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1500 questions
22
votes
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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22
votes
4 answers
Who is/are they?
A:I assume you know about the latest goings-on with Hessington oil.
B:I wouldn't be much of a partner if I didn't.
A:Now they've decided to take on Ava Hessington personally.
B:Who is they?
A:The U.S. government.
These are lines cited from…
Jasmine Kuo
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22
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8 answers
How do I invite a friend "on my expense"?
I ask my friend to come over to my place and I want him to eat pizza on my expense. Is it correct to say like this:
Come over to my place bro! I will eat you a pizza.
or
Come over to my home bro! I will make you eat a pizza.
What are some other…
Saqeeb
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22
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5 answers
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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22
votes
3 answers
"He likes swimming" or "He likes to swim"?
One can say: He likes swimming or He likes to swim. What is the exact meaning of each of these? What is the difference?
Trident D'Gao
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22
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5 answers
She does homework every day vs She does her homework every day vs She does the homework every day
Can I use the first example?
She does homework every day
She does her homework every day
She does the homework every day
Or is the object her required?
masterkomp
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21
votes
5 answers
Do you say “2 Byte” or “2 Bytes”?
Do you say "2 Byte" or "2 Bytes"? Which one is correct? If both is possible, when to use what?
The same question would come to my mind for my own language: German. So, there has to be a technical answer.
Willi Mentzel
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21
votes
4 answers
Large, huge or big communities?
When I talk about many people, like community, what should I use?
A large community
A huge community
A big community
In my native language (German), we use just one word for that: groß. What is the difference in English?
fuxia
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21
votes
4 answers
"you can just move on in" -- isn't the wording strange a little bit? Why not just say "you can just move in"?
Example:
It's a bit like a house that's built already and you can just move on in.
I asked a native speaker from North Carolina and he said that the sentence sounded absolutely fine to him. So, it seems like there is nothing wrong with this…
Michael Rybkin
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21
votes
3 answers
What is "the drop" in music?
This word appear in the comment of a video of Bach in YouTube:
A: Which minute is the drop?
B: When he and Mozart have the rap battle
Clearly this is a joke, but I don't understand the meaning of the drop. I have looked up in Oxford Dictionary,…
Ooker
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21
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3 answers
Tap, faucet, spigot - what are the differences?
What are the differences between tap, faucet and spigot?
Are they regional variants?
(ngram isn't particularly helpful in determining that, due to other, more popular meanings of 'tap').
SF.
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21
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4 answers
'I got a cold' versus 'I caught a cold'
The questions here are not about meaning.
They are about the usage of the verbs get and catch in the context of getting a cold.
My dictionary says that get can be used to mean 'to become infected with an illness; to suffer from a pain, etc.' and…
viery365
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21
votes
6 answers
Is "snows" ever used as noun?
In Italian, nevi (the plural of neve, "snow") is used in some expressions, such as l'uomo delle nevi (a.k.a. Yeti), and le nevi dei Pirenei. (The last expression is referring to the Pyrenees, but I could use it when referring to any mountain…
apaderno
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21
votes
3 answers
Just because people don't talk doesn't mean they don't think
Just because people don't talk doesn't mean they don't think.
Some people(non-native speakers) say this is grammatically incorrect.
It is acceptable in casual conversation, but it should not be used in business or formal speech. They say,…
Deep
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21
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1 answer
What does "I have straight A's." mean?
In this video of Hillary Clinton, at 15s, the child said "I have straight A's.".
What does "straight A's" mean?
Leon
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