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1500 questions
16
votes
3 answers
What does it mean to "dine off" something?
In my English book, I've got an article about traveling, and one sentence in particular caught my eye:
I've always put these incidents down to experience, and dined off some
of them for years.
What does dined off mean in this context (because…
Lesmian
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Is it 'thumb is up' in 'thumbs up'?
It was a thumbs up on the new filtration plant at Thursday's village board meeting
This is so common but then I never thought too deep unless I became a fan of English language after joining this site!
Is thumbs up actually (your) thumb is up?…
Maulik V
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16
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Are words ending in -ly adverbs?
Adverbs often end in -ly. But the word friendly is not an adverb, is it? A friendly advice is incorrect, but a friendly person is correct. Is the word friendly very unusual or are there many non-adverbs ending in -ly?
gerrit
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16
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Slang from Fresh Prince from Bel-Air S01E03: Vacuumed, Cheese Dog, Harley, Fly for Me
Hilary was talking about the girl (Mimi, whose father is a doctor and only let his girl date young man w/ promising career, especially doctor) whom will had a crush on.
Hilary: She's been vacuumed more times than a hooked rug.
Will: She looks…
Letherette Jmsn
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votes
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A controversial GRE verbal reasoning question
Source (One of many)
To say the actors were (i)______ their director is an understatement: a director who is visibly bored by his cast and their performances is hard to (ii)______.
The choices for (i) are:
A. disappointed in
B. accepting of
C.…
No One
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16
votes
4 answers
Is the particle 'up' redundant in phrases like 'to pick *up* berries'?
Is the particle up redundant in phrases like this one?
to pick up berries (flowers, fruit)
Or is it acceptable and doesn't change the meaning 'to gather' (update: I mean, to gather in the woods, in the garden)?
Yulia
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16
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4 answers
Are English consonant sounds [p], [t], [k] aspirated before another consonant?
Most sources which I encountered say that English consonants [p], [t], [k] are aspirated before a vowel but not after [s], and become unaspirated after [s]. Canonical example: [p] is strongly aspirated in "pear", but unaspirated in "spear".
My…
Alexander
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16
votes
2 answers
How should I correct my spoken error?
Being an English language learner for about 30 years, I still make mistakes.
In a written language, when I have misspelled and noticed it in a timely manner, I simply navigate to a wrong word and edit it.
However, in a spoken conversation, when I…
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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16
votes
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"Did you watch this movie?" or "Have you watched this movie?"
What is the difference between
Did you watch this movie?
and
Have you watched this movie?
Geek
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16
votes
6 answers
When you don't understand a joke right away
In my native language we have lots of ways (some of them very funny) of saying that you, or someone else didn't understand a joke right away. That is, he/she needed some time to figure it out.
I wonder if there's any idiomatic way of expressing that…
Androiderson
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16
votes
5 answers
How to properly ask for store hours on phone?
I call a restaurant today and ask them for "Are you open till what time today?" as today is Christmas Eve and the person on phone asked me twice what? What?
So how do I ask for a store/restaurant person on phone about store hours for that day?
You…
javanoob
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16
votes
3 answers
What does "put on one's hat" mean?
Putting on my detective's hat, I proceeded to ask him some questions.
What does "putting my detective's hat" mean?
Can it be paraphrased as "when I put on my detective's hat"?
Am I a real detective or do I pretend to be a detective?
ＡＢＣ
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16
votes
3 answers
“...than I am” vs. “...than me”
I read an English grammar article in which the author talked about the correct use of pronouns.
He writes:
If the extended sentence is “She’s more likely to ask him than I am,” in which the comparison is between the subject and the writer, I is…
jeysmith
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2 answers
I'm born or I was born, which one to use
Should I say I'm born in or I was born in?
Can I say I'm born in Paris in 1900, or should I say I was born in Paris in 1990?
Jonathan de M.
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Is there a general rule how to create feminine words?
Is there a general rule how to create feminine words?
For example feminine from waiter is waitress, from actor – actress, etc.
So, generally the ending -ess means the feminine form. But I’ve never heard feminine forms for writer, programmer,…
Danubian Sailor
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