Pain in the English » Misc

Word in question: Conversate

DwayneCT — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:15:13 +0000

Is conversate a word? Many people use it and some people claim it’s not a word but I found it on online dictionaries.

a long sentence with the verb “demand”

John Koh — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:09:28 +0000

I want to write as follows, but it is confusing.:

This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world of students of this era.

The above ’s structure is as follows:

The modern society demands something of somebody.

Here, something is [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world], and somebody is [students of this era]

The setence structure can be simplified as follows:

This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world] of [students of this era].

I am not sure in such a case, how I should write it. One solutin may be this?

This modern society, which is increasingly being globalized and opening to the world, demands, of [students of this era], [the attitude of understanding different countries and respecting different culture on the basis of broad knowledge of various places of the world].

Please help me, thank you very much.

“It is one of his girlfriends.”

karl B. — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:42:46 +0000

Heard this in park:
Whose car is it?
It is one of his girlfriends.

If it were just: It is one of his girlfriend’s, or: It is one of his girlfriends’, it might be easier to interpret this sentence.

As it was said, there are several degrees of uncertainty involved. Can you guess how many?

Defining a proper noun

miss mass — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:12:17 +0000

I'm trying to apply a consistent style to a teacher training website and am battling the Capital Letter Police on a few issues.

I've culled capital letters for nouns such as “teacher” and “headteacher” unless we refer it as part of a job title.

Now I am left with names of meetings and forms that have traditionally been capitalised, but I'm not sure they need to be. Should such things be capitalised if they are being discussed generally? Eg:

“You should undertake three observed teaching sessions each year and keep a record of the feedback received on a teaching feedback form.”

“You should undertake three Observed Teaching Sessions each year and keep a record of the feedback received on a Teaching Feedback Form.”

And:
“Download a teaching feedback form (link to PDF).”
or
“Download a Teaching Feedback Form (link to PDF).”

Any advice?

Texted

Maggie Fisher — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:46:11 +0000

How is the past tense of text PRONOUNCED?
“Texted”
It is said as “text-ed” in a bank's TV commercial and sounds so inappropriate to me. Why wouldn't it be pronounced “texted”?
Does anyone know the rule on this one?
Why would one say “they just text-ed me back…” sounds like ill use of the verb to me!

RSS Feed Fixed

dyske — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:28:31 +0000

I wasn't aware that the RSS feed of this site hasn't been working since May! I just fixed it. Thank you, Martha, for letting me know.

Announcement

dyske — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:44:27 +0000

One of our regular contributors, porsche, informed me that submitting a comment redirects you to Microsoft's website. Sorry about that. I keep track of the IP addresses of Spammers, and I send all the spammers to Microsoft's website. I recently moved the site to a different server, and the new server was returning the same IP address for everyone, and I ended up listing that IP address as a Spammer's. And, so the site considered everyone who commented as a Spammer. That's what happened.

But that's a long, boring, technical story, and what matters is that it's working fine now.

Thank you, porsche, for informing me of this problem. If anyone ever experience any problems like this on this site, please let me know.

Inch vs. Inches

Rob — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:05:05 +0000

I'm editing a technical manual. The engineers I'm working with have regularly typed amounts which are under one as “.05 inches” or “.67 inches.”

I've been of the opinion that this is to be typed “.05 inch” and “.67 inch,” as the amounts are less than one, but I can't find anything to support either opinion.

Please advise.

Orally Aural. Oh Really?

Ben — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:01:34 +0000

I suppose these questions are frequently preceded by an argument between one regarded as a pedant and another who is one secretly. I'm the pedant. Are these words pronounced so similarly as to be only identifiable by their context? For instance 'a dentist works orally' or 'I am to give an oral presentation.' This can lead to ambiguity (if they are pronounced the same): 'I can only learn a language aurally/orally.'

I seek a word that means "more than daily."

juttin — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:06:33 +0000

The closest word I can think of is “semi-daily,” but that is too specific. I'd prefer to describe, using a single word, the frequency of a particular event that happens more than once per day, although the number times is not significant and is not always the same.

If this is a rare opportunity for someone to make up a word, I welcome a suitable word from someone who is more qualified than I to create such a word.

Any ideas?