Discussion Forum
This is a forum to discuss the gray areas of the English language for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries or other reference books.
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Latest Posts : Coinage
I’ve been listening to Van Morrison’s “Friday’s Child” for quite some time now because I love this song so much. I tried to look up the meaning of ” Friday’s Child” but onbly found a reference to an old rhyme. Can anybody tell me the meaning of the saying “Friday’s Child” and when and why it is used? Many thanks.
Am I alone in despairing when I hear phrases like:
- “We played brilliant.”
- “He did it wrong.” (or more commonly “He done it wrong.”)
- “He behaved stupid.”
Some people think that there is a difference in meaning between “in that regard” and “in that respect”, some believe that a lot of phrases using “regard” or “regards” are in fact making inappropriate use of the word, and of course some think there is nothing wrong with such usage.
Does anyone else think that the phrase “In that regard” is overused and misused?
Is there any defense of capitalizing after a semicolon? This reads well to me:
We do not sell tricycles; We sell velocipedes.
Learn the difference.
Not capitalizing the first word of the second clause diminishes the perceived parallelism:
We do not sell tricycles; we sell velocipedes.
The store around the corner sells bicycles.
With a period between them, the first two clauses read like the premises of a syllogism:
We do not sell tricycles. We sell velocipedes.
Do we sell unicycles?
I will continue, of course, to pen as I please, but, in this instance, wonder if I can confidently publish as I please.
Is separating two coordinating-conjunction-linked sentences, the former having a comma(s), with a semicolon instead of a comma logically justified?
In GrammarBook.com’s Semicolons category, Rule 5. reads:
Use the semicolon between two sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction when one or more commas appear in the first sentence.
Examples: When I finish here, I will be glad to help you; and that is a promise I will keep.
If she can, she will attempt that feat; and if her husband is able, he will be there to see her.
The AP Stylebook today announced that electronic mail is now spelled without a hyphen: email. Finally. I personally haven’t used “e-mail” in about a decade. We have a thread here on this topic of how to properly spell email.
http://painintheenglish.com/case/4463
At the time, I commented that it may take another 10 years for this to settle, but it took less than a year!
How does one know exactly when a word is supposed to end with -“ise” vs -“ize” in Oxford spelling?
Onamography is a writing technique that involves creatively incorporating proper nouns (company names, celebrities, etc.) in regular English sentences.
A few examples to clarify the concept:
Onnicle 1: The man at the bar acknowledged that he found the job amateurish. Onnicle 2: The SMS said..Bob ill. The rag ate sick shellfish!
The first sentence has ‘Barack Obama’ embedded in it and the second one has Bill Gates. The concept can be extended to include multiple names in a paragraph.
I’ve been trying to find out if there is already a technical name in English to describe it. Onamography is a coined word (Greek origin: onuma --> name, graphe --> writing) as I couldn’t find anything else that comes close to describing the concept.
Any inputs?
Have you noticed that, at trendy cafes, more than half of the laptop computers you see are the new MacBooks? (Well, at least in New York City.) I don’t mean any MacBook; I’m talking about the latest MacBook (”the brick”). In fact, I believe seeing the older versions of MacBooks is rarer than seeing PC laptops.
If these people are deciding to work at cafes for practical reasons, then the laptop demographic should be much more diverse, with a lot more PCs and older versions of MacBook, but this is not what I see. The demographic is heavily skewed towards the latest models of MacBook. So, I would have to conclude that the reason why these MacBook owners come out to cafes is because they want to show off their brand new MacBooks.
It would makes sense, therefore, to coin a term for showing off your MacBook at a cafe. I’ve struggled with this for a while, and this morning, I decided that it should be “Mac off”.
“Hey, honey. I’m gonna go Mac off at the Starbucks for a few hours, OK?”
“At a cafe in Williamsburg, I saw about a dozen people sitting in a row Mac’ing off.”
“I bought the new MacBook Pro last week, but I haven’t Mac’ed off yet.”
If you have a kid and a stroller, I’m sure you’ve experienced this many times. You hang a lot of stuff from the handle of the stroller, and when the kid jumps out of it, the whole thing topples over.
One of my friends wants a word for this (a verb). I tried to think of one, but I couldn’t come up with a good one. (”Stropple”, for instance, isn’t so good because the sound of it lacks the impact of the actual event.) Can anyone think of one?
Latest Comments
Is a definite article (the) necessary for "most"?
- Guo
- April 23, 2024, 9:25am
Both sentences are grammatically correct, but they convey slightly different nuances.
The first sentence, "What fascinates me the most about the textile industry is that it drives the economy of many third world countries," uses "the most," which emphasizes a specific aspect or element that is of greatest interest to the speaker. In this case, it suggests that among all the fascinating aspects of the textile industry, the economy-driving aspect is the most captivating to the speaker.
The second sentence, "What fascinates me most about the textile industry is that it drives the economy of many third world countries," omits "the" before "most." This version suggests a more general fascination with the textile industry overall, without specifically highlighting one particular aspect as the most fascinating.
Both versions are acceptable depending on the intended emphasis or tone of your writing. If you want to emphasize a specific aspect as the most fascinating, use "the most." If you want to convey a more general fascination without specific emphasis, use "most" without "the."
“I have two sons, Bill and Ben”: comma or colon?
- Guo
- April 23, 2024, 9:23am
In this case, using a comma is appropriate. A colon typically introduces a list or emphasizes a point, but in your sentence, the phrase "Bill and Ben" is simply providing additional information about your sons. Therefore, a comma is more suitable for this context.
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Past perfect with until
- Guo
- April 23, 2024, 9:20am
The correct sentence is: "She didn’t realize that she was addicted to nicotine until she had smoked ten cigarettes a day."
This is because the past perfect tense ("had smoked") is used to indicate an action that occurred before another past action or point in time ("realized"). In this case, smoking ten cigarettes a day happened before she realized she was addicted to nicotine. For more info read comments on https://kingessays.com/. Academic institutions promote research and scholarly inquiry across various fields, encouraging faculty and students to contribute to the advancement of knowledge through original research, publications, and creative works.
Treatment of abbreviations and superscript items in full capital case
- Guo
- April 23, 2024, 9:18am
Abbreviations and superscript items should be treated consistently in full capital case, maintaining their original formatting for clarity and accuracy.
Yes, both the superscripted letter and the abbreviation should be treated consistently in full capital case. So, for example, it would be: JANE McDONALD / WILLIAM DOE, JR.
“my” vs. “mine” in multiple owner possessive
- sujeetrepp443
- April 22, 2024, 10:36am
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“You have two choices”
- William oyadomari
- April 19, 2024, 2:19pm
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“You have two choices”
- William oyadomari
- April 19, 2024, 2:19pm
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"badly miscalculated" — double negatives?
- user116298
- April 18, 2024, 1:37pm
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Past perfect with until
- user116298
- April 18, 2024, 1:37pm
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“Let his/him come in.”
In this context, "Let him come in" is the correct option. The use of "him" as the object pronoun is appropriate when referring to a person being allowed to enter. "Let his come in" would not be grammatically correct in standard English usage. Therefore, "him" is the most suitable choice for the completion of the sentence.