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1500 questions
16
votes
3 answers
Does "nor he mine" make sense here?
I have been staring at this sentence for 5 minutes:
I looked up, though I could not see his face, nor he mine.
"Nor he mine" seems...off to me. Is this grammatically correct?
rose
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16
votes
1 answer
"the US." or "the US"
When I said
"in my field, people earn triple in the US. for the same work in China."
a native speaker told me I should have got rid of that ".", is it a more modern style to refer to America?
JJJohn
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16
votes
3 answers
Grammaticality: 'Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something'
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something — Plato
I didn't understand this quote. How do you understand this? Shouldn't there be a verb after 'fools'? I checked many sources and all write exactly the…
Void
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16
votes
2 answers
Is the "global" in "global pandemic" redundant?
A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads internationally. My friend said that COVID-19 is a global pandemic. Isn't saying that coronavirus is a pandemic already indicative that it is global? Is "global" redundant?
Marvin
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16
votes
3 answers
'Golden spoon' or 'Gold spoon' -if the spoon is made of gold?
Adjective or noun?
A golden spoon or A gold spoon
What to use? A spoon is made of gold.
Dictionary says:
golden (adjective) -made of gold
But then... (the same page)
golden (adjective) - bright yellow in colour like gold
So, what should we…
Maulik V
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16
votes
2 answers
"Work in a power plant", "work on a power plant" or "work at a power plant"?
Which preposition do I use if I want to say that someone's work place is a power plant? For example:
I work in a power plant.
I work on a power plant.
I work at a power plant.
Dmytro O'Hope
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16
votes
14 answers
What do you call the process of filling up an electric kettle and turning it on in one verb or phrasal verb?
What do you call the process of filling up an electric kettle and turning it on? Does set up fit the context? For example:
Please set up the kettle. We need some hot water.
Dmytro O'Hope
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16
votes
12 answers
How do English-speaking kids loudly request something?
Yesterday, I was teaching my daughter English. She didn't want to study. She just spoke loudly, and said, in Chinese:
"I strongly demand an ice cream stick!"
I told her, if she could say this sentence in English I would buy one for her, but even…
Zhang
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16
votes
3 answers
"police are" or "police is"
In instructional videos I see on the internet, the teacher says "in the U.S and Canada, they automatically use police as plural noun", if it is already plural, then what's the singular of police?
jinhyun
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16
votes
1 answer
"I didn't know" or "I haven't known"?
Suppose that in a conversation, our conversational partner just said something completely new to us, and we want to express that we didn't know (or haven't known) about it before. For example,
A: Some dictionaries will tell you whether a noun is…
Damkerng T.
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16
votes
1 answer
"in 60 seconds or less" or "in 60 seconds or fewer"?
Tell me please which sentence is correct.
I want you to articulate your ideas in 60 seconds or less.
I want you to articulate your ideas in 60 seconds or fewer.
The word second is a countable noun, so theoretically it should be 60 second or fewer,…
Dmytro O'Hope
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16
votes
2 answers
Are double contractions formal? Eg: "couldn't've" for "could not have"
Are double contractions, such as following, formal (ie allowed in formal documents/papers)?
it'll've for "it shall have" or "it will have"
mightn't've for "might not have"
How about multiple contractions such as y'all'd've for "you all would have"…
Zeeshan Ali
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16
votes
7 answers
Does "Until when" sound natural for native speakers?
In some languages such as my native languages (Kurdish and Persian), when we want to ask about the exact limit point of time for something, we use two words which are exactly equal to this two words in English: Until When?
For example, we say:
Until…
Yazdan Samiei Poor
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16
votes
4 answers
Why doesn't "adolescent" take any articles in "listen to adolescent agonising"?
"Now, if you will excuse me, I have better things to do than listen to adolescent agonizing ... good-day to you."
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
'Adolescent' is a countable word. But why doesn't it take any articles in this context? I…
dan
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16
votes
3 answers
Strange words people say when leaving
I've been at parties or other gatherings, and, when it was time to leave, native speakers would come up with odd ways of saying "It's time to go."
One way would be:
Let's make like a bakery truck and haul buns.
Another was:
Let's blow this…
J.R.
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