New answers tagged phrase-usage
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How do we express the idea that we look at the lesson that our teacher is going to teach so that we won't be so puzzled?
Review is also used for studying something especially before an exam or test.
Merriam-Webster
Review
2: revision sense 1a
7b(1): renewed study of material previously studied
Read
transitive verb
1 d ...
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How do we express the idea that we look at the lesson that our teacher is going to teach so that we won't be so puzzled?
"Review" and "preview" are words more suitable for adults studying something thoroughly.
For a child, use a suitable phrase which means to take a casual look. For example:
"...
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Is it correct to say "pens run on ink and pencils run on lead"?
No, you don't say that "pens run on ink and pencils run on lead." It's probably because pens and pencils are not machinery that needs something to power them, such as fuel.
Compare that to &...
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How can I express the idea of counting a number slowly by prolonging it from one point of time to another?
OP's query on mindful breathing techniques
How can I express the idea of counting a number slowly by prolonging it from one point of time to another?
If I understand correctly, OP is trying to teach ...
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How can I express the idea of counting a number slowly by prolonging it from one point of time to another?
We can't possibly start counting during the inhalation stage. The entire counting process for a number is in the exhalation stage.
Take a deep breath. Start counting 'one' slowly from the moment you ...
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Is it correct to say "write down the words, leaving one cell between them" or "..., leaving one cell between each of them"?
Your screenshot looks like it is taken from a spreadsheet such as Excel or Google Sheets, and 'cell' is certainly the correct terminology to refer to each grid space. Cells in spreadsheets or tables ...
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Is it correct to say "Do all your friends tuck in like that?"?
If your son buttoned his shirt all the way up to the collar instead of leaving the top button open you could ask:
Do all your friends button-up all the way like that?
Note that the two pieces of the ...
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Is it correct to say "Do all your friends tuck in like that?"?
To "tuck in", without any additional clarification, idiomatically means to begin eating heartily. So your sentence sounds like you're asking about the other person's friend's table etiquette....
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What is the origin and meaning of 'rise and shine'?
It is said (usually) by parents to their children to tell them to get out of bed.
It is unlikely that many English learners would need to use it. Probably it is a metaphor, telling the child to be ...
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Is it natural to say "I can still smell a hint of something"?
To call a faint smell of something a 'hint' (of that thing) is quite normal English. A hint of lavender, of smoke, of urine, of cheese, of perfume. Another very commonly used word is 'whiff'.
faint ...
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An 'autopsy-esque table' or 'autopsy table-esque table'?
There are many ways to say it:
an autopsy-like table
an autopsy kind of table
an autopsy-ish table
an autopsy-looking table
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Is it natural to say "the news came to the king's ears"?
More natural, I think, than "came to the king's ears" is "reached the king's ears".
FWIW, here's an ngram.
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Is it natural to say "the news came to the king's ears"?
Come to one's ears is found in thefreedictionary:
to be heard by one eventually
The idiom come to one's knowledge is more common and is defined as
to become known to one
Google has a similar ...
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Is it correct to say "I am rolling my friend singing" in everyday English?
Until you explained the situation, the elliptical "I am rolling my friend singing" in the question title made little sense to me.
When an old-school film camera was capturing footage, we ...
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Is it correct to say "I am rolling my friend singing" in everyday English?
When capturing a video of your friend singing with your smartphone, the most natural and commonly used phrases would be:
"I am recording my friend singing." - This is a simple and clear way ...
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Is it correct to say "I am rolling my friend singing" in everyday English?
What the OP heard
I am rolling.
is likely an elided form of
I am rolling [the camera].
M+W sense 4b defines roll and gives an example similar to the one here:
to cause to begin operating or ...
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Do you say "I will look/watch out for my friend that needs to be protected" or "I will look/watch out for the one that might hurt my friend"?
The phrasal verb look out for has both meanings, as explained in OLD and shown in its two examples in sense B1:
look out for somebody
to take care of somebody and make sure nothing bad happens to ...
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Is "tartar" more common than "scale" in dentistry?
It is actually incorrect to refer to tartar as 'scale' in both British and American English, although it seems to be a common error made by some native speakers. The technical terms for this buildup ...
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Do you say "I can't sleep" for repeated event and "I can't fall asleep" for one specific occasion?
I can't sleep and I can't fall asleep don't have the distinction the OP described, habitual against one-off.
The former doesn't have the habitual sense; to have that meaning, we need some context:
I ...
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Can I say "they are playing office politics in their company" to mean different groups in the company are trying to get more influence?
The phrase office politics is quite wide and can be used to describe factionalism in the office for players to gain influence as the OP has described. Office politics
involves the use of power and ...
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Is it rude for me to say to my grandma, "you are easy on the eyes"?
I don't know your grandmother, but "easy on the eyes" is nearly always used to mean "good-looking, attractive, sexy". Are you saying that she is the sort of person that men would ...
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Is it rude for me to say to my grandma, "you are easy on the eyes"?
Yes, this is not something you would normally say to your grandmother. "Easy on the eyes" is a slang term meaning "pretty" or "handsome". It has a certain amount of ...
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Would you say "don't step in or on that tiny pile of food (cooked rice with fish)"?
It’s not size or viscosity.
If you step “in” something, the something surrounds your foot. It has to be granular, liquid, or gel-like, for that to happen, and of sufficient quantity.
You step “in” ...
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Do we use the verb "eat" or "cry" alone to express sudden actions?
There's nothing wrong with the fish sentence grammatically, but it doesn't mean the same thing as your correction. If a fish suddenly eats your finger, it has swallowed it in a single bite and you ...
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Is "clap somebody out" common or is it used to encourage someone to get on stage for performance?
I don't think that "clapping somebody to encourage them to go on stage" is a sufficiently common experience that there is a set phrase for it.
I would take it that woman calling that (or, of ...
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what is the difference between "ship", "deliver" and "send", e.g. "we will ship/deliver/send the item to your house"?
The three verbs send, ship and deliver all describe the same activity from different perspectives, in the same way as "depart" and "arrive".
Send and ship can be used in relation ...
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Do we use "land on one's feet" when we make an effort to get out of a bad situation or we get out of it by luck?
It's not an either-or situation. You can land on your feet by luck, or land on you feet by shrewd response to adverse circumstances. "
So, to "land on your feet" is to emerge OK from ...
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