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1500 questions
58
votes
4 answers
Is "I was had" standard English?
I've recently watched West Side Story and heard some weird expressions, one of which is "I was had":
Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
…
Yay
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58
votes
12 answers
Difference between "illegal" and "very illegal"
From my understanding of English, "very" means "more than the usual" or "to a higher extent".
I've seen on several places the expression "very illegal", such as here as an example: https://youtu.be/ytDamqTjPwg?t=8m23s
The bigger point here is, [the…
Hay
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57
votes
2 answers
What does 'the Twelfth' mean in Article 7 of the US Constitution?
I first encountered the sentences below on p 121, The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution (2004; but the newest edition dates at 2015) by Linda Monk. I rewrote the numerals using digits to ease reading.
[ Source: ] The…
user8712
57
votes
9 answers
What does "Although the Second Amendment people" mean?
I don't quite understand what Donald Trump just said, especially the phrase in bold:
"Hillary wants to abolish—essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.…
haile
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56
votes
4 answers
"[I]t literally scared her to death" - Why is "I" in brackets?
Quoting a phrase from an article:
Grubb’s first overdose was on Aug. 15, 2015. Her mother found her blue on her bedroom floor, a tourniquet around her arm and a needle next to her. Paramedics revived her. “[I]t literally scared her to death,” David…
Student
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56
votes
8 answers
"In" and "on": How can I decide which one to use for vehicles?
Examples:
In a car, van, etc.
On a bus, boat, motorcycle, etc.
How can one decide which preposition to use? Is memorization the only way or is there a better way?
Note: People generally explain this by either distinguishing between open and closed…
Scott Severance
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55
votes
3 answers
What is the correct pronunciation of "the"?
The is sometimes pronounced "tha" (/ðə/) or "thi" (/ðiː/).
Which is the correct pronunciation of this word?
Are both correct and used interchangeably at specific places?
If the second question is correct, please provide the rule of pronouncing at…
user237650
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54
votes
11 answers
Use "him" or "her" in this sentence about a hypothetical gender switch?
What should I use in this sentence?
If he were a girl, I would have kissed him/her.
Should I refer to the real gender of the person or the one I'm assuming the person to be and why?
Edit : Recent developments on this question has influenced me to…
7_R3X
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54
votes
4 answers
Why is Zika capitalized and chikungunya and yellow fever are not?
I noticed the usage on the CDC website. I don't understand why Zika is capitalized while the other two were in lower cases.
There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus infection.
There is no specific treatment for yellow…
michele
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54
votes
6 answers
How do I avoid misspelling "receive" as "recieve"?
As a non-native speaker and before the advent of the panaceas called spell-checkers and auto-correct, I used to often misspell words like receive ( as "recieve") and achieve (as "acheive").
I still make the mistake sometimes and thanks to…
BiscuitBoy
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54
votes
3 answers
Meaning of 'sesquiannual'?
I saw a new comic on xkcd http://xkcd.com/1602/ and understand that I don't get to go to the linguistics club.
I Googled the word 'sesquiannual' and some say that it means it 'happens every one and a half years' - every 18 months, and some say it…
Olga Akhmetova
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54
votes
6 answers
Why is "Mary told the cake to be cut by John" ungrammatical?
Mary told the cake to be cut by John.
A textbook says that this example is ungrammatical, but it seems to make sense to me: where does the sentence have its fault?
Listenever
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54
votes
6 answers
When a girl mentions her girlfriend, does she mean it like lesbian girlfriend?
I have a classmate and sometimes she says something like "I told my girlfriend that she has to blah blah".
Does this wording imply a lesbian relationship, or is she referring to a her best friend (a girl) only?
Ashkan S
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53
votes
5 answers
What's the difference between "last" and "latest"?
When should I use "last" and "latest"?
I found two examples:
What was the last book you read?
Karen was always up to date on the latest fashions
It seems both mean "the most recent". Can we use both with this meaning?
ChesuCR
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53
votes
7 answers
Usage "in spite of" and "despite of"
What are the difference between these two prepositions: "despite of" and "in spite of"?
And what is the general usage of this two: choose in different situation, followed by etc.
user20