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1500 questions
31
votes
4 answers
What is the word for the metal things on boots where the laces go?
What are the metal parts of a boot where the laces are meant to go called? There are the circle parts and the hook parts. Do these have a different name each, or do they have the same name?
user18894
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31
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7 answers
How do I respond to my Professor's email, wherein he has mistaken my gender?
I am a Chinese student. I was emailing a professor for graduate study opportunity. He replied with the title: Dear Mr. Li Actually, I am a female. Would it be a little strange if I told him in my reply? and how do I put this, should I say "I am a…
Wei
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31
votes
1 answer
Are there any solid reasons for the "-st", "-nd", "-rd", and "-th" suffixes for numbers?
Is there any reason why we say 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the rest (4, 5,.. 10,..) are all -th except the one ending in 1, 2, 3? Why does it change specifically for 1, 2, 3?
Ruban Savvy
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31
votes
4 answers
Who decides whether something is standard English or not?
During a chat with a native English-speaking friend, he used the phrase "get on with it". I asked him about it, and he said it is a slang phrase. I looked it up online, and this phrase shows up on Urban Dictionary, so it seems my friend is correct…
user448
31
votes
7 answers
What's the word meaning “normal-temperature” water?
When I intend to buy a non-cold bottled water in a grocery, the seller often gives me a chilled one. I have to express myself again by saying something like "I need a non-cold normal temperature one", then they'll get it.
This is really a heavy…
canoe
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31
votes
6 answers
"I often buy fruits when I go to the supermarket" – illogical?
I am an English assistant and I often hear my non-native students say:
I often buy fruits when I go to the supermarket.
I think it is wrong logically because "go" means "to move or travel from one place to another" (source). I am not sure whether…
Tom
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31
votes
6 answers
Why is "letter" not plural in "two letter words"?
Why is "letter" not plural in "two letter words"?
For me it's very strange as the equivalent in French would be plural but my English friend finds it totally normal.
Gudradain
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30
votes
7 answers
Difference between "in time" and "on time"
I have an appointment at 8 and I arrive there at 7:55, is it "on time" or "in time"? What about "the nick of time"?
Hanieh
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30
votes
2 answers
dogs, not cats -> why 'not'?
When I want to clarify something and I say for example "Dogs, not cats.", I automatically want to write/say 'not' even though 'cats' is a noun, and for nouns one uses 'no'. But I'm quite sure this isn't the case here and it would sound really wrong.…
Dex
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30
votes
5 answers
How are silent letters important?
Some words use silent letters in the spelling. I often ask myself: why are they used? English is a global language and it is changing day-by-day.
Even if I have to believe they exist as they were in the words originally, why should we still retain…
Mistu4u
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30
votes
10 answers
What's wrong with "Most people in the country would like to own their house some day."?
The following is a problem from my textbook.
The following sentence has an error. Find it and correct it.
(1)[Most people] in the country (2)[would like] to own (3)[their house] (4)[some day].
It seems to me that there is no error in the sentence.…
Aki
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30
votes
9 answers
Does the English language have a grammatical gender?
If we are talking about animate objects, like people and animals, defining a gender is easy in most cases.
But for inanimate objects, like a chair, a tree, the sky and so on, gender can be a built-in language feature or can be absent from a…
Denis Kulagin
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30
votes
9 answers
Is "She is under the shower" a proper English sentence?
There is currently a debate on Duolingo about the proper translation of a sentence to English (the original language isn't the point of this question).
The sentence, literally translates to "She is under the shower".
Now, in no English that I have…
Christian Bongiorno
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30
votes
3 answers
I don't get this joke "Massive Attack On Pentagon Page 14 News", can anybody explain me its meaning?
I was reading an article about the first issue published by the satiric magazine 'The Onion' after the 9/11 attacks. One of the headlines of that issue was
Massive Attack On Pentagon Page 14 News
I simply don't get the meaning of the sentence and…
matiascelasco
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30
votes
4 answers
Does "red apples and bottles" mean "the apples are red and the bottles are red" or "only apples are red"?
What does "Red apples and bottles" mean?
The apples are red and the bottles are red too. The apples are red but the color of the bottles is unknown.
Which one is right ?
Tim
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