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Canonical Post #1: When to Trust Your Grammar Checker

Canonical Post #1: When to Trust Your Grammar Checker This sentence looks right to me, but my grammar checker says it's wrong. I don't see any problem with it, so I'm not sure how to fix it. How can I tell where the error is? This is a Canonical…
WendiKidd
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5 answers

What do we call the gesture of hitting each other's fists gently?

We all know shaking hands or a handshake. There, we 'shake hands'. There's one more gesture I do. I gently punch other's fist. Something like this - What do we call this gesture as a noun? They close the deal with a handshake The close the deal…
Maulik V
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4 answers

"Hi there!" -- What does this 'there' mean?

There's this particular interjection-like usage of there that I think belongs to the spoken register and maybe doesn't refer to anything; as in: Hi there! You alright there? Why is it used, and what meaning (if any) does it serve to convey?
Færd
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What does "One CPU is going to 'smoke' another CPU" mean?

I faced the following sentence: You really can’t say a 4.1GHz FX-8350 is going to smoke a 3.5GHz Core i7-3770K because in a hell of a lot of workloads the 3.5GHz Core i7 is going to dominate. I can guess that 'smoke' is similar to the word 'win',…
Furcht
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6 answers

When a word ends in 's' or 'x', do you add 's or just an '?

1) Alex's house 2) Alex' house When the noun ends with the letter 's' or 'x', do I need to put 's' after an apostrophe or not? I remember I read some rules related to this in my school grammar book, but now I've forgotten it.
T2E
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29
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7 answers

Asking the position of a person in a sequence

How to ask the position(?) of a president (like 10th) of a country, correctly?
Nalaka526
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29
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4 answers

Difference between "where are you from" and "where do you come from"

What is the difference between "where are you from" and "where do you come from"? Are they the same? Are they used in the same situations or not? When you see someone for the first time which one is better to ask?
Ice Girl
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29
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12 answers

Is there a verb that means "to accept doing something unwillingly just to make the other person stop nagging"?

Let's say a friend of mine repeatedly asked me to go to a concert with them but the music was not to my taste and my friend knew that but kept insisting anyway until I eventually gave in and went to the concert with them. My question is whether…
Mohammad
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29
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7 answers

"quite" vs "pretty"

What is the difference between quite and pretty in the following context: The differences between these concepts are quite complicated. and The differences between these concepts are pretty complicated.
Dmitrii Bundin
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29
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3 answers

What is the Kool-aid reference?

I’ve heard the expression “someone’s been drinking/drank the cool aid” multiple times. I know coolaid is a drink or something but it doesn’t really make sense in the context. I feel like there’s some type of cultural reference here. Could someone…
Nathan
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7 answers

Is there a verb for listening stealthily?

I am wondering if there's a verb that means "listening stealthily" or "listening to someone or a group of people without having him/them know". I am highly confident that there's a verb, but I can't seem to remember what it was. Just so that we're…
Sayaman
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2 answers

“The,” “a” or no article: “See you in _____ court.”

Why is an article not used before the noun in sentences such as the one below? See you in (the, a) court.
Boyep
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29
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3 answers

What does "go blue" mean here?

I was watching Emmys when I heard the phrase "go blue" from Darren Criss who won the award for the lead actor in a limited series. He said: Congratulations to all of you. Thank you to the television academy. Go blue. You can find his speech here…
helen
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5 answers

Verb for "just opening a bit" a window or door

Is there a single verb that conveys the idea of "just opening X a bit", "slightly opening" or "opening a gap"? Examples He ____ the window just so that a light breeze could come in. The door was not totally closed. Someone had ____ it. Remark The…
guest_user
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4 answers

Can you reply "you too" to wishes such as "Good luck"?

Suppose someone is saying to you: I wish you Merry Christmas! or Good luck! Is it meaningful to reply "You too"? Or should you respond "Same to you"?
Bogdan Lataianu
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