probably gonna notice what seems to be a really curious behavior among browsers regarding your use of whitespace. You see, no matter how much whitespace you put in your content, your browser is gonna for the most part ignore everything after that first space of character. So, I've got the whitespace.htm from 0307 opened up in my browser. And you can see I have the sentence that says, "By default, browsers will ignore any whitespace after the first space."

As far as I know, the only time we use the word character as a mass noun is when we are talking about somebody's personality. But in computer science, I reckon, it should always be characters with an s tagged on the end because there we are dealing with letters and numbers that we can see on screen and actually count. So, I don't really understand why he says character like that as if it were some kind of abstract idea rather than a bunch of things that can be counted. What do you think?


texts: Different usage of the structure "wonder / was wondering"

texts:
Could you please let me know which one of the structure "wonder / was wondering" is more in common use in AE speech:

1) I wonder if / whether
used to ask politely for something [= may I]:

I wonder if I might have a drink?

2) I was wondering if / whether
a) used to politely ask someone to help you:

I was wondering if I could borrow your car?

b) used to ask someone politely if they would like to do something:

I was wondering if you’d like to come to dinner.

Source: Longman Dictionary.
I guess the only common usage in today's speech is '2a'.


texts: What part of speech is "up" in the following sentences?

texts:
I walked up to the ATM.

I looked up at the sky.

The way I see it, "up" is an adverb in both sentences. Meanwhile, "to the ATM" and "at the sky" are prepositional phrases.


texts: to be worth the price of admission to something -- what exactly does this expression mean?

texts:
Source: Running Linux, 5th Edition by Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matt Welsh (2006)

Example:

  Perl may well be the best thing to happen to the Unix programming environment in years; it is worth the price of admission to Linux alone.

I don't think I fully understand what this line is saying.


texts:
Please help me choose the correct answer for:

  That theatre ... to close down soon.
  a) is thought      b) is thinking    c) thinks     d) thought

I'd like to choose (b) because it means to me that 'that theatre wants to stop its activities soon' but the answer is (a).

Many thanks in advance.


texts: What's a good idiom or phrase that expresses that someone is corrupt and is working for a company or someone? There are political shows where it was used, but I don't remember exactly what the expression was, so I am wondering if someone knows what the phrase or idiom might be or know another idiom or phrase than the one I forgot about.


texts: What's the word for a photo that is next to a recipe?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes a photo of food/meal that is included in a recipe but it is not a real photo of the food.

I found "illustrative photo" next to some pictures on reuters.com and Google nGrams says this collocation exits but COCA found only 1 hit.


texts:
When to use have had, had had or has had?
Following are the examples:

  I have had a lot of homework this week.
  I had a lot of homework.

Are these examples make sense?


texts: Could 'it' be regarded as plural? Why is 'were' used instead of 'is' in "...if it were cleaned and fed..."?

texts:
I am reading 'Justice' from M.J. Sandel and he quoted the story from another author to criticize utilitarian as follows:

  If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of the vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing indeed, but if it were done, in the day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed.

What am I wondering is that why plural verb 'were' was used for the verb of 'child' or 'it' which is singular noun? Isn't 'was' correct?


texts:
So, in a test I wrote the following sentence:

  The city looked horrible after the hurricane was done destroying it.

I was told that the usage of "done" in here is incorrect, but I have no idea why.  Could someone please explain? I've seen this used a number of times (done + -ing), is it specifically connected to the word "destroy?" I am supposed to use only English grammar in my tests, so it is possible that this is something exclusive to other forms of English.  I am simply puzzled.


texts:
Are both examples viable?

compared to

  Are both viable examples?

Could the adjective "viable" change its position in question without violating grammar rules?


texts: Meaning of the following sentence.......To the extent that it foresaw the effect

texts:
To the extent that it foresaw the effect the Internet would have on society, what makes the Frankfurt School--an early 20th century school of thought concerned with how rampant consumerism harms the self--suspect is not so much that it explodes much of what has sometimes proven to be a symbiotic relationship between our “real selves” and our “digital selves” as that it imagines a world so positively dystopian that it becomes but a caricature of the times in which we live.
I cannot understand the meaning of the sentence. Can anyone paraphrase it or explain it simply?


texts: Similar words for 'most talked about' story

texts:
Consider this expression:

  One of the most talked about stories of the offseason is the move of Player X from Team Y.

Similarly in the fields of politics or movies.

What words can I use in this context similar to most talk about. The word I am looking for means a story that got everybody talking?


texts: Are there specific terms for crop that has been ruined in some way? I'd especially enjoy a word/phrase for produce/crop that has over-ripened or rotted away.


texts:
a centre of academic excellence
a centre for academic excellence

Would you please throw an example show me what is the difference between those?
Many thanks


texts: What is this movement to dodge a swinging sword called?

texts:
Picture is from web.

One person leans back and dips down to dodge the swing of a sword. What is this move called? I think I heard a movie description say "he ends back", or "he hens back," or "hangs back." None makes sense to me. What could the verb be?


texts: Using the base form of to be to form a passive sentence

texts:
The different forms of the verb to be include: be, am.is, are, was,were, being and been.
I understand that a passive construction is made up of the to be form + the past participle of a transitive verb.

However, I am wondering if the actual base verb be can be used to form this construction. If not, then why not?

Also, I know that the base form be is used as an auxiliary verb after modals, but can it ever occur as a main verb on its own?


texts: If I say “your mom” to my friend, is this sound too intimate? Should I use “your mother” instead? I’m over 20.


texts: Does the definite article, "the," modify both the noun-constituents following it in this sentence?

texts:
In a question asked here, one of the answers said that, in the sentence: "Care about thr syntax, (the) semantics, and (the) typos,"

  "the inclusion or exclusion of the article is
   irrelevant for anything other than style because of
   something called "suspension [by which, I
   think, he meant parallelism]," in which
   syntactic elements of an initial item can be
   assumed to apply to subsequent items. (In other
   words, the is used in front of the first item, so it can
   be assumed to apply to all items—whether or not
   it's actually present.)"

So I asked whether in this sentence: "Care about syntax, the semantics and typos," the definite article "the" only applies to "semantics" or to "typos" too. The person replied that I should ask a new question regarding this, so here I am!

I want to know whether, in general, the articles (definite or indefinite) which precede a noun other than the first noun in a compound noun modify all the constituent nouns following it or just the adjacent one.

I wasn't able to find any discussion on this matter on the Web, but I hope I can find it here.


texts:
What phrase or verb do you use to say that someone accidentally has left a pen or marker mark on their face? Which one of the following communiate the idea the best?

  You marked your face with the pen.

  You stained your face with the pen.

  You messed your face with the pen.

I feel that none sounds natural, but I cannot think of a natural way to say that. What would a native English speaker say?


texts:
In literature I meet such questions: What did you there? What do you then? Why are they grammatically correct?

  Pussycat pussycat, where have you been? I've been up to London to
  visit the Queen. Pussycat pussycat, what did you there? I frightened a
  little mouse under her chair

In another source of this poem I saw 'what you did there?'

  "We will need men," Zouga said. "What will you do when you have them?"
  Jan Cheroot asked. "Dig the stuff out." "And then?" the little
  Hottentot demanded with a malicious gleam in his dark eyes, his
  features wrinkled as a sour windfallen apple. "What do you then?"
  he insisted.


texts:
I wrote:

  Here one may use the average value of the first and second squares instead of only the second square.

I doubt if I must write

  Here one may use the average value of the first and second squares instead of the only second square.

Which is correct? If both are correct, what is the difference in meaning?


texts: Word used to denote a glass of drunk water

texts:
Say there is a glass of water, and someone drank it (dipping their lips, i.e. not from a distance pouring water into their mouth). Now the glass of water is (somewhat) impure, containing the saliva of the person.
What is the word in English that denotes the water is impure in the sense that the water has been drunk by someone?


texts: The difference between "clean up", "clean out", and "clean"

texts: I always have some trouble distinguishing these words, "clean up", "clean out" and "clean". Is it possible to use only "clean", instead of "clean up" and "clean out". For example, instead of saying, I have to clean up my living room. I say, "I have to clean my living room."   Instead of saying, I have to clean out my garage, "I have to clean my garage.  Instead of saying, I have to clean out the drawers. "I have to clean the drawers." I looked into the differences a lot on the Internet. And I think I understand the differences, but in everyday conversation, do I have to distinguish them correctly?


texts: Is it right that "to adults" is obligatory as in "I taught English to adults"?

texts:
Could you tell me If "to adults" is obligatory or not as in

  I taught English to adults.

I was told in school that "to adults" is an indirect object.

  I (S) + taught (V) + English (D.O) + to adults (I.O)

If that's obligatory, I would be attempted to call it as an adverbial complement modifying "taught".

  I (S) + taught (V) + English (O) + to adults (Adverbial Complement)

But, I suppose "to adults" is just an adverb phrase. (not obligatory)

It seems to me that the removal of the prepositional phrase can't render the sentence ungrammatical. i.e., "I taught English." I perfectly understand.

  I (S) + taught (V) + English (O) + to adults (Adjunct)


texts:
A conversation between a commando and a (retired) admiral from the movie Sahara:

  Dirk: We could use some serious muscle here, admiral.

  Admiral: Well, you're not gonna get it. Not fast enough. I'm getting the D.C. two-step bigtime.

It seems that "D.C. two-step" here means Washington-style bureaucracy, but I can't find any dictionary to support it. All I have found is "two-step" is a dance.


texts: What does "record" mean in 'his record as a married man'?

texts:
I've come across this sentence in Hitchen's God Is Not Great (which I've been reading and working on for several months, and hence all the questions). That's a real simple one. But I seem to get stuck in the word record every time I read it.

  "In the evening to debate with Marvin Olasky at the LBJ Library. Olasky is the man who coined the term “compassionate conservatism” and helped evolve Bush’s “faith-based initiative.” He’s a convert from both Musevilik and Communism. He tells the audience that his record as a married man improved after he became a Christian. I’m ready to believe it. He also mentions many nice people who do good things because of their faith. I reply that I am ready to believe that, too, as long as it’s admitted that many people behave worse because of their religion. My challenge: Name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith, that could not have been made or performed by a nonbeliever. I have since asked this question at every stop and haven’t had a reply yet."

I've looked it up in Oxford Dictionaries and Merriam-Webster only to get confused a little further.

I've considered the possibility of it being slang and searched on Urban Dictionary as well. The closest thing I could find is a track record which, according to Urban Dictionary, means "A person's history of intense relationships (such as boyfriend /girlfriend or one night stand) with (usually) the opposite sex. Usually used to gauge whether it's worth it to go after someone."

To sum it up, I can come up with the following options:

All the things done from the start of the marriage.
All the accomplishments made in the marriage.
Sexual performance as a partner in the marriage.

I would greatly appreciate any insightful remarks.

Thank you very much.


texts: how should I ask a barber for a bald haircut

texts:
I want to ask my barber to make my hair bald. Which one is correct?

I want to go bald
Bald haircut

by bald, I dont mean completely bald. I want to keep little bit of hair. would this be fine "take it all off, close to very short"


texts: Bizarre, eccentric, funny, odd, strange, unusual and weird

texts:
I can't find much differences among these words above, neither from my what little English experience, nor from my dictionary's translations.

So far, I know at least "odd", "weird" and "strange" have etymological differences thanks to this post, and assume that "eccentric" is a bit near to "crazy", or "unusual" could literally read "not frequently met" and so on.

But I'm still not sure whether they could mean the same thing or tell different aspects of it, when people casually say "He's a ____ guy." or "It's a ____ sight." Are there differences in meaning, nuance or preference?


texts: "under the sunlight" VS "in the sunlight" VS "under sunlight" VS "in sunlight"?

texts:
Suppose that you want to say that you have put your wet shirt outside so that the sunlight dries it off. Now if you want to mention the sunlight in your sentence with a prepositional phrase, how would you word it? I have come up with the following sentences:

I have put my wet shirt outside to dry off under the sun.
I have put my wet shirt outside in the sunlight [ without the? ]  to dry off.

It seems that, in the sun light and in sunlight are the more common prepositional phrases. What would be the difference between the case with and without definite article? Also, is there any justification on why under is not used?


texts:
Working through another C.A. Smith's story, I fail to understand what "even thus" mean. Not even Googling could answer the question because most sources just state the examples with no hints of the meaning.

Flowers of many hues had been strewn upon the bier, and their
fragrance filled the air with a drowsy languor, with an anodyne that
seemed to drug my heart and brain. Such flowers had been cast on the
bier of Mariel; and even thus, at her funeral, I had been overcome by
a momentary dulling of the senses because of their perfume.

The whole paragraph is not completely clear because the second sentence seems to just repeat what is in the first one, but maybe the "even thus" phrase will - once I understand it - change it?


texts: Differences between 'could have' & 'had'

texts:
If I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.

  If I had kept him away by paying money, I certainly had paid money.

Thanks.


texts: Is “We speak the English language” grammatically correct?

texts:
"We speak English" - that's a correct and common way of saying.

Is it possible to say "We speak the English language"? Yes, it sounds bulky and non-English, but it doesn't seem incorrect.


texts:
(I picked A but according to my book correct answer is B , why can't l use A ? )

Question is : We were not fortunate enough to attend a tea company while in japan,but we_____as if we____the guests of the Japanese as we wandered the streets of Tokyo.

A-felt/were

B-were feeling/Had been


texts:
How should we refer to this action that involves the bottle, the cap and the person?

Is she "opening the bottle" or "opening the cap"?


texts:
When the answer is

  x must be at least less than 0.5 (i.e., x<0.5).

where 0.5 is the specific answer I am looking for, what is the proper question?

  x must be at least less than what value?

does not sound like a proper sentence. "What is the maximum possible value for x?" does not work because x cannot be 0.5.

I also feel "at least" is used improperly here but "x must be less than what value?" cannot work (whether grammatically or otherwise) because for this question 0.4 is a correct answer, but I want it to be wrong.


texts: Feel the need+of? is this correct? i dont think it is, but i may be wrong

texts: "Why do you feel the need of convincing him to eat ice-cream?"


texts: 'On (the) closest Sunday' or 'on (the) nearest Sunday'

texts:
If I talk about the past, should I say 'on the closest Sunday' or 'on the nearest Sunday' (in relation to another point in the past), and should I use the article?

[Something happened in the past]. On (the) nearest/closest Sunday, [something else happened].


texts: is there really some difference between if and whether?

texts:
I've had a doubt about when I use if and whether. I saw an phrase using whether and now I'm thinking when really use it.
The phrase:

I don't know "whether" it was the burden of having to raise a large family, or his natural confidence in dealing with people, but my dad became an immediate success in his newfound profession.

Can I replace whether for if? However,  when I use whether?


texts: Should I need to repeat on the article "the" "X-ray of the atlas and (the) axis"?

texts:
Should I need to repeat on the article "the" in the sentence

  "X-ray of the atlas and (the) axis"?

It's a title that's going to be above the picture.

If someone knows question alike, please let me know and I'll delete the post.


texts: Is it possible to match both tenses in this sentence

texts:
Is it possible to write

  I saw that you  have not accepted my PayPal payment yet.

Saw is past, have not is present perfect (the action begins in the past but ends in" present") and in this particular case it means I expect the person to accept the payment in the future, am I right?


texts: Can we skip using articles in some sentences?

texts:
I am wondering if I don’t put “a” in this sentence, will it still sound okay or natural.

  The IP camera will be supplied by a local IP camera service provider in each country.

Do we always need to use a, an, the, some and other articles or can we skip them sometimes? Is there any rule to read?


texts:
How we come to value everything in life relative to ourselves is the
  sum of our emotions over time.

I can not get the point. I think my problem relates to the phrase how we come to. I found the definition below for come to do something:

to finally reach a state in which something happens or you do
something

but I still don't understand the meaning of the sentence.

So, could you please explain it to me?

The fuller text is here:

  NEWTON’S SECOND LAW OF EMOTION Our Self-Worth Equals the Sum of Our
  Emotions Over Time [...] Newton’s First Law of Emotion states that
  when someone (or something) causes us pain, a moral gap opens up and
  our Feeling Brain summons up icky emotions to motivate us to equalize.
  But what if that equalization never comes? What if someone (or
  something) makes us feel awful, yet we are incapable of ever
  retaliating or reconciling? What if we feel powerless to do anything
  to equalize or “make things right?” What if my force field is just too
  powerful for you? When moral gaps persist for a long enough time, they
  normalize.16 They become our default expectation. They lodge
  themselves into our value hierarchy. If someone hits us and we’re
  never able to hit him back, eventually our Feeling Brain will come to
  a startling conclusion: We deserve to be hit. After all, if we didn’t
  deserve it, we would have been able to equalize, right? The fact that
  we could not equalize means that there must be something inherently
  inferior about us, and/or something inherently superior about the
  person who hit us.This, too, is part of our hope response. Because if
  equalization seems impossible, our Feeling Brain comes up with the
  next best thing: giving in, accepting defeat, judging itself to be
  inferior and of low value. When someone harms us, our immediate
  reaction is usually “He is shit, and I am righteous.” But if we’re not
  able to equalize and act on that righteousness, our Feeling Brain will
  believe the only alternative explanation: “I am shit, and he is
  righteous.”17 This surrender to persisting moral gaps is a fundamental
  part of our Feeling Brain’s nature. And it is Newton’s Second Law of
  Emotion: How we come to value everything in life relative to
  ourselves is the sum of our emotions over time. This surrender to
  and acceptance of ourselves as inherently inferior is often referred
  to as shame or low self-worth. Call it what you want, the result is
  the same: Life kicks you around a little bit, and you feel powerless
  to stop it. Therefore, your Feeling Brain concludes that you must
  deserve it.


texts: When should I use "is," and when "does"?

texts:
Why doesn't he practice law?
Why isn't he practice law?
What is it?
What does it?
Why doesn't he come?
Why isn't he come?
It doesn't matter who you marry.
It isn't matter who you marry.
He doesn't care a thing about me.
He isn't care a thing about me.
She doesn't realize it.
She isn't realize it.

When should I use is, and when does?
Are these sentences correct?


texts: appropriate preposition with 'influence'

texts:
The influence of three oxidizing systems on/over the reduction of
  concentration of water solutions of formaldehyde has been studies.

What should be appropriate use of preposition in this case and why? I have known that influence can take up to three prepositions according to use like, influence with person, influence on something. But I have also seen example like

  The kid next door is a bad/good influence on Kevin.

Someone clarify which preposition to use in what context.


texts: What is the difference between stakeholder and investor? According to the Oxford advanced dictionary, both of them invest money on something, but is there any difference?


texts: "X won't Y" (able/willing) vs. "X doesn't Y"

texts:
In the preschooler series "Peppa Pig" I met the following two sentences:

  George runs as fast as he can but the kite won't fly.
  Peppa runs as fast as she can but the kite still won't fly.

I understand that in this case won't (=will not) is a form of the modal verb will. If I get the meaning of won't right, it's the same like in the following example sentence from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

  The car won't start.

But I wonder why not simply to say:

  George runs as fast as he can but the kite doesn't fly.
  Peppa runs as fast as she can but the kite doesn't fly.
  The car doesn't start.
  The car isn't starting.

Are the latter sentences wrong in English? Or do they sound weird?


texts:
In this website: British Council Learn English, they say—"We use will have when we are looking back from a point in time in the future, or looking back from the present"::

It's half past five. Dad will have finished work by now.

but in other website I could(?) only find examples where "will have" is used in future

Next month my parents will have been together for thirty years.

Can "will have" be used in present Or "should have" should be used instead ?

It's half past five. Dad should have finished work by now.


texts:
In the following sentence, why is the past perfect used rather than the past simple?

  The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!

The quote is taken from this site, dedicated to the history of English Bible:
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/index.html


texts: What do you call a person who has no living relatives?

texts:
If all of a person's family are dead and he or she is completely alone, how can I describe them with a single word?

  With the death of her uncle, the young girl became completely [word here]


texts: To prepare for something or to get prepared for something?

texts:
Which one is correct in American English?

  1) To prepare for something?

  2) To get prepared for something?

Besides this, there are a lot of similar things that I am not sure about (such as to start or to get started). How can I generally realize which form is correct?


texts: Difference between Custom and Convention

texts:
What is the difference between Custom and Convention. For example:

  It is a custom in India to give money as a blessing on marriages.
  It is conventional in many societies that strangers being introduced handshakes.

The Wikipedia definition for a convention is A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated, or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms, or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.   So can we use these words interchangeably? If so, can you provide some examples?


texts:
I have encountered cameras "tightening on" something several times in reading. Examples:

  The camera tightened on O'Doyle's face. (source)

  The camera tightened on his face. (source)

  The camera tightened on the reporter as she stared into it. (source)

  The camera tightens on another amazing find. (source)

But this usage of "tighten" can't be found in dictionaries. It seems to mean along the lines of "zoom in on". What does it mean exactly? Is this usage idiomatic?


texts:
I’d like to know this “that” clause’s function.

  As the days passed, the nation grew increasingly skeptical that any of the minors had survived- let alone all of them.

I can assume it means the nation grew skeptical about the possibility that the minors had survived.
But I’m not sure what the “that clause”’s function is here.

Could you please give me some examples of that clauses as it is used in the above sentence?

Thank you.


texts: Best way/phrase to say that its too early

texts:
There are certain situations where we need to request customer/client to wait for fair solution or cost. for example -

In a telephonic call client randomly asked to share your thoughts and price to develop XYZ in the existing software. I know 4-5 ways to develop the same thing and not sure which one  is best suited and the cost for it. I replied him something like below -

"Hey John, These (Blah blah..) are the way to do this and it’s too early to decide the best one and its cost right away . i need sometime and will get back to you via email by today or first half tomorrow".

is there any impressive phrase in English which can reduced few sentence ?
 if i am grammatically wrong anywhere in above  sentences please correct. or sugesst some shortest way to pass  the same message.


texts: Are 'complexity' and 'performance' countable or noncountable?

texts:
First of all, I am sorry to ask a question that is worth asking a lot of people, but I could not find an answer that was right for me, so I am posting a new question.
In many scientific journals, e.g., papers published by IEEE, the words 'complexity' and 'performance' appear very frequently.
I also want to use these two words in my paper, but I am wondering whether to consider them as countable nouns or uncountable nouns.
According to many existing papers (searchable in google scholar), Sometimes they are used as being uncountable (e.g., We develop a blah-blah-blah scheme with low computational complexity; The performance of A and B schemes is blah-blah-blah.), sometime as being countable (e.g., We develop a blah-blah-blah scheme with a low computational complexity; The performances of A and B schemes are blah-blah-blah).
On the other hand, according to the Merriam-webster dictionary, the word 'performance' is defined as

Performance:  how well someone or something functions, works, etc. : how well someone or something performs. (and there are both examples for 'count' and 'noncount')

Can I decide whether to use the above two words as a countable noun or a noncountable noun???
For example,

'To this end, we develop a heuristic algorithm with a low computational complexity.' vs 'To this end, we develop a heuristic algorithm with low computational complexity.'
'The algorithms developed in [3] and [4] have very high computational complexities.' vs 'The algorithms developed in [3] and [4] have very high computational complexity.'
'the performance of our proposed algorithm is better than those of other baseline algorithms.' vs 'the performance of our proposed algorithm is better than that of other baseline algorithms.'
'We compare the performances of our algorithm and the other baseline algorithms.' vs 'We compare the performance of our algorithm and the other baseline algorithms.'


texts: What's the meaning of the phrase "take a swing out"?

texts:
Just take a swing out to Rockaway after work

I saw this sentence in the movie The Flamingo Kid.
What's the meaning of the phrase "take a swing out" here?


texts: What is the difference among 'good at' and ' in, with,for'?

texts:
He is good at swimming.
He is good in swimming.
He is good for swimming.
He is good with swimming.

What is the difference among 'good at' and ' in, with,for' in the sentence above in meaning?


texts:
When do I use "Uses" and when "are using"?

For example:

  Computers uses RAM which is faster than disk storage.

Or

  Computers are using RAM which is faster than disk storage.

The last one sounds more natural to me as a non-native English speaker,  but I also see often "uses".

When do I use which?


texts:
Example with a context (Students Use Clickers to Help Guide College Lectures):

  Unfortunately "buy" is exactly what the students have to do on most campuses. The clickers cost around $25 each, and in most cases the students purchase them along with their books. But since there are several programs available, mostly offered by text book publishers, one clicker will not necessarily fit all.
  So if a bunch of profs are using different programs, it may be necessary to buy several clickers, thus running the exploding education tab up for the folks back home.

I don't think I understand what that means.


texts: Bakers (usually) take small pieces of dough off much bigger dough that they already prepared before starting shaping it in a way they want like spreading or scoring it. I found a picture that might help. In Persian, we call it چانه گرفتن. What's it called in english?


texts:
I once came upon a word that means "afterward-smart", e.g., claiming to know something would happen only after it happened. For example, somebody said, "I knew the stock market would collapse, that's so obvious", but only say so after the stock market has collapsed, never before.

I know there is such word, but I can't find it any more. What is it?

Thanks


texts: What does "factors found" mean in this sentence?

texts:
The sentence is:

  Some of the factors found in this study were almost notorious before for being creators of unfavorable landscape or evokers of fear in human mentality.

I can't figure the "factors found" part out. Is it grammatically correct?


texts: How to tell someone the location of a place using the verb "lead"?

texts:
I know we can say:

The store is down the street. (along the street you will find it.)

However, I want to say that a facility is at the bottom of a specific way. I wrote:

  This street leads to the facility that you're looking for.

Now my question is, should I put down before to in the sentence above?

I checked "leads down to" and the number of relevant results is considerably high. If the correct way for saying this is to put down, or if both are acceptable, then what is the difference? (If there is any difference)


texts: "to jerk head over the shoulders" help me to imagine this movement

texts:
This is a passage from "Shardik" by Richard Adams.

  Bel-ka-Trazet raised his eyes to meet those of the young woman. He
  said nothing, however, and she returned his look with an impassive air
  of authority, as though every man had a face like his and they were
  all one to her. After a few moments she jerked her head over her
  shoulder and one of the girls, coming forward, led the servants away,
  disappearing into the darkness under the trees near the bridge.

I just can't understand what she did with her head.


texts: What is the meaning of this phrase? "at the expense of being wrong"

texts:
Below is the context the phrase is used.

We are looking to assemble a small elite team. We want people who value being right, but not at the expense of being wrong.

Thanks


texts:
I'm wondering how to understand "that perhaps intended" in the following. It feels out of place. Without it, the sentence would be fairly understandale as "The perlocutionary effect might be that he goes and mends them." The subject "The perlocutionary effect" would be followed by an auxiliary and a verb, and a that-clause. I don't know how to interpret "that perhaps intended" in the structure.

E.g. a wife might say to her husband ‘Have you remembered to mend the steps?’ The perlocutionary effect might be that perhaps intended, that he goes and mends them. Or it might be that he loses his temper, or simply replies ‘Yes, dear’.


texts: I could not enter through the door so I was forced to climb .... a window

texts:
I could not enter through the door so I was forced to climb ... a window.

Options:

a) in
b) into
c) out of
d) between

My approach:

I am confused between into/in.

Reason: Into because into is used to indicate movement from outside to inside

But the answer given is in.

Also, between cannot be used because the sentence is not used to talk about 2 things.

Out of: I found the following meanings of out of. None of them correlates with my sentence.

  1) indicating the source or derivation of something; from:
  a bench fashioned out of a fallen tree trunk

  2) having (the thing mentioned) as a motivation: she did it out of spite.

  3) from among (a number): nine times out of ten.

  4) not having (a particular thing): they had run out of cash.

Can anyone guide me how to approach the problem?


texts: What is the difference between "pleasant for" and "pleasant to"?

texts:
A report of some of the sentences I found on Google with "pleasant for" and "pleasant to" follows:

Pleasant for

  What is pleasant for them is what matches their states
  Hence too, arguing in court and competitive debating are pleasant for people who have experience and ability

Pleasant to

  It is not pleasant to those who do not like it
  It is immediately pleasant to everyone possessing it


texts: Is it "sit on my lap" or "sit in my lap"?

texts:
There's not enough seats here. What's the right preposition to use with "lap" in this situation?

You can sit on my lap.

or

You can sit in my lap.

I believe that, similar to "lay your head", it would be on my lap.

He was laying his head on my lap.


texts: Lexical issue - the words "close" and "far" in terms of time

texts:
I need some help with a lexical issue. In my native language we have one word that means "close" both in terms of distance (meters etc) and in terms of distance in time. The same goes for "far" and everything related. So it's very difficult for  me do distinguish.

What words could be used to say close in terms of time, and what in terms of distance? Are some of them interchangable, or only reserved for one meaning? The same goes for far. How do you distinguish? I'd be grateful for some help :)


texts:
Can I say 'someone is lying not on but off the couch.'
Grammatically not + preposition + but + preposition + object is possible?


texts:
Is it correct not to use a possessive apostrophe in 1990s icon? I've just read an article where it was omitted.

I understand that you don't put an apostrophe in decades/dates when you're saying something like I was born in the 1980s, as this is just a plural. But I would have thought that 1990's icon would be correct as a possessive apostrophe is needed because the icon belongs to the 1990s. Am I correct on this?


texts: what to use with never, third form or first form

texts:
i always confused what to use with never.

I was taking to my co-worker and i had to tell her that HR never gave any party so i got confused what to use give or gave

  never give any party or never gave any party ?
  never give pays or never gave pays [just like my friend never pays tax]


texts: I {haven't seen / didn't see / am not seeing} Kumar this week

texts:
I … Kumar this week.

options:

a) haven’t seen b) didn’t see c) am not seeing.

My approach:

I choose "haven't seen" because I think the sentence is used to mean that the action is performed during the period and the period isn't  over yet.

I am unaware though why "didn’t see" is not used.

Is my approach right? Please correct me if I am wrong?


texts: I'm always hearing sentences like "this x has run its course" from native English speakers. However, from my understanding, it should rather be "this x has ran its course" as it's something that has happened in the past rather than in the present. I do agree that "run", in this sentence, sounds right, but grammatically, would that be the correct choice, too? If so, can anyone tell me why this is the case?


texts:
All products were protected under the previous laws. For the next 5 years a bill that would replace the 1906 revised law was stalled in Congress. It took tremendous effort to pass new standards enforceable by the FDA. In 1937 a Tennessee drug company advertised a new sulfanilamide elixir specifically aimed toward children. The toxic solvent was untested ( per then current laws) and more than 100 people, mostly children, died. It was later determined that the solvent was similar to antifreeze, which is deadly to humans.

I couldn't find it while looking it up in dictionaries. Is it suitable for this text? I mean can you use it in different examples, please?


texts: Is it grammatically correct to use "it" to refer back to its whole preceding sentence or part of its preceding sentence?

texts:
1.I once stole some apples at the market, but It was for my starving children, not for me.

  It = "I once stole some apples at the market"

  2.He said that he didn't want to live alone but had to reluctantly. It seemed to be for his family, not for himself.

  It = "but had to reluctantly"

  3.While his artwork was put up for auction for $19 million dollars merely because of his reputation, it looked too clumsy to be worthy of
  the price. It is why I tend to disregard artists.

  It = "his artwork was put up for auction $19 million dollars merely because
  of his reputation"

Q1) Is it grammatically wrong to use "it" to refer back to a clause or sentence?

Q2) In each sentence, did I guess right that "it" refers back to the bold part?

Q3) Can I use "this, that, or which" in place of "it" in each sentence?

Q4) Even if it's not grammatically correct to use "it" to refer back to a clause or sentence, is it the one of the mistakes even native speakers often make?

I couldn't find out "it" can be used to refer to a clause or sentence in my dictionaries, though I'm not sure whether this use of "it" is listed in other dictionaries.


texts:
Consider the following sentences:

We don't see a lot of each other.
We don't see each other a lot.

Is there any difference in meaning between the two sentences?
Is the first sentence common?


texts: What grammatical label can be given to the word "gone "in this sentence

texts:
My mother promised to look after my dog while I was gone.

Can someone through light upon the above given sentence
What grammatical label can be given to the word "gone."
Also is the sentence grammatically correct ?


texts:
Canada / lets in / more new immigrants / per capita / than any / of the
  Group of Seven / advanced economies.

How to understand "per capita"? Why it is used here? Is it similar to "three meal a day" ?


texts: "I told you how I felt that nothing could come close." or "I told you how I felt that nothing comes close."

texts:
I'm confused about this since this is in past tense. which one of the following is correct?

1 I told you how I felt that nothing could come close.

or

2 I told you how I felt that nothing comes close.


texts:
We had exams three days ago, and there's a question I still don't get. We had to correct (but were not allowed to split into two sentences):

  Good papers do not merely review literature and then say something like "there are many different points of view, and all of which have something good to say."

I wrote:

  ... of view, all of which having something good to say.

The right answer was:

  ... of view, and all of them have something good to say.

Is my answer completely wrong, or can it work as well?


texts:
what is difference between the two following sentences? And which one is grammatical?

1- If there is a car in the garden, it will be towed away.

2- If there is any  car in the garden, it will be towed away.

Please note that I am making a general statement and thinking of just one car.


texts: What article should I use in "If Mrs Hillier phones, say I'm away on trip."

texts:
I would very thankful if you could please help with the following:
Correct the error/s in the following sentence:
"If the Mrs Hillier phones, say I'm away on trip."
What I've tried already:

If (no article) Mrs Hillier phones, say I'm away on a trip.
If (no article) Mrs Hillier phones, say I'm away on the trip.
If (no article) Mrs Hillier phones, say I'm away on trip.

What could be the right answer then and why?
Might you also please suggest some resources focused specifically on learning definite/indefinite articles usage?
Here's what I've found already:
https://www.englishpage.com/articles/index.htm
https://www.englishpage.com/articles/articles-flashcards.htm


texts: The sentences after comma, how to use it for describing anything?

texts:
I read novels and found a sentence or a phase after the sentence with a comma. I would like to know how it works.

The blade left a trail of golden light as it slashed down, ripping apart the enormous brown boulder that had just been lobbed at him. [The word "ripping apart" was described that it happened at the same time as what happened in the first sentence?]
Tens of thousands of figures could be seen battling on this plateau, swords clashing against spears, explosions of light and magic searing the air and sky. [How can we use v.ing without v. to be here? What does it call?]


texts:
I'm working for an ELT publisher that has a rule of "no relative clauses" in materials for beginners, which is reasonable. However, they will often use phrases such as:

"The man in the red shoes..."

I see this as a relative clause, as "in" simply replaces "wearing" or "who is wearing".

My argument is that if this is going to be allowed, then it's better to simply teach the full relative clause. That way, the students will be exposed to the most accurate lexical markers. Otherwise, they could likely take "in" literally, as if the man were inside the hat. If they are taught what "in" actually means in this context, then they are being taught the basics of a relative clause, and we may as well show them the most accurate grammatical form.

Am I correct that "in" here marks a relative clause? Or at the very least, it's simply a technicality for avoiding one?


texts:
"I had come to your house this morning."

In this sentence, is "this morning" correct with past perfect tense?


texts:
"although but one kind of man was seen to go into it, all kinds and varieties of men came out of it."
I am confused with the meaning of the above sentence. Does this sentence mean that all kinds of men would go except one kind and all kinds would come out of it?


texts: Would you like to - how to answer correct short answer?

texts:
If somebody asks me:

Would you like to go to the cinema?

What is the correct short answer?

Yes, I would.
Yes, I do.

As I know, short answer should contain the same helper word as the question has.


texts: Is there a rule of thumb to distinguish stative verbs from nonstative ones?

texts: Is there  some rule of thumb to successfully distinguish stative verbs from nonstative ones?


texts: Help to understand: "render to Caeser that which is Caeser so ..."

texts:
"She took my life away, like my very own life," Allison said of the officer. "She has to face whatever the law says. The very Bible says to render to Caeser that which is Caeser so if Ceaser says to pay a penalty for a life, then she has to pay."

I don't quite understand the part in bold above. I looks it relates to the religion. On the other hand, the structure looks odd as well. I'm not sure how to parse the sentence correctly.

Can someone help to explain it?

The full source.


texts:
Just a simple question about the best sentence construction to express an idea.

Is it correct to say:

How much I enjoyed the movie is greater than how much I am disappointed by it.

I don't if there are specific rules involved but beginning a non-question sentence with "how much" sounds awkward. According to dictionaries the phrase "how much" is usually used as a question starter or an emphasis on the degree/extent of something.(You have no idea HOW MUCH the city has changed).

So is it correct to use it to suggest 'a certain/some extent' like I did above?

Or is it better to reword it into:

The degree to which I enjoyed the movie is greater than the degree to which I am disappointed by it.

Can you suggest better ways to convey the same idea?

Many thanks


texts:
Is the relationship between Active and Passive voice mutually exclusive?
A sentence not being in Passive must be assumed as a sentence in Active voice?

I'm having a little bit of trouble with this kind of exercises, like for example:

  Identify whether this sentence is in active or passive voice:

  1. He arrived at his hotel at 4:30 pm.

I know this isn't in Passive voice, so is it correct to assume it is in Active voice?

Theorethically this verb "Arrive" is intransitive and doesn't require a direct object for it t make sense. The doer of the action (subject) is "He".


texts:
I want to communicate to a person that her situation and conditions are understandable and I get it.

Is:

  You're being understood.

the most accurate one? Is "understood" the best word in this context?


texts: "along the road" vs "alongside the road"

texts:
This "along" and "alongside" will drive me crazy, because examples are just the opposite of what we are taught.

On the Cambridge dictionary, I have seen the sentence:

New pedestrian pathways are being built alongside the road.

I have been studying "along" and "alongside", and I have learnt that thin, long places like road, rivers, paths, beaches etc should be followed by "along" because it means "towards the end of something long in a line".

So, in the above sentence, we understand that pedestrian pathways are being built, which means that the pathways should start from the start of the road, in parallel to the road, and continue until the end of it, which perfectly requires the preposition "along". But why does the sentence have "alongside" and not "along"?

Please help.


texts:
Give the fabric to John to examine.

Let's say I'm telling somebody called Joe to give another person (John) a piece of fabric to examine it. Can I say the sentence above instead of,

  Give the fabric to John for John to examine it.

and instead of the sentence below if it is Joe who I'm asking to examine the fabric?

  Give the fabric to John for you to examine it.

And if it's not clear who I want to examine the fabric, I should say the second or the third sentence, is my understanding correct? Also, should I say "it" after "examine"?


texts: 'Have been persuading' v. 'have been trying to persuade'

texts:
Should I say, for example,

  I've been persuading her to apply for half an hour.

or

  I've been trying to persuade her to apply for half an hour.

? Does the verb 'persuade' (or 'convince', for that matter) necessarily imply the success of the efforts? Or fruitless attempts also count as persuasion?


texts: How to understand "cupping backsides is taken as seriously as cooking books"?

texts:
An excerpt from The Economist:

As such provisions have grown in popularity, two things have happened. First, the list of misdeeds covered has lengthened.
What initially applied solely to criminal financial conduct now extends to almost anything that might damage a firm's reputation.
That includes creating a toxic corporate culture, sexual harassment and “inappropriate” personal relationships; cupping backsides is taken as seriously as cooking books.

How to understand the bold text? Why does it fit into the context: cupping therapy and cooking books?


texts: Is there any difference between "along" & "by" the river"?

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Is there any difference in meaning between those two sentences concerning the use of (along) vs. (by)?

  1- Cities must have water, and so they are often built along rivers.

  2- Cities are built in safe, suitable places, such as by rivers.

Can they be equally replaced?

  1- Cities must have water, and so they are often built by rivers.

  2- Cities are built in safe, suitable places, such as along rivers.


texts: Help clearing confusion in a dangling modifier

texts:
Today, several users on a Facebook group were requesting me to send some materials to them via email. So I thought to assure them and I commented using the following sentence:

  I will send the materials via email to you personally.

But no sooner had I written it than I realized it might be interpreted as "The materials will be sent to you via email by me in person." which is not what I am trying to convey. Rather I am trying to convey "The materials will be sent to you via email by me to each of you."

My next thought was individually, but I don't think I am able to use it in the desired way either.

UPDATE- I, myself, will send a particular email to each of the persons of the group.

So how should I say the sentence keeping the sense I want to mean? Can it be said using personally/individually?


texts:
When do exactly we choose to use have or take? They look sort of having similar context

  I have a bath

  I take a bath

And by the way, I saw that

  I take a chance

Can't be transformed to

  I have a chance

Can it?

*Moreover, If there's a verb used like the bath, it means the bath is no more a verb but a noun right?

Also very important is that , can they be applied randomly to *a verb or a noun?

Like :

*
 - I take a choose

Or

I take an option ( this one makes sense but I mean in the context of delexical verb)

?

*EDIT: My mistake , bath is actually not "a verb transformed to a noun, but its absolutely a noun."

So my concerns would be if they can be used interchangeably? And be applied to random noun?


texts: Why has Martin used a past tense for stating a fact?

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A man could not always be where he belonged, though. (George RR Martin, Game of thrones, Eddard,p117) and this one (my suggestion): A man can not always be where he belongs, though. (appears more acceptable to me)
I cannot understand why Martin used a past tense for a fact! If it is a fact -and it seems like a fact that we cannot be where we belong at all times-, shouldn't he be using a present tense?


texts: When one says "The question follows from A.", does that mean that A answers the question, or that A is a justification to consider the question?


texts: Which to say "She is playing with toy cars" or "She is playing with car toys"?

texts:
toy 1 /tɔɪ/ ●●● S3 noun [countable]

  1 an object for children to play with

  some toys for the baby

  toy car/soldier/gun etc

  soft/cuddly toy British English (=a toy that looks like an animal and
  is covered in fur)

  Annie was playing happily with her toys.

Ngram found "play with toy cars" but not "play with car toys".

So, it seems "toy cars" is the right one, but we can find a lot of "car toys" phrase on the internet.

Are they they same?


texts: Ellipses of the preoposition IN, in the given sentence

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Like we say "what time do we get off work?", could one say "what month do you leave for Europe" ?

I have heard people say stuff like "what day is your flight?", but I haven't heard anyone say the same concerning months, so I got curious.