Questions tagged [phrases]
A phrase is a group of words that make a unit of syntax with a single grammatical function.
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Unsure about two phrases dealing with location
I came up with these two phrases:
There isn't a mall in the same city as this bakery.
and
There's no "Louis" barber in the mall belonging to same city as this bakery.
With the first one I ...
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Sitting alone . . [closed]
Sitting alone, you may find quiet.
May you call this first, maybe, phrase(?), a conditional?
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I'd like to know if this sentence is correct and what is the meaning? [closed]
I'll keep this thing up active.
I don't know if this is correct and what did you get from it? What's the idea of this sentence?
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Served with a slice of a humble pie?
I've heard this over the radio. A Christian woman said Jesus was "working on her mind" as she "learned the art of apologizing" after having children. The last word she said was "[...] served with a ...
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What does "remains steep" mean in this context?
"Ultimately, what is going to matter is if inflation is going to tick up more than rates are going to pick up–meaning is the Fed going to be behind the curve or not? If the Fed is behind the curve, ...
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On (at) a moment(')s notice?
I have been searching for a while, and I haven't seen a good discussion of this phrase. It seems to me like the preposition is in question (I've heard it both ways), and the possessive is also in ...
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What does it mean "You don't need to be empathic"? [closed]
I want to know the meaning of this sentence or Idiom :
You don't need to be empathic!
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What's the meaning of phrase "A is one to forget for B on the whole"?
The summer just gone was one to forget for Korea's tourism industry on
the whole.
What's the meaning of phrase "A is one to forget for B on the whole"?
I guess it means something like that Korea's ...
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subject after "than"
The road slopes down through the foothills on the south side of the
Lubéron before joining up with the amateur Grand Prix that takes place
every day on the RN7, the Nationale Sept that has ...
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"buzz building" & "pull a scoop on"
From NPR: The Beatles' Yearlong Journey To 'The Ed Sullivan Show'
Remember now, the Beatles' U.S. arrival is still more than a month away. With the buzz building, NBC's Jack Parr pulled a scoop on ...
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Meaning of "slow-building"
What does slow-building mean in that sentence? Does it mean "movements that were built slowly"?
Some of our stories are about slow-building movements that display great momentum and dexterity in ...
user288
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Verbs after "In case"
As a grammar hint, it is stated under the entry for "In case" within Longman Dictionary of Contemporary that we have to use simple present/past or should after in case, for example:
They ...
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Last year I took the bus to work. Since then I've taken the train
Just read this in a textbook (not written by natives I believe).
Is that correct, unambiguous? I would expect "Since then I have been taking the train".
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What are the meaning of "put to bare" in the sentence and the meaning of the sentence?
the context is as follows
...or complex moment where ethical reasoning skill will be put to bare where they will have opportunity to discuss online their reactions to that particular film...
First,...
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"Mail something", "Send something in the/by mail"
Are the following phrases correct?
To mail a package
To send something, other than an envelope, in the mail
To put something, other than an envelope, in the mail for someone
To send something, ...
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What does Tete-a-Tete mean?
I am wondering if Tete-a-Tete has a similar meaning as mutual relation between two entities such as the following:
Suicide rate and depression are Tete-a-Tete.
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Usage of "ratio to" when talking about proportions
In my application, the fonts are automatically resized to stay proportional with the window. I am trying to describe it with this sentence:
Font sizes are dynamically calculated in order to ...
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How to greet in English formally? [closed]
I've been studying English for 1 year and I'm good at it. Anyway, I would like to know how to greet in some ways.
I greet in 2 ways usually:
Hi, What's up?/How are you?/What's about you? Not bad, ...
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What is 'have had better' meaning?
From CSI Las Vegas 404.
Context: There was a case that a baby was dead in a car in the morning and a forensic doctor joined the case.
Detective A: Heard you had a rough morning.
Forensic Doctor: I've ...
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"I love you so"
I've encountered (in songs, mostly) the phrase "I love you so". I understand what it means, but I can't make grammatical sense of it. It's very different in meaning from "I think so" or "I told you so"...
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Difference between "outside" and "on the outside"
Is there any difference between the following sentences?
I have coffee on the outside. It is referring to some coffee shop.
I have coffee outside.
Can anyone explain to me which of these ...
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Here lies - so telling lies here?
Sorry for my low level question, I am not native... I am thinking of a phrase "here lies Joe" which does not mean something like "Joe is telling lies here". I wonder why is it so ...
Zoltán Hernyák
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What's the meaning of "take forever"?
From NPR: Wheels On The Bike Go Round And Round (To Make Music)
The story tells that Baber--a music writer, create music out of bikes.
BABER: For instance, when you pluck a spoke on a wheel, you'...
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Isn't "tapping" what you say when you fill up a bath tub with water?
I'm going to tap the tub.
This apparently makes no sense, according to a native English girl.
I was baffled, and made many searches online for "tapping a bath" and "tap a bath", ...
Markie S.
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Fire away (please)
According to the dictionary definition:
Fire away
is used for giving sb permission to ask a question.
Can I ask you a question? --- Fire away.
I was wondering if a university professor asks me:
...
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What is the meaning of "I'm afraid that...."
If said, "I am afraid that Shadow was the thief."
Am I saying,
(1) I am sorry to say that or I say with regret that Shadow was the thief. So that, I am definitively saying that Shadow was ...
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What does the phrase "spot-on physics" mean here? [closed]
Please help me figure out the meaning of the phrase spot-on physics in the following sentence (not available online) from the description of the game Pixel Pro Golf:
The game may look old-school but ...
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"Consider me in", about the phrase and its negation
I have wanted to ask about the proper negation of the phrase "Consider me in", but as I have found nearly no result when I searched it on Google, I need to know first if it is common and correct. I'm ...
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Is it correct to say "Many are to rest, but few are to relax"?
Is it right to say
"Many are to rest, but few are to relax"
to express the meaning:
"There are lots of people who rest but only a few who relax"?
(To clarify, I meant the state ...
OldEgyptian
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What is the meaning of "error on" in this sentence?
I cannot comprehend the phrase "error on" in this sentence:
For simplicity, I will focus on real-valued matrices and vectors, and I error on the side of intuitive examples rather than ...
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"I am a citizen of Britain" vs. "I am a subject of the British crown" vs. "I am a British national"
Which phrase is the most common for a person who was born in Britain of the parents who were also born in Britain to identify his nationality?
"I am a citizen of Britain"?
"I am a ...
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"very well above", "so well above", "so much above"
Are the phrases “very well above,” “so well above,” and “so much above” correct? Example sentences:
The bridge is very well above us.
The bridge is so well above us!
The bridge is so much above us!
...
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Is "it’s like men’s shirts" an idiomatic expression?
I came across the expression on a JapanToday webpage.
Why it's hard to make vaccines and boost supplies
"We think, well, OK, it’s like men’s shirts, right, I’ll just have
another place to make ...
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As a man sows, so shall he reap
Are there any cooler/better-matched/modern phrases to express that you have to recover your own fault or make up your own mistakes by yourself?
I found the phrase in title by search, but I guess the ...
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"Born and bred" split over the sentence
The phrase
Michael, born and bred in London, is a scientist from Cambridge.
is clear. He was born and I grew up in that city (I do not know the origins of the word bred, but I trust it to mean ...
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What's the point in using "me thinks" and other like phrases in writing and speech? (SOLVED!)
In one of his comments, a reputable member of the ELL community, a native English speaker, finished his thought with a phrase "me dodges brickbat".
This reminded me of the phrase "me thinks", which ...
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Can we use the phrase "In its own"?
While searching over internet I am finding phrases like "in its own right" or "in its own terms". I couldn't find the phrase "in its own".
Can we use the phrase "in its own" as it is. For example ...
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"Discrete word" meaning?
I wonder what does the phrase "discrete word" mean.
I came across this phrase in a context which someone wants advice someone else in a polite way, and the sentence is:
I will have a discrete ...
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What is the formal language for "making a baby"?
Making a new life is a collaborative process usually involving both man and woman. However, to my knowledge, the English phrase "give birth to" can only have the female counterpart as the &...
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Does "Show by insertion" make sense mathematically?
In math classes you might be given an equation like
2+x=5
and a valute like x=3. In my native Danish tongue I could now say one of the following:
Vis ved indsættelse, at x=3 er en løsning.
Vis ved ...
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Less Jupiter than Icarus
What does "Less Jupiter than Icarus" mean in the following sentence?
Less Jupiter than Icarus, Emmanuel Macron came crashing down this week.
The sentence is taken from the latest The ...
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Is it correct to say "Neither in mine"?
Two teachers are having conversation after visiting two different classrooms for lecture. They are saying that no student was there in their class (lecture)(I.e., No student attended their class). The ...
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"We lost him" in an online meeting
Today, during an online meeting, when one of the team members got disconnected from the meeting, I said, "I think we lost him".
I know that we usually use "lost him/her" to express ...
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What's the meaning of "They can be more perfect than is convenient."
They can be more perfect than is convenient.
I search several dictionaries but can't find any explanation of the phrase of more perfect than is convenient How should I understand this phrase?
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What does the phrase "notch your arrows" mean here?
Please help me figure out the meaning of "notch your arrows" mentioned here.
I found the lexical meanings of the word notch here, but they don't seem to fit in the given context.
Thank you for your ...
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expression "to be the date of birth"
In her akward TED talk, Christen Reighter talks about physiological exams for her bodily autonomy. She mentions:
I wanted to give that doctor every piece of evidence that I was not
the date of ...
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Can the phrase "have got to know" have two meanings
Recently I have stumbled across a phrase
mankind has got to know his limitations
but could not really understand it. I'm confused by "has got to know" and how I should distinguish some words here. ...
Oleksandr Zymohliad
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Word(s) in a predicate, (object[?])? May you call it some phrase?
In this sentence:
The dogs who run in the street are especially irritable in the late afternoon.
is the verb are transitive? The dogs is a noun phrase, the subject, argument of are; who run in the ...
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Can I use "The sun is falling on me" while describing that there is heat?
Can I use the above mentioned sentence to indicate that the sun rays are falling on me? Or is there any proper sentence to express it?
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What does "I love you" mean?
In Italian, there are two phrases you say to the people for which you feel something: ti voglio bene and ti amo. The first is less strong, and it is not something that you would say to your lover; you ...
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