Questions tagged [understanding]
The understanding tag has no usage guidance.
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Why do people use phrases like "scan to" and "scan into"?
Source
Scan anything into a PDF using your mobile device.
Adobe Scan app, scan documents to PDF.
Scan to PDF, convert JPEG or TIFF to PDF.
Why one should say phrases like scan into PDF ...
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What's the difference between the usage of different and other in these contexts?
Source
The journey is called off, replanned for some other time.
Source:A School Prospectus
The school has well equipped computer labs. The students use the facilities to develop ...
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Using "ponder" as an intransitive verb?
In one my novels, a separate section is given as Points to Ponder Over. However, no phrasal verb as such (ponder over) really exists. By Oxford dictionary, ponder is a transitive verb. So it cannot be ...
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Can you explain about the constructions of the type "verb+noun+another verb"?
I have seen constructions like:
The number of electrons present inside the metal is large.
In the given case, the noun electrons is directly followed by the verb present.
It could also be written ...
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What can the phrase "form of life" mean?
Source
In cricket, most commentators use the phrase form of (his/her) life for describing players which are in form and doing good.
Source
In this source, a player has been called in the form of ...
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Why use "has" directly with an object in these types of contexts?
Source
Some of the oil has washed up on a neighboring island.
The bold part of the above sentence seems odd to me. It appears like oil is doing the process of washing up. For eg, when we say:
...
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How to tell someone "you don't understand my mean" politely in English?
When does someone not understand my mean, how can tell I it politely?
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How to easily read not simple English? [closed]
I am an intermediate level English learner and I wish to be fluent in English in order to be able to easily read academic subjects, books, novels, and researches written in not simple English, so I ...
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Sentence meaning in context
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the
grounds that the argument
A)_____ B)_____ C)_____
For me, it sounds like most should be eliminated in order for the ...
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meaning of "putative connection" [closed]
This year, the American Association chose as the theme for its annual
conference some putative connection to storytelling: "Practices of
Historical Narrative.
I am not sure whether I am ...
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Circular Permutation Confusion
A question in my mathematics homework is as follows:
Find the number of ways in which seven men can sit at a round table so that all shall not have the same neighbors in any two arrangements.
My ...
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What's the rule governing the use of an indefinite article with a noun?
Source
Gazing at them for hours on end, sitting on the sandy river bank, was a great help to me. I could wash away my anguish and disgust over life. The anguish and disgust were caused by my ...
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"even" in "Now can you even come up with a decent plan"
I've encountered an even use when reading an article.
I don't know what does it stand for in this sentence.
I wonder that is even in the sentence below an adverb, an adjective or a verb? And it ...
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How do I identify whether the word "quite" is used in the sense of completely or partly?
I've found that word "quite" is used sometimes in the sense of "greatest extent" (or say absolute or complete sense) and sometimes "moderate extent" (or say somewhat or little sense) and taking the ...
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Understanding "to be"
The argument presupposes that which is to be proved.
The word "refute" means "prove sth to be wrong".
In the first sentence, the phrase "to be" seems to have a meaning of future. However, in the ...
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Confused between "If I had had more time" and "If I had more time"
If I had had more time, I would have solved the puzzle. [Past unreal/Past+Past]
(I did not have more time so I did not solve the puzzle.)
If I had more time, I would have solved the puzzle. [Mixed ...
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"what it is to <do something>"
According to this passage, based on Three Days to See by Helen Keller:
"I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that "window of the soul," the eye. I can only "see" ...
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I dont understand this sentence
"The programmes of study will apply from five years of age, likewise the attainment targets."
Not much else to add really, specifically the last part I have trouble understanding? How can an ...
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Having problem understanding a sentence
Our university, in expelling a student who verbally harassed his roommate, has erred by penalizing the student for doing what he surely has a right to do: speak his mind.
Q1) Are the word "student"s ...
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How to understand the word "free" in this sentence: "a geyser of death blasting mole bodies free of the planet"?
From A mole of moles, I meet this sentence:
Plumes of hot meat and bubbles of trapped gases like methane—along with the air from the lungs of the deceased moles—periodically rise through the mole ...
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How to use the verb "to be" correct in its infinitive form?
The verb "to be" is very confusing for me. I am not a native speaker and I want to use it correctly. I know that "is, am, are, was and were" are diffetrent forms of the verb "to be". I know how to use ...
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I can't understand this sentence [closed]
I could have picked up a dozen of those for next to nothing in the Cairo marketplace
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How to understand this sentence?
"You may want to use 20 squares of paper with the statement numbers on them to shuffle into appropriate piles "
What shuffles into piles? "You"or "paper" or "statement numbers"?
Can you explain why? ...
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What this person is saying in "American English" accent?
Video
At 1:02: He says
Human beings should be ..... from each other.
Also a little bit confusion between 0:02 and 0:10. I believe it is:
Went through .......
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Can you explain these phrases of British accent?
Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2UnMxR3IM
I am unable to understand English commentary in the video between 0:19 and 0:45.
I understood,'Andrew Flintoff ..... 3 wickets in 4 balls ......'.
...
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What is the interpretation of this liner? [closed]
Source:http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mrsfunnybones/kohinoor-and-other-british-gems/
But there is a silver lining to my eggplant-hued cloud. Now if trolls on Twitter badger me with the ...
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Understand: is not under natural authority but is under the arbitrary authority of the self-appointed and self-validating
Today I encountered a sentence:
A slave's education is not under natural authority but is under the arbitrary authority of the self-appointed and self-validating
I boldened the doubtful words and ...
user26995
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What does "refer to their own interest" imply?
I'm decent with the English language but this sentence makes no sense to me.
"Whatever reasons we may have for preserving or protecting non-sentient beings, these reasons do not refer to their own ...
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Why break wind means fart?
As a non-English native speaker. I found it hard to understand why break wind means fart.should I just remember the phrase and give up to try to understand why it means that.
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what does "one could shunt symbols around" mean?
I am reading Gödel's proof book. But there is sentences that i cannot understand.
"One of them "From a fixed set of axioms and a fixed set of typographical rules, one could shunt symbols around and ...
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Is it common to use -in the integration- in this case?
can you please tell me if this sentence is understanable to native speaker and is it common to say it like this?
Besides being used as a stand-alone module, (the module's name) can work in the ...
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Make exception for (X) in (Y)
I've tried to parse this statement, but it was really hard, and neither I can understand it:
An office culture that makes exceptions for remote people results in second-class citizenship, putting a ...
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What is the difference between the two questions?
Is man not extremely foolish, to be unable to see this?
How is that different from
Is man not extremely foolish if he is unable to see this?
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'succeed' and part of speech
I have the following sentence.
I'm really excited to share with you some findings that really surprise me about what makes companies succeed the most, what factors actually matter the most for ...
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Does "gone astray" mean the same as losing the way?
If I walk along a hiking path and I lose my way somehow, can I say that I am gone astray?
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I don’t get what “as it were” means
I don’t understand whenever I read “as it were”. Could anyone please explain it to me in a plain way along with some examples of how to use it? My English mightn't be as good as yours.
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Meaning of "as anything but ______" in a sentence [closed]
I have found a GRE question from official ETS practice book for verbal. I am kind of stuck with the type of the question asked in GRE that is posted here.
The media once portrayed the governor as ...
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Any difference between "I know C did it" and "C did it"?
I was working on a logical problem. In this problem I have a problem with the statement made by B.
B said I wasn't I know C did it
I thought that the second statement of B means C did it.
In the ...
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What is the exact meaning of "3 is not a factor of m or of n"?
3 is not a factor of m or of n.
Meaning of the above statement the way I understand it is 3 is not a factor of m or 3 is not a factor of n.
I think that I might be wrong because here I suggested an ...
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"specifically true in this situation to the (possible) exclusion of other situations" - Clarification?
Please, take a look at this answer from English.SE. I am interested in understanding the precise meaning behind the ninth paragraph:
What the form BE+V-ing really does is to indicate that the ...
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What does "In others, not at all." mean?
From the NY Times,
"Their father has the only key to the front door, and he keeps it locked. In some years, they are allowed outside only a handful of times. In others, not at all."
The sentence ...
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What is the meaning of the numbers in this case?
I came across phrases like this:
I haven't read it, but a lot of 130s students love it.
Most of my exposure to this book comes from tutoring and grading for 161
which are just a little hard to ...
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English Questions' Length
I usually write very long questions which come not to be understandable, so I feel I have to keep a number of words and I must not exceed it. So, when I want to write an English question, what is the ...
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Why is this an unstated assumption for rural spaces? - Test 3, Q27, by Mark Shepherd [duplicate]
Passage: Mastering the National Admissions Test for Law by Mark Shepherd, page 146.
= Page 2, only first two paragraphs under the heading 'Spaces of Consumption' Don't read the entire PDF.
Sorry, this ...
user8712
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Obtaining the mind maps and mapping them to the other language [closed]
Please tell me if I must separate my question but I see that one of the major language difficulties is that some words are sorta synonyms yet occasionally some synonyms have some flavours, which ...
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What does "east of the Indiana/Ohio border" mean?
Today I am reading an Algorithms textbook. The author, in order to explain the shortest path between two vertices in a graph, gives an example in the real world:
At one time, there was a speed trap ...
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difference between ‘fast’ and ‘quick’
I was reading a game of thrones and got an ambiguous understanding of two words: fast and quick
It looks like the author is describing two characters whose characteristics are quite opposite.
Is ...
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Problem listening to foreign accents [closed]
From the beginning I had some problems listening to foreign accents. Like when someone from my native country (India) speaks English I understand it at once, but if someone from a foreign country ...
user3561
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Explanation of a paragraph about irony [closed]
It's your brother's MR. T PUPPET, which of course is kept in the apartment with a sense of profound humorous irony. But as usual with your BRO's exploits, this is no ordinary irony, or anything close ...
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Understanding a passage in relation with 'Clauses' and 'Phrases'
Below is the screenshot of a passage from 'Oxford Guide to English Grammar by John Eastwood'.
The passage says A clause has a subject and a verb. Subject and Verb are the elements of a sentence or a ...
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