Questions tagged [expressions]
This tag is for questions which a dictionary cannot answer asking the meaning of a particular expression.
1,165
questions
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Is this expression clear and idiomatic, “Mathematically, is 21 ideal for Blackjack in some sense”?
I asked a question just now, where I would like discuss if 21 is in some sense ideal.
Mathematically, is 21 ideal for Blackjack in some sense?
Is this expression clear and idiomatic?
0
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2answers
26 views
Which one is more grammatical and idiomatic, “view something is” or “view something as”?
The lecturer is saying
Something hits you really hard and then goes away, and then
nothing happens for a very long period of time.
And you'll learn this in the future, you can kind of view
...
0
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2answers
20 views
Is this expression “whose definition” idiomatic?
I asked a question just now
I am learning 𝐿𝑝 space, whose definition is based on function spaces.
Is this expression "whose definition" idiomatic?
0
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1answer
10 views
Is it reasonable to say this description a little bit wordy?
This post says
... dividing the number thus obtained by the total number of observations, so as to obtain the proportion of observations that is less than or equal to x.
According to my own ...
0
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1answer
31 views
I wonder how native English speaker perceives 'make' in this expression
"make landfall"
e.g, The hurricane made landfall.
I know what "landfall" means.
I know "make landfall" means "to reach or hit or strike a certain area."
But I can't understand well the meaning of "...
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1answer
13 views
How to express the meaning that I am trying to figure out a concept?
I asked a question just now
What an input space exactly is in the context of machine learning?
I am not sure where should I put "exactly", which one in the following is more appropriate?
What an ...
0
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1answer
19 views
Is this mathematical explanation of “except” and “other than” right?
This question is derived from this one.
Assume "not including" and "including" have two mutually exclusive meanings. It is impossible "not including" and "including" at the same time.
The Oxford ...
1
vote
2answers
48 views
Are “right now” and “currently” exchangeably here?
Chapter 2 of the book "C++ Primer Plus, 6th Edition by Stephen Prata (2012)" says
Right now the main point to remember is that C++ syntax requires you to begin the definition of the main() function ...
1
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2answers
12 views
About parenthetical expressions, is the sentence grammartically correct?
This novel method has significantly improved the research period from
one year in previous attempts, due to a lack of observatory data, to
the longest year with reliable documentary data, 100 ...
0
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1answer
14 views
Does “**societies**” here mean “groups of people” or “registered organizations”?
This page says
In the decades since the 1960s, ACM, along with leading professional and scientific computing societies, has endeavored to tailor curriculum recommendations to the rapidly changing ...
0
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1answer
20 views
Which one is more appropriate, “only loves baseball” or “loves only baseball”?
I asked a question just now.
I am not sure if this sentence is grammatical and idiomatic.
the guy only loves baseball in the scope of available options.
Is this case, which one is more ...
0
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1answer
26 views
Which pair is exchangeable, “besides” and “aside from” or “except for” and “aside from”?
This is one of the examples from cambridge dict.
Do you play any other sports besides basketball?
Oxford dict consider "besides", "except for" and "aside from" are synonyms.
To simplify the ...
-1
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1answer
37 views
Is “there also are” a grammatical and idiomatic expression?
Consider this sentence -
Besides square brackets, there are double quotation, braces, and so on.
Is it a grammatical and idiomatic expression to say as follow?
Besides square brackets, ...
0
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0answers
13 views
What is the difference between “… are produced by …” and “… are those that would be produced by …”?
The doc says
The comprehension consists of a single expression followed by at least one for clause and zero or more for or if clauses. In this case, the elements of the new container are those that ...
0
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2answers
32 views
Is it reasonable to say “aside from” means a set does not include something
Oxford dictionary gives this example sentence about "aside from".
A full scale search was launched and thankfully she was found unharmed, aside from suffering from the cold.
Is it reasonable to ...
0
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1answer
35 views
Is “get a better understanding about some concept/mechanism” a grammatical, idiomatic and clear expression?
I asked a question just now.
I am trying to get a better understanding about this procedure of Python code to be generated.
similarly people may say these
get a better understanding about ...
4
votes
4answers
3k views
“Literally” Vs “In the true sense of the word”
The Cambridge and other dictionaries say that "literally" can be used as an emphasis on something. But there is another term: "in the true sense of the word", which to mea has a quite similar meaning ...
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1answer
17 views
When talking about `apply for` certain operators, `apply to` is more appropriate, is my understanding right?
this doc says
Some additional rules apply for certain operators (e.g., a string as a left argument to the ‘%’ operator). Extensions must define their own conversion behavior.
per cambridge, when ...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
Does 'getting ages' idiomatically sound natural?
We're usually taught (in Korea) to say getting old to describe that something/someone is aging, but I found out this can sound unnecessarily exaggerated as if it's running out of its lifespan. To tone ...
1
vote
0answers
15 views
Is the expression “does any of” grammatical, idiomatic and clear?
I asked a question just now.
Does any of Python, Java, bash, lua use statement separator?
(Python, Java, bash, lua are programming/script language.)
Is the expression "does any of ... do" ...
0
votes
1answer
30 views
An idiom to mean: to accept / expand someone's statements in formal speech
Let's assume you and someone else (say: Dr. Adam) are giving speech in a meeting. Dr. Adam says something and after his remarks and statements, you'd like to say:
I accept Dr. Adam's statements ...
0
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1answer
18 views
Wordchoice: to barbecue something or to have a barbecue
I've been wondering whether there is a distinction between
to barbecue sth.
and
to have a barbecue
I suppose to barbecue something is the act of barbecuing (grilling) food.
and having a barbecue ...
0
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2answers
38 views
American Equivalent for “roll on something”
Roll on something
As you perhaps know, Britons tend to use this term to imply how much they like something happen and when they wish a specific time or event would come more quickly.
Example:
...
0
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2answers
42 views
A proverb / saying that says: keep away from people because they have potential to harm you
I am looking for a derogatory proverb including a negative approach toward social associations that conveys the meassage that it would be better to stay away from most of the people! Because many of ...
-1
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0answers
45 views
A proverb to imply that “you often love those who are far from you”
I am looking for a proverb or a fixed expression in current English (not an archaic and as a result far from people's literary knowledge) which encapsulates the following message:
When people we ...
0
votes
3answers
61 views
“there are no special names for each city”
I got this question: What names are most common in your hometown?
My answer:
There are traditional names like "Jake", "Jacob" and "Holmes", but they are used across the whole country, and there ...
0
votes
1answer
33 views
“square of a” or “squared a”, which one is more idiomatic in the context of academic, such as a textbook?
"square of a" is equal to the product of a and itself.
to refer to this, "square of a" or "squared a", which one is more idiomatic in the context of academic, such as a textbook?
1
vote
1answer
17 views
An idiom for “as far as it is related to me,…”
Scenario #1:
Let's suppose a top student is going to give a speech at school and would like to express his gratitude to his teacher for all his efforts in one educational year.
I was wondering how he ...
0
votes
1answer
14 views
Which one is correct understanding about this sentence? The .. data are generated by a … over datasets called the data generating process
the deep learning book says
The train and test data are generated by a probability distribution over datasets
called the data generating process
here are 2 understandings:
[The train and test ...
1
vote
2answers
17 views
What does “This is all” mean in this particular case?
This post says
This is all in the context of the data-generating distribution (or underlying distribution of the data). You can check another answer I made for more details on this.
Remove the "in ...
0
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2answers
23 views
Is it reasonable to simplify “Checking for existing SSH keys” to “Check existing SSH keys”?
I am learning this post, whose title is "Checking for existing SSH keys".
Checking for existing SSH keys
Before you generate an SSH key, you can check to see if you have any existing SSH keys.
...
0
votes
1answer
25 views
Can someone help to understand this? “The speedup of a program, coming from …, was derived to be principally limited by …”
This post says
The speedup of a program, coming from using multiple processors in parallel computing, was derived to be ( maybe to a surprise of audience ) principally limited by the very fraction ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
“what are you in the mood of today” is it correct?
"what are you in the mood of today"
is that a correct way of asking someone what they wanna do (moodwise)
i know " what do you feel like doing " is more common way but just wanna know whether the ...
0
votes
3answers
47 views
“didnt have the phone to myself yesterday” it it correct?
"I didn't have the phone to myself yesterday"
Is that a correct sentence and a way of telling someone that your phone was not with you yesterday and that is why you couldn't reply
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0answers
9 views
Use of “I feel like it.” [duplicate]
Does "I feel like it/that" has exactly the same meaning as
"I want to do it/that"?
If it doesn't, what could be the difference between these two?
0
votes
1answer
33 views
“The professor does the attendance in his room” is grammatically correct?
I know that attendance for students means "being present in the class".
How can I say that the professor answers the doubts questions in his room, for example Mondays between 4 and 5 pm?
Could it be ...
0
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0answers
26 views
Grate on someone's ears / nerves
What does the sentence below mean?
His voice grates on my ears.
His voice grates on my nerves.
Please have a look on Longman's definition below:
To grate on (to annoy someone):
- Mr ...
1
vote
1answer
18 views
“Hoarseness” Vs “frog in one's throat”
Do the two expressions/idioms:
to have a frog in one's throat
to be hoarse
mean the same thing or they have different connotations and usages? If they differ I wonder if you kindly let me know ...
1
vote
2answers
32 views
What does “get your hands wet” mean in the context of programming? How can I use this phrase properly?
A lot of programmers/software engineers tell new guys "get your hands wet".
What does that mean?
Does that mean "do it yourself"?
This book says
Before you get your hands wet trying your first ...
0
votes
1answer
50 views
When a youth's voice becomes “manly”
I wonder how would you talk about a voice breaking in young males - around the age of puberty?
This is when they lose their high-pitched voices and start to produce deeper sounds.
What shall I say:
...
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votes
0answers
26 views
How to ask someone to keep their voice down
Please imagine two people are about to fight. They are threatening and warning each other. One of them wants to ask the other one to speak to them not that loudly. What shall he say?
The only ...
1
vote
0answers
50 views
Are there 2 distances?
I've searched on Cambridge, Merriam-Webster and Oxford.
Only Oxford says "distance" is countable.
Assume there are 3 points in a 2d Euclidean space, point A=(A𝑥,A𝑦); point B=(B𝑥,B𝑦); point C=(C�...
2
votes
2answers
338 views
When one problem is added to the previous one
Let's assume has a big problem and is dealing with it. While he has not solved the first problem, another problem comes up and adds to the previous one. I wonder how you would explain this situation ...
0
votes
1answer
25 views
Is there a term/word/phrase to express “only used in a specific topic”?
a comments in this post says
I see no "dot product", which usually refers to vectors. This is a matrix product
which means the term "dot product" is only used for vectors, and the term "matrix ...
3
votes
9answers
932 views
To get so rich that you are not in need of anymore money
I wonder if there is an informal idiom to say that someone made so much money that became needless of any more money and retired themselves (meaning that from then on they work only for fun / pleasure ...
1
vote
2answers
42 views
What does “down to a few yards” mean? [closed]
I found this in a book that I'm reading. It says the following:
the mist was so thick, however, that visibility was down to a few yards
What does the phrase "down to a few yards" mean, taking ...
-2
votes
1answer
68 views
“Overcome” Vs “Get over” Vs “Get the better of”
To me, all the three choices:
Overcome
Get over
Get the better of
mean so much the close things that can be often used interchangeably (at least in my two made up examples below.)
I would ...
-1
votes
1answer
26 views
Question On “Get” [closed]
1.Let's say a woman is drowning in a lake and a man who happens to notice her drowning has thrown away a rope towards her and he says "Get the rope!".
In this situation, can this sentence "Get the ...
1
vote
1answer
18 views
Is this expression idiomatic and clear? “A, B, C constitute a partition; X, Y constitute the other partition”
I answered a question just now.
this is an array (a group/list of numbers)
array([ 2, 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 15])
which is divided into 2 partitions, so I said
[2, 1, 3, 6, 7] constitute the left ...
0
votes
1answer
18 views
When expressing “by using the Python programming language”, should I use “with”, “in” or something else?
This post uses this title
Extract specific pages of PDF and save it with Python
This post uses this title
Finding the index of an item given a list containing it in Python
Both of the examples ...
