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1500 questions
18
votes
6 answers
How to distinguish between American Indians and Indian Indians in native English (language) parlance?
How to distinguish between American Indians and Indian Indians in native English (language) parlance?
Can I say Indian Indian to say Indian from Asia compared to the Native Americans?
AAI
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18
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3 answers
Actual meaning of 'After all'
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, after all means:
despite earlier problems or doubts:
The rain has stopped, so the game will go ahead after all.
What's the problem here, raining? Am I correct to think that "after all" means 'ultimately"…
yubraj
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18
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What is a plural of "To-Do"? "To-Dos" or "To-Does"?
Say I have a list of "To-Do" things. I want to mention them to someone, so I doubt on how to call it:
1. I have many "To-Dos" for today
2. I have many "To-Does" for today
3. I have many "To-Do's" for today
None of them looks fine to me, but I…
fedorqui
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18
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4 answers
What is the difference between “within” and “inside”?
Here is the definition of the word within from Oxford Dictionary:
inside (something)
So does that mean the two words have no difference, and can be used exchangingly? Is there any connotation that one word can be used but not the other?
Aldi Unanto
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17
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4 answers
Why "the schoolboy" instead of "a schoolboy" in this sentence?
At the same time, however, Walser’s narrators—especially his schoolboys, and there is something of the schoolboy in all of his narrators—are possessed by a levity that borders on giddiness.
(Source).
Why is the used here instead of a? It sounds…
user2492
17
votes
2 answers
Use of 'without' in 'the howling of wolves without grew louder...'
I could not understand the meaning of "without" in this sentence and it seems redundant. The sentence is taken from the novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker.
As the door began to open, the howling of wolves without grew
louder and angrier.
7_R3X
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17
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5 answers
Is "don't mind if I do" old-fashioned?
I do not listen (but do read) much to English lately, but honestly, I heard it once or twice. Would you consider it old-fashioned?
"I don't mind if I do" said to politely accept an offer of food or drink -
A: "There's plenty more cake if you'd…
learner
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17
votes
2 answers
What does "Stands the wind in that quarter" mean?
I'm reading Mark Twain's The Prince and The Pauper and have come across this sentence in Chapter 23, after the woman has told the court that her pig is worth eight pence and is about to leave when an officer stops her asking to buy the pig for that…
Vic
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17
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3 answers
What is the antonym of "to friend"?
The verb to friend is used for making friends in social nets connecting people with similar interests. What is the antonym, the negative verb, meaning to delete somebody from your "friends"? What's the correct prefix? I found different versions on…
V.V.
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17
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6 answers
Spelling a word with two U's in a row out loud
I would like to know how to spell a word with two consecutive U's out loud—like "vacuum". Do we say vee, ay, see, double U or just U, U, em? I'm wondering because if we say "double U" it might be mistaken for the letter "W". But, in fact, the word…
Helder
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votes
6 answers
What's a professional synonym for "would love to"?
I frequently use the expression "I would love to" when I write e-mails to request things from the other party. As in "I would love to have a call to discuss..." I feel like it conveys humility, expressing that the other party would be doing me a…
user1496984
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17
votes
6 answers
The difference between 'extra chair' and 'spare chair'
I was talking to one of my friend about a student who came in to our class and took an extra chair away. My friend corrected me and said, "you mean a spare chair?" and I replied, "yes we have so many of them in our class and they're taking up a lot…
Yuri
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17
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3 answers
SB and STH in dictionaries
tell sb to do sth (Cambridge Learner's Dictionary)
When I look in dictionaries, I often see the words sb and sth. Are these proper words? What do they mean?
Can I use these words in my essays, for example?
Can I use these words in my posts on…
Araucaria - Not here any more.
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How can I explain to a non-native why the plural of a noun isn't used adjectivally?
How can I explain to a non-native speaker that while this is correct:
The felling of trees.
And this is also correct:
tree felling
This is not:
*trees felling
To a non-native it seems very reasonable that since many trees are being felled and…
terdon
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Is "The two men Savchenko, an Iraq war veteran, was convicted of helping to kill were . . . " grammatical?
In a blog, I read the following sentence:
The two men Savchenko, an Iraq war veteran, was convicted of helping to kill were Anton Voloshin and Igor Kornelyuk.
I can only understand that it says something about two men Anton Voloshin and Igor…
Rucheer M
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