English Language Learners Stack Exchange
English Language Learners Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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votes
4 answers

What do you call this when cats hunch their backs and their fur stands on end?

What do you call this when cats hunch their backs and their fur stands on end? I know there is such a word but I cannot recall it. This word can be used figuratively when saying that someone gets surprised, angry or react badly to something.
Dmytro O'Hope
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Is "I do not want you to go nowhere" a case of "DOUBLE-NEGATIVES" as claimed by Grammarly?

I do not want you to go nowhere. According to Grammarly, the above sentence contains a DOUBLE-NEGATIVE and should be modified as either of the following; I do not want you to go anywhere. I want you to go nowhere. However, I think that the…
Zeeshan Ali
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Word for a small burst of laughter that can't be held back

What do you call the small burst of laugh that people let out when they want to refrain from laughing, but can't? You know the "pfft" sound? I am not sure if it only happens when you refrain from laughing, but yeah some people I guess laugh like…
Sayaman
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How to parse these crazy sentences

I have enough Unicoins to buy "Guaranteed answer" today. So, instead of asking how to parse only one sentence as I should, I will ask "how to parse these following seven sentences". (Why ask one if I can ask seven! grin) One morning I shot an…
Damkerng T.
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Is it really OK to use "because of"?

I recently learned from a YouTube video that "because of" is not correct. But my friend argues that "because of" is actually correct. Also, I see a lot of people writing and saying "because of". Here's a example: That's because of you. So, is it…
new Q Open Wid
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4 answers

What is the meaning of the phrase "tack against"?

I have come across it in this video. It is at 4 minute and 28 second. Along the way we are also going to try to understand some of what is wrong with the way our information feeds are currently working and how we can tack against prevailing winds…
Dmytro O'Hope
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3 answers

What does "I made him a cake" mean?

Is it correct sentence below? And what does it mean? Also, how is it working grammatically? I made him a cake. I made a cake for him. I baked a cake using him. (Sounds so horrible!) To me, 1 is more natural but I am not sure. I've never seen…
Ldeirjckel5489
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3 answers

Each other's / each others'

This always nags me... I would prefer a logical as well as a grammatical explanation of it. We enjoyed each other's company. We enjoyed each others' company. Which one is correct? Why is the other not?
Neil D'Silva
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Is uncle really limited to siblings of parents or their husbands?

So I just saw the question: How can you recognize "uncle" is father's brother or mother's brother? (Is there any "default option"? ), and I looked at the Wikipedia article for uncle and the definition at Google, and it seems that the word is limited…
JoL
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2 answers

Which word is correct, "existed", "existent" or "existing"?

To express that the results already exist, should I say: "the existed result", or "the existent result", or "the existing result"?
Ginger
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"I immediately got her with child"?

In th English translation of The Kindly Ones, a 2006 novel by Jonathan Littell set during World War II and its aftermath, the narrator states: the source I picked a woman from a good family; she was relatively good-looking, a proper sort of woman,…
Bavyan Yaldo
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4 answers

"the wife" instead of "my wife", are there any other contexts where a possessive pronoun gets replaced by a definite article?

In English, one occasionally sees a replacement of my wife by the wife, such as in this sentence: there was a sudden thud and I joked to the wife that someone had run into us Does this construction occur for any other words than wife? The…
gerrit
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1 answer

A superlative form of right

Is it possible to derive a superlative form of right (meaning the opposite of left) - the rightest?
Max Black
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5 answers

Why blame the Australians?

I noticed the following comments under a hot meta post: Downvoting questions from new users I agree this is horribly bad form. I blame the Australians. – Andrew But @Andrew, as you yourself pointed out, there are no Australians here. –…
nalzok
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What does "there lived here then" mean?

There lived here then, away at the North, a beautiful princess, who was also a powerful sorceress. The sentence is cited from The Wizard of Oz, page 37. What do the words in bold mean? Thank you!
Jasmine Kuo
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