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1500 questions
34
votes
6 answers
What does "day's" mean?
I understand what the sentence The house is a full day’s journey from here means, but I’m wondering what day’s is short for in this expression. It doesn’t match any pattern I know.
A couple of examples:
He’s = he is
Let’s = let us
Mary’s car = the…
Jim
- 443
34
votes
9 answers
Does "either A or B " preclude "both A and B"?
In mathematics, "A or B" includes "A and B".
Does "either" mean "A or B but not (A and B)" or does it include the possibility of "A and B"?
The context might be mathematics, formal logic or ordinary language.
Bogdan Lataianu
- 2,259
34
votes
5 answers
Is "But" allowed at the beginning of a sentence as a synonym to "Though" or "However"?
Is it correct to use "But" at the start of a sentence like this?
You can afford it. But think twice before buying it.
Won't using "But" instead of "However" mark me as a non-native speaker?
antiplayer
- 345
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34
votes
4 answers
Why is "hysterical" applied to women but rarely to men?
hysterical : affected by or deriving from wildly uncontrolled emotion,
Janet became hysterical and began screaming.
Why is the adjective hysterical usually applied to women and rarely to men?
For what it's worth, Google Books shows 42,700 hits…
user52941
34
votes
5 answers
Is it a good practice to refer to countries, ships etc using the feminine form?
While talking about ships and countries, is it a good practice to use the feminine form? For example:
"Her economy" - while referring to a country's economy
"Her flag (or deck etc)" - while referring to a ship
Is this practice common? Is it used…
user187809
- 459
34
votes
3 answers
Why is 'present perfect' present if it happened in the past? And why is it 'perfect'?
Why is 'present perfect' present if it happened in the past? And why is it 'perfect'?
andrerpena
- 615
34
votes
2 answers
Revealing that someone else is gay — counterpart to "come out"
If I reveal to my friend that I am gay, I'd say
I came out to my friend.
How would I say that my friend told his friend (without asking me for permission) that I am gay?
My friend [insert verb here] me to his friend.
Of course, I could say
My…
Armen Ծիրունյան
- 17,751
34
votes
2 answers
English notation for hour, minutes and seconds
I often see English notation about time using the " and ' symbols.
I have always mistaken about the two, and even their meaning.
I'm more used to "01:05:56", for example.
How do you represent the hour, minutes, and seconds using the apostrophe and…
Stephane Rolland
- 671
34
votes
5 answers
When is "Y" a vowel?
In school we are taught the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
Today's XKCD got me thinking about when the letter Y is considered to be a vowel. I understand (perhaps incorrectly) that in words like bicycle and why it is a vowel. What about…
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
- 26,528
34
votes
5 answers
Is using the possessive apostrophe correct in "the car's antenna"?
I know that to mark possession of an item you can use 's like in the following example:
The user's password shall not be blank.
However, is it correct to use the following:
The car's antenna is embedded in the windshield.
I seem to remember that…
Stecy
- 451
33
votes
7 answers
Number agreement when using “(s)” for optional plural
I have a question about the following construction and which instance is correct.
Selecting an appropriate study topic(s).
Selecting appropriate study topic(s).
When it is both singular and plural due to the parenthesized optional part, should I…
cjvalentine
- 331
33
votes
4 answers
"On website" or "at website"?
Which sentence is grammatically correct?
The papers are freely available at the journal website.
The papers are freely available on the journal website.
Using Google's search results:
available at the website returns 72,800,000 results.
available…
Sadeq Dousti
- 639
33
votes
4 answers
crisscross, dillydally, riffraff, etc
Some English words only differ in their vowels: crisscross, dillydally, riffraff, etc. Is there a name for them?
Elberich Schneider
- 4,404
33
votes
5 answers
What is the difference between "gift" and "present"?
What is the difference between gift and present?
metal-gear-solid
- 843
33
votes
5 answers
"At/on (the) weekend(s)"
Which expression is better? Which is right? Why?
A. Sorry to disturb you at weekend.
B. Sorry to disturb you on weekend.
C. Sorry to disturb you at weekends.
D. Sorry to disturb you on weekends.
E. Sorry to disturb you at the weekend.
F.…
Yishu Fang
- 661