New answers tagged word-choice
2
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Does "I walked all the way to school" refer to a continuous movement without stops on the way to school?
All the way here means that you covered the whole journey on foot. It says nothing about whether or not you made any stops on the way.
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Is it correct to say "I dodged my arm away from his punch"?
Oxford Languages defines dodge as avoid (someone or something) by a sudden quick movement.
You may have found some instances of dodge used to mean move a part of the body out of the way, but this is a ...
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1
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Accepted
Succeeding in college often is a challenge for students,______, most college provide services designed to help students
The question bank answer of (a) is wrong. You are correct to say both (c) and (d) are correct. The services are provided mainly because many students have problems, so therefore is the logical answer. ...
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Is it correct to say "I dodged my arm away from his punch"?
I would say, "He tried to punch my arm, but I dodged him."
You weren't dodging your arm: you were dodging him.
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Does "I walked all the way to school" refer to a continuous movement without stops on the way to school?
No, the expression is valid whether you so or not. But if the trip took a few days, say, I would expect the speaker to elaborate on why a short trip took a long time.
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Just checking you or just testing you
You might say, "I was just trying to see if you were paying attention."
The idea behind this is that if you had been paying attention, you would know at once that I had made a mistake. If I ...
1
vote
Accepted
It is easy/likely for children to be addicted to video games
To answer your question, easy is an appropriate choice of words, as is likely. They are interchangeable in this context.
Your sentences, however, are a little awkward in American English. I would ...
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Accepted
Just like/just as + complete statement
Technically, because there is a verb after like/as (go in), you should use the conjunction as:
You have no reason to come out your apartment, just as I have no reason to go in.
Like is typically ...
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2
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Accepted
Word + yet + word
Whenever you use "word1 + yet + word2," the second word is usually a contradiction to the first word in some way. What you are saying is that even though it's word1, it still has some ...
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Accepted
Outsider vs. Odd-man-out
I would prefer "outsider" as being more formal and therefore fitting better in the style of the context (which itself has minor problems of style) you have given. Also, "odd-men-out&...
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Through/via vs. By
Via is definitely inappropriate; it means by way of in the context of making a journey.
I'm not quite sure what your sentence means, but I think by feels more idiomatic than through.
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Through/via vs. By
The first one is better. The main difference between these two prepositions is, "by" is mostly used when referring to a means of something while "through" is used in relation to a ...
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0
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Vogue vs. Fashion
Both are correct, but the second one is more commonly used than the first. I didn't even know that "vogue" was a word until I read this question!
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Good at / better at
It would be more appropriate to say Certainly, I am better at some sports than I am at others or the ones I play most are tennis [etc].
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5
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Table equivalent of the word booth?
Where I live (USA), a booth corresponds to this definition:
AHD booth
2. A seating area in a restaurant with a table and seats whose high backs serve as partitions.
M-W booth
2 c. : an enclosed ...
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2
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Accepted
Glazed eyes vs. glassy eyes
To a first approximation, they mean the same. In fact, I would say the biggest difference is that syntactically, we're much more likely to use adjectival glassy-eyed and adverbial [with] glazed eyes.
...
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4
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For my family and I/myself
Technically,
for my family and I
is not grammatical. It seems to come from a mistaken fear that “me” is not grammatically proper when combined with “and.”
In fact, “me” is proper as the object of ...
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0
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Could cash cow be used for a person
A "cash cow" is typically a product or a service that brings in a lot of revenue. In my experience, the implication is that the profit is also very high because there's virtually no ...
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“on a day” vs “in a day”
The first example:
I eat three tablespoons of molasses at most on a day.
is not correct. Indeed the word sequence "on a day" is somewhat unusual, and is never used in a construction like ...
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"what/which date do you want me to start?"
"what" describes an open set, "which" describes a closed set. To put it simply, "what" is more specific than "which".
"which" refers to a closed set, ...
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I would feel bad if I don't tell you this. vs I would feel bad If I didn't tell you this.?
The second statement is correct because it speaks of a hypothetical future and is talking about something you "didn't" do earlier in that future.
Your use of "I would" is correct (...
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4
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Does "I got the bag off the table" mean I took it off the table with some level of difficulty?
It could mean that, but it could equally well mean I went to fetch the bag.
The verb get has many shades of meaning in different contexts. To get on a bus doesn't have any connotations of requiring a ...
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Accepted
Preposition help required: which sentence is correct?
What would be grammatically correct and highly idiomatic is
Nadeem has been living with his family in Murree for ten years
Notice "years" rather than "year."
What would also be ...
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Accepted
Should I repeat the word "hand" in this sentence?
It is possible to omit the word "hand" and say "My right hand is holding my left". We can understand that "left hand" is implied.
You can also use the pronoun "one&...
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1
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Accepted
Should it be "still in" or " still at" in the following?
I hate to disagree with Kate Bunting, but, at least in spoken American English, both "in" and "at" are acceptable. She is both where the class takes place ("at"), and she ...
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Should it be "still in" or " still at" in the following?
Assuming that the yoga class is taking place elsewhere, at would be usual. (She is at the place where the class is held, not at home.)
If the speaker was in the same building, perhaps having just ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Why is "omniscient" different from "know-it-alls"?
Omniscient is a technical word that is used to talk about God. God, we are told, knows everything in the past and in the future. This is not something that can be non-ironically applied to humans.
A ...
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Transmit - word choice
"Transmit ... to me" as mentioned by @KateBunting is OK.
If you want to make a general statement, then the most common ways of putting it would be:
... because they radiate / exude / give ...
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Is "to watch for something" the counterpart of "to listen for something"?
Actually "I have to listen for the call" isn't very English. We are more likely to say "I'm waiting for a phone call".
With regard to checking for rain because you have washing out,...
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Is "to watch for something" the counterpart of "to listen for something"?
Yes, you can watch for something that you are awaiting or expecting, or which you would need to cope with, but we would be more likely to say 'I have to watch for rain' (or very often 'watch out for ...
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learned/learnt in the same paragraph
It's true that writers and editors are usually concerned with consistency within their writing and publications. But really, no rule of grammar has been broken here. It is only an inconsistency if you ...
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alternative ways of saying "I sent that by accident"
There's many ways to accomplish this, and your choice would depend on how familiar you are with this person.
For a close friend, you might say, "Sorry, wrong person."
In a more formal ...
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Is it correct to say "hang out along" in this case?
This is highly informal speech, but I have never heard "hang out along" as its own phrase and believe it to be unidiomatic.
However "Did you two hang out along with the band" is ...
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2
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Why use "on to which" instead of just "on which"?
I agree that on would be acceptable here, but onto (I would write it as one word) is more precise.
The "movement" implied by onto does not have to be literal movement, but can indicate an ...
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How to mention your family ties in your cover letter
You might use passed away to indicate that your father died. For example:
Because my father passed away last year, I must return home to care for my mother when I've completed my studies.
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"on to which" and "on which" difference in this context
Both are correct and for intents and purposes interchangeable in your examples. There is however a very slight difference in the sense that on denotes position while onto denotes movement plus ...
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Accepted
Are "found out" and "discovered" interchangeable here?
I would say that the two are at least roughly interchangeable. Different people use these with different nuances of meaning, but they do not all make the same distinctions. Anything that one person ...
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0
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What words can I use to say worker?
Normally you would use the title of the task that they have been hired to perform. So if you have hired them to build a house one individual is "a builder" and the group are "builders&...
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What words can I use to say worker?
We usually say "staff, personnel" when representing words that would describe a group of people hired to work or perform a service.
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Making sentence concise by removing "which is"
[1] Do you have any product [which is similar to Xyz?]
[2] Do you have any product [similar to Xyz?]
This pair have the same meaning. The difference is grammatical:
In both examples the bracketed ...
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0
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Making sentence concise by removing "which is"
They have the exact same meaning, I wouldn't say the second one is more "concise", they have the exact same meaning, I might repeat that again. Adding "which is" doesn't really do ...
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What is the plural of “café au lait“?
There is always a question when dealing with borrowed words: *Do you follow the grammar rules of the original language, or of English?
Is "cacti" or "cactuses" the correct plural? ...
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2
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Accepted
What is the plural of “café au lait“?
As I'm sure you know, the literal English translation of 'cafe au lait' is 'coffee with milk'. If we were using the English, we would say:
One coffee with milk
Two coffees with milk
However, 'cafe ...
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Trying to ask for the exact time when I can tour an apartment which I am interesting renting
"ETA" sounds a little silly. Like you are some kind of military guy. Unless you are talking about an "Expected Time of Arrival", don't use ETA.
The first is fine. Or you could ...
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Accepted
A better wording for "of which" in this context
As @KateBunting has stated, "The use of of which is perfectly normal here".
However, your text can be improved:
However, this working hypothesis has/had been proven to be fundamentally ...
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Correct words to express that a computer system is not working
All of the sentences you gave are slightly wrong and sound off, best use the below
My screen/computer hung
My screen/computer froze
When I clicked a button, my screen/computer froze
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Accepted
Are "I am touched by the film" and "I am moved by the film" interchangeable?
Several dictionaries give moved as a synonym of touched!
We generally use touched to refer to gratitude for an unexpected kindness, but it can also refer to feelings of sympathy with another person's ...
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0
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Does "mind your own business" refer to a physical action not a verbal expression that intervenes one's life?
Yes A can say "mind your own business", as in this case its physically, I would not say "verbally". "mind your own business" means for one to refrain for interfering or ...
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"hope after I arrive, they are still hiring"
You don't use the past tense ("came there") in your hypothetical because it hasn't happened. So you wouldn't say 2 or 3. 1 is better but odd. If it were me I would say I hope they're still ...
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"hope after I arrive, they are still hiring"
I'll answer your second question first. No, "come" is not the correct verb, because you are going to a distant place. Some possible options are "go" and "arrive".
With ...
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