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1500 questions
14
votes
6 answers
Can I refer to someone as "elder member" in internet forums?
Questions:
Can I refer to a person who has been using SE for a longer period of time than me as an elder member?
Is the usage of senior member correct?
Note:
Thanks for the good answers. I asked this assuming the word elder is applicable in…
Severus Snape
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14
votes
6 answers
Could 'a' and 'single' be used together?
I wrote this sentence:
How can a single photon be detected?
I think it could mean one of the photons while emphasizing its singleness.
But I feel something's wrong with it because a and single are the same meaning and redundant.
Is the sentence…
hbadger19042
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14
votes
2 answers
Why is "hanged for this" correct but not "hung"?
In one episode of the TV show Sherlock, Holmes and a prisoner has a conversation where Holmes corrected him grammatically many times. The following is just part of that.
Prisoner: (annoyed) Did it! STABBED HER! Over, and over, and over, and
I…
JJJohn
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14
votes
6 answers
Is there any difference between "pour drinks" and "pour out drinks"?
Could you tell me if there is any difference between pour drinks and pour out drinks? For example:
Could you pour (out) drinks while I serve the snacks
Dmytro O'Hope
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14
votes
13 answers
Word used to denote a glass of drunk water
Say there is a glass of water, and someone drank it (dipping their lips, i.e. not from a distance pouring water into their mouth). Now the glass of water is (somewhat) impure, containing the saliva of the person.
What is the word in English that…
juztcode
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14
votes
6 answers
The phrase "to the Right of Attila the Hun"
Recently I have come to the phrase "to the Right of Attila the Hun" which allegedly describes the very conservative or reactionary person. Is it possible to construct similar phrases such as: "to the Left of Che Guevara", "to the Fanatic of…
bart-leby
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14
votes
4 answers
"Let's get started" vs. "let's start"
OALD gives an idiom:
Get started
meaning: to begin doing something.
example: It's almost ten o'clock. Let's get started.
In this example, can I say "let's start" instead?
Both can mean we start doing something.
But I guess "let's start" may mean…
Kinzle B
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14
votes
3 answers
fall into a category vs. fall under a category
As far as I know, when a group of people or things with particular features in common are classified we can use "fall into a category". But quite recently I came across the following sentence in a linguistics book published by Hodder…
M.N
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14
votes
3 answers
What is the exact meaning of being at work?
Does the sentence "I'm at work" simply and exactly mean "I am working now", or it has a slight difference in meaning? Whether "at" has anything to do with the work place, or it's simply refering to working itself?
Qàtrè
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14
votes
3 answers
What is the difference between "Wasn't it supposed to have started 30 minutes ago?" and "Wasn't it supposed to start 30 minutes ago?" in this case?
If I want to ask my teacher if the lesson should have started earlier, Could I use the sentences below?
1 Wasn´t it supposed to have started 30 minutes ago?
2 Wasn´t it supposed to start 30 minutes ago?
If both are wrong, then what is the…
coolguy
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14
votes
3 answers
Articles at the beginning of sentences in scientific writing
I'm writing my master thesis in English as a non-native speaker. I start a lot of sentences without an article and one of my lectors (a non-native speaker like myself) found this to be odd and marked every occurrence. My question to the native…
Fgop
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14
votes
6 answers
What's the word for a student who doesn't register but goes to a class anyway?
Suppose someone goes to a class without registering. Then what word should I use to describe this person or this kind of behavior?
trisct
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14
votes
3 answers
Is an "are" omitted in this sentence
I just read a sentence:
Three things in life that, once lost, hard to build up.
Can I rewrite it as:
Three things in life that are once lost hard to build up.
Is my sentence correct?
What are the functions of commas?
Kumar sadhu
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14
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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14
votes
7 answers
Phrasal verb for carbonated drinks exploding out of the can after being shaken?
What's the phrasal verb for carbonated drinks exploding out of the can after being shaken? "Exploded out" doesn't sound right, because it doesn't sound idiomatic. I also checked pop off, but it seems to be used for physical non-liquid things like…
blackbird
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