Questions tagged [sentence-meaning]
Use this tag for questions about meanings of whole sentences rather than phrases.
3,591
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I felt a little strangely?
I am reading Dracula by Bram Stoker, and this sentence got me confused:
I did not take any [Brandy], but it was a comfort to know it was there all the same. I felt a little strangely, and not a ...
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Meaning of 'Although the meaning of the word "continuous" seems intuitively clear…'
In my math book there is a sentence as,
Although the meaning of the word "continuous" seems intuitively clear
to most people, it is not obvious how a good definition of this idea should be ...
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the meaning of the sentence following "but"
Reductions in overseas government expenditure took place, but reluctantly and more gradually than now seems desirable.
I found the sentence after the word but hard to understand, is something omitted ...
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"It's not every day"
Is (a) a reduced form of (b)?
a. It's not every day he visits Laura.
b. It's not the case that every day he visits Laura.
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If there was ever a question about something that might not have been efficient, Christopher assumed it wouldn’t be
I am reading the book “winnie the pooh”. Now, Christopher's company, which sells luxury luggage, doesn't perform well. Christopher is in charge of the Efficiency Department. Here is an excerpt:
“How ...
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Which is correct "One of my friend" or "One of my friends" [duplicate]
I am confused in the two statements One of my friend or One of my friends
The second seems logically correct to me as we are talking about one of the people from
a group of people so that group should ...
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The meaning of the structure “should something do”
But, he said, 'there is no evidence of the political will necessary to make this happen ... in particular from the stronger countries, all of whom will lose out massively should the euro zone ...
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Latest available time for an appointment [closed]
Someone ask for the latest time available for an appointment. Is it earliest or last available time of the day?
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How to describe to carry / move a kid
I wonder how a native would ask if someone could e.g. lift a baby out of a chair. First, I had the followings in mind (probably influenced by my own native language which is German):
Could you get ...
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... the guns of war exploded. Does it mean that the war started, or did the guns really explode?
The sentence goes: "But in 1973, King Zahir Shah was overthrown and five years later the guns of war exploded". Google translator says that it was the weapon which went off, but it doesn't ...
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join in opposition by someone
I am puzzled by the sentence :
Doctors,academics and newspapers were joined in opposition by the police and judges ,who warned that the reforms were "close to lunacy".
Does it means that :
...
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I suggested that she [buy / bought] a car?
From p. 68 of English Grammar in Use 5th edition:
Jane won the lottery.
I suggested that she buy a car.
I suggested that she bought a car.
Do the two sentences mean the same?
If not, what's the ...
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Sounds nice/fine is the same as saying sounds good/great? [closed]
I'm in doubt if 'sounds nice/fine' it has the same meaning: 'used for telling someone that their idea or suggestion seems like a good one.'
I know 'sounds good/great' it has.
Examples:
That sounds ...
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What is the meaning of using inanimate subjects?
I was wondering whether there might be difference between animate subjects and inanimate.
The native speakers are more using inanimate like "this road will lead you to the place" instead of ...
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Need clarification on meaning of sentence
I saw the description of poker in wikipedia, in the first line it says:
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's ...
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What does this sentence "We smack them with a five-stack tax for the back end, that's 20 grand total" mean?
In a tv show there is this conversation about drug dealing
The dialogues are:
A: I'm talking about four bricks at a time 50 a pop.
B: What's my take?
A: We smack them with a five-stack tax for the ...
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The window is closing on us
The window is closing on us.
What does this sentence mean?
source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-interview-us-vulnerable-covid-195842741.html
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"be considered" and "be referred to as"
Do native speakers think there is a contradiction in the following?
He is considered the best doctor in town, but is never referred to as such.
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"was the first to" VS "is the first"
One Shenzhen Bay was the first urban complex to be built in Shenzhen.
One Shenzhen Bay is the first urban complex to be built in Shenzhen.
One Shenzhen Bay is the first urban complex to have been ...
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What does 'for another year' mean?
In an English book which is described in my first language, I found a conversation which I couldn't understand compared with the translation in my first language.
The conversation is like the ...
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What does "refer you to a letter" mean?
The following is an example sentence from Oxford Learner's Dictionaries:
May I refer you to my letter of 14 May?
I thought the above sentence might mean one of the followings:
Could you bring my ...
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Look over your shoulder vs look back
So I'm kind of confused.
What's the difference between
"He looked over his shoulder at us" and "He looked back at us"?
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Can I use "have" and "had" in one sentence, like "I have had my revenge at last"? [closed]
'I have had my revenge at last.' -what kind of sentence is this?
Can I use have and had in one sentence?
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Making sentence concise by removing "which is"
Consider the sentence:
Do you have any product which is similar to Xyz?
Now, this can also be written more concisely as
Do you have any product similar to Xyz?
Do both of these sentences have ...
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Please explain the meaning of this phrase
Below sentences is confusingly structured.
It is not uncommon for the person being sexually assaulted to have no physical injuries or signs of their assault.
Is the meaning that it is common for ...
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Meaning of the structure "the...the" with no conjunctions or verbs in between?
I encountered the following clause while reading a Shareholder Agreement:
A Transfer Notice constitutes the Company the agent of the Seller for the sale of the Sale Shares in accordance with the ...
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2
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What does it mean by "removed addresses this" in the following text?
I've grabbed the below text from a book about learning programming languages:
the whole text is as follow:
Why Decoupling Is Good?
I’ve kind of alluded to that earlier, and we’ll cover it in more
...
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'is been created' vs 'have been created'
In answering a question from right from of verb, I filled the gap with the phrase 'was created', but in the answer sheet the correct answer was 'is been created / has been created'.
Now I am confused, ...
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"There was always an angle, and a fix." meaning in context
As to what Trump was really after in his quest to reinvent himself as a statesman/politician, he may have revealed part of the answer when he told the Washington Post that the man who was egging him ...
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Is a to be verb "are" has ommited from the following sentence?
As I was reading a book about Programming Languages, I saw a part that I thought the term "are" has been omitted from the sentence.
Here is the whole text:
Our API
The API we are going to ...
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"Most historians believe that Hitler came up with this explanation in hindsight. ...."
I am struggling to understand what the bolded sentences in the following paragraph mean:
The origin of Hitler's hatred of Jews is not clear. In Mein Kampf, he
described his development into an ...
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Is 'to be waiting for me...' equal to 'were waiting for me...' in this sentence?
This is a sentence I saw in my practice book.
I don't expect them to be waiting for me.
I want to rewrite it as 'I don't expect them were waiting for me', because it is more nature for me, a non-...
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Meaning and grammaticality of "see that which we have called being and nonbeing are just notions"
We have to nourish our insight into impermanence every day. If we do, we will live more deeply, we suffer less, and enjoy life much more. Living deeply, we will touch the foundation of reality, ...
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How to distinguish the meaning of "off"?
Ships loaded with oil churn through the fisheries off Scandinavia.
I have two editions of reading of this sentence. One is that the ships churn through the fisheries while leaving/departing from ...
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a much defeated man
a. He was a much defeated man.
In the record of the Canadian Parliament from 1885
b. He was a very much defeated man.
In Rehabilitation Client Assessment - Page 41
Do these mean that
He had been ...
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What does "go full suburban basics" mean in this context?
What can be meant by "go full suburban basics"?
Jane lives with her fiance in a luxurious gated community. I don't understand if she wants to use the advantage of living in suburban ...
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what does "had a father turn to him" mean?
One of our workers had a father turn to him.
From what I learned, the structure "have somebody do something" is a request or command to ask people to do something for you. So, at first, I ...
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What does the second "as" used in this sentence mean?
Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension.
In "as at something ...
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"he was coding inside Microsoft Office Suite."
This is from a TIME article.
Instead, Vitalik gravitated to the clarity of numbers. At 4, he
inherited his parents’ old IBM computer and started playing around
with Excel spreadsheets. At 7, he could ...
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Rules are made to be broken vs He is the man to rely on
He is the man to rely on
and
Rules are made to be broken
What's the difference between the to and to be in these two sentences?
Can I say both sentences the other way around?
He is the man to be ...
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What does this sentence mean by saying in a region?
IN A REGION where governments often disregard or contort their own
laws, Singapore stands out for punctilious observance."
This line comes from an article in The Economist. Perhaps you could ...
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The meaning of the sentence "Most were beggars themselves"
You think you need your job. But I've lived abroad as a vagrant,
abstaining from my own money to rely on the charity of strangers. Most
were beggars themselves, yet they were happy, and So, for that ...
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None of or None for
1. There is none of you.
2. There is none fore you.
Both these two sentences have no context. Students are asked in an examination to choose the correct one.
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Usage of "rather"
What's the difference between following sentence:
She kept herself rather to herself in her own pantry.
and
She rather kept herself to herself in her own pantry.
Are there some omitted words in ...
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meaning of 'over the weekend'
Did you see your mom over the weekend?
Would 'over' imply more than one day, maybe the whole weekend, or would it just mean at some point during the weekend?
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"Lines have stretched around the block for days."
This is from a TIME article.
In a few minutes, electronic music will start pulsing, stuffed animals
will be flung through the air, women will emerge spinning Technicolor
hula hoops, and a mechanical ...
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Is assurity a proper English word
I found that assurity is not available in the online https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
But I did find it on https://www.urbandictionary.com/ . Is this proper English words
Do Americans or Canadians ...
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Meaning of rock the world
Is the sentence "Let's rock the world" correct?
The intention is to communicate to a friend that we together will do a great business and make lots of money
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What does reach across the table mean in this context?
What does reach across the table mean in this context?
I'm translating a novel and I came across this sentence which I'm not sure whether it means literally what it says or it has an implied meaning.
...
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position of "with the benefit of hindsight"
What's the difference between the following sentences? Do the different positions of the boldfaced phrase make any difference in meaning?
He admitted that, with the benefit of hindsight, the original ...
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