Questions tagged [expression-choice]
Choosing the best phrase FROM A GIVEN SELECTION for a particular context or meaning.
569 questions
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Running, current running or currently running?
What would be the most grammatically correct way to describe a piece of software that is being executed right now?
Should we just say "the running software" (with running implying that it is ...
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Use of "Getting a lot of stick"
I'm aware that the expression means to receive harsh criticism/comments but can it be used to refer to objects as well as people?
Like a widely panned TV show for example, can I say that the show got ...
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2
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Does this sound clunky or awkward? [closed]
Not until she knew how he felt about her – which was probably going to be never
I'm not a native speaker, so my question is if this sentence sounds unnatural or awkward.
The alternative, and probably ...
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2
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On-demand treatment or Required treament?
I'm struggling to name a department in my hospital in English.
This department provides paid treament services. I mean that we serve the needs of our patients.
Should I use "Department of On-...
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A word or phrase to refer to restaurant sector?
It's my first time here. In Spanish, we have the word "restauración" to refer to the restoration of paintings, for example, and to places where food is served.
For the first meaning, I ...
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4
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When to use "the" in front of plural demonyms? "Americans" vs "the Americans" vs "the American people"?
When do you use the before plural demonymic expressions like "Americans", "British people" or "Chinese people"?
Chinese people celebrate Lunar New Year on the first days ...
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"one/two/three-car households" vs "single/dual/triple-car households" (attributive forms)
Which way is more natural when it comes to numbers of things that people have or own? For example, the numbers of cars owned by households:
The rate of single/dual/triple-car households is increasing....
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Your comments are welcome or welcomed? [duplicate]
I am sending one of my papers to someone by email. I like to know what he think about my paper. So I write
Your comments are welcome.
Or should I write
Your comments are welcomed.
?
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Should I use "I'm noting down ..." or "I'm taking ... to note."?
In this example, I am writing down in my notebook some high-level terms that were used in other people's conversation. I want to tell my friend that I am doing so. In the following two sentences, ...
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"call out" vs "call in"
When I am ill and cannot go into the office to work I say "I called out sick". I now live in Texas and people like to correct me and say that it's "call in sick".This doesn't make ...
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"centers around the concept" vs is "based on the concept"? [closed]
I've met a sentence like this in a technical book.
It centers around the concept of [some concept].
I would simply use:
It is based on the concept of [some concept].
I would like to understand the ...
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887
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Can "hold on" be used to mean pausing the work being performed?
http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-hold-on-or-hold-off/ says:
“hold on” is to wait, or grip while “hold off” is to postpone, cancel or stop an action.
So does "hold on&...
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Is ‘fancy dress’ just a dress? [closed]
When people talk about a ‘fancy dress’ in life, does it just refer to a fancy dress costume in a fancy dress party or we could also mean a beautiful dress? Thanks!
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What do you call "testing if a probability will trigger or not"
Apologies if this is a bit technical. I'm writing a paper describing a simulation. Inside the simulation, at each time step, some event has a certain probability of happening. Essentially, the ...
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Does “a book launch” mean “a book launch event”?
A book launch event announced to be held in Berlin last summer was
canceled.
A book launch announced to be held in Berlin last summer was canceled.
Does ‘a book launch’ in 2 clearly mean ‘a book ...
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Is the phrase ‘Berlin book launch event’ correct? [closed]
Last August a Berlin book launch event was cancelled unexpectedly.
By ‘a Berlin book launch event’ I mean ‘a book launch event that was going to be held in Berlin’. I say it like that just to be ...
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Which usage of ‘let alone’ is correct?
Most people in this country do not yet tolerate cultural freedom,
let alone to demand it.
Most people in this country are not yet in a position to tolerate
cultural freedom, let alone to demand it.
...
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1
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Is ‘in/of the world’ required after ‘many/several/a lot of/some countries’?
It is very common in English to use ‘in/of the world’ after expressions such as many/some/several/a lot of countries.
Is that necessary?
Because to my ear the word ‘country’ by itself mean a part of ...
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2
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Is it correct to use the verb ‘feel’ with stuff? [closed]
I felt that my conversations with him was unfulfilling.
I had the feeling that my conversations with him were unfulfilling.
Can I correctly change either of the above into:
My conversations with him ...
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Which one is correct/idiomatic? [closed]
Which one of the following is the best choice?
The fact that only now I can see clearly was that …
The fact that I can only now see clearly was that …
The fact that I can see clearly only now was ...
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1
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Are both of these equally correct? [closed]
An event, announced to be held on January 12th this year, was canceled
due to public objections.
An event, announced to be held on last January 12th, was canceled due
to public objections.
Are both ...
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Author - Title vs Title - Author when referring to a work [closed]
Is there a convention on whether to place the title of a work or the author of a work first when referring to the work? I'm thinking mostly for titling notes/files on the work, or for categorizing ...
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5
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"So I have learned."
Earlier today I found myself with the desire to use the expression: "So I have learned" in response to someone as a confirmation of recently gained knowledge. My question for you all is ...
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Choosing between several phrases that seek to highlight a positive aspect [closed]
I would like to know the common usage/difference/when is it appropriate to use these phrases:
I have been exposed to the [some positive aspect of a thing]
I have first hand experience with [some ...
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2
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How can we depict a person who is keen to live in the countryside, keeping chicken, ducks & growing their own vegetables, etc? [closed]
A person with ‘gardening feelings’? Definitely not, but I don't know how exactly to say it.
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Is there a better expression to 'turning point' in the paragraph below?
Considering the efforts undertaken so far in sampling traditional molecular markers for the family Cactaceae, and that new sequencing technologies have become increasingly accessible, and are now ...
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1
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121
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When to use either the word "by" or "depending on" to classify something?
I was writing some English sentences and I found that the following sentences both seem good to me.
The students are sorted by their scores.
The students are sorted depending on their scores.
The ...
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Why is "I too" so rare? [duplicate]
It would be interesting to hear the reasons why "I too" is so rare. It is usually replaced by "me too", although this is techically wrong when it denotes the subject. Perhaps it is ...
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Phrase choice for "one of x preferred colours" when two colour choices are equivalent
Let us say that Eve has 3 preferred colours:
Red
Green
Blue
Of those 3 colours, Eve prefers red the most, but her preference for green and blue are identical.
In English, would it be preferred for ...
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Most suitable term to describe a sequence of values and their timestamp
In my robotics project, a sensor produces values of voltage at irregular points in time. For instance
measurement1 = (3[s], 35[V])
measurement2 = (6[s], 32[V])
measurement3 = (7[s], 33[V])
....
What ...
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2
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127
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What do you call a position where one succeeds automatically
Is there a word for a position that one succeeds in as a result of occupying a lower position? E.g., say, a committee has elected a Chair and Vice-Chair for a term of 3 years. The Vice-Chair will ...
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Correct way to say apply powder on skin of child
What is the proper way to say I’m applying talcum powder on my child’s body? I always wonder whether 'applying powder' is correct in this sense.
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Expressing appreciation to a third party in an email [closed]
I am replying an email to my project supervisor who has arranged a co-marker for my project. I am replying to the supervisor alone but I would like to express in the email my appreciation to the co-...
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2
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"suffocatingly narrow" or "narrow to the point of suffocating"?
In the following sentence:
The confines of the system were suffocatingly narrow for the freedom of her spirit.
I wonder if it is more common or idiomatic to say:
The confines of the system were ...
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Is it possible to have an interrogative after an imperative connected with coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence?
I know rephrasing, using semicolon, or just splitting it into two sentences are probably the possible options here (the best choice, however, is my side question). Consider the following as examples:
...
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It is correct to say "I want to monitorize a server" [closed]
I think I've read somewhere something like "I want to monitorize this web-server". It seems that the world actually exists: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monitorize but when I write it on ...
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1
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"Converted PDF file" - what does it really mean?
I can press Ctrl+P on my keyboard and save this HTML page as PDF. Would it be correct to call such a file a converted PDF file? Or does the word converted mean that the file was converted from PDF to ...
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structure of sentence with an economics content
I want to reword the following:
"The ability of trade balance to withstand the acceleration of wages depends negatively on the level of employment. "
Thank you so much FumbleFingers and ...
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2
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Is the second part of this sentence grammatically correct?
It is a well known fact that social media platforms can make it easier to communicate with others and how fast and convenient this communication is.
I find
It is a well known fact that social media ...
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1
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891
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I need an English expression ( preferably slang ) to express my willingness and commitment to do something [duplicate]
I need an English expression ( preferably slang ) to express my willingness and commitment to do something ( e.g I will put my heart and soul into it )
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"before I oops do it again" or "before I oops did it again again", which one should I have used for it to be proper English?
Last night my cousin was playing Britney Spears' "Oops I did it again" song, and then in the middle of the song I felt the need to use the rest room and then I wanted to tell him "I ...
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Apply a rule vs. Follow a rule
Don't insert a space before a colon.
Don't insert multiple consecutive colons.
Follow the same rules for commas, periods, and other punctuation marks.
Don't insert a space before a colon.
Don't insert ...
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130
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What do you call an out-of-schedule speech in a conference?
In some conferences there may be some out-of-schedule guest who has some valuable insights to share with the attendees (e.g. some government official or member of a legislative authority) who is ...
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6k
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How to express you are not familiar with a field
I want to use this phrase: a lack of knowledge in ( ), but I'm not sure if it is typical.
I got stuck in a lab assignment that required some background knowledge of computer security, and I would ...
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1
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Is "What is your email?" acceptable for a sign up form?
Someone says that a sign up form with the label What is your email? is correct, and I'd argue that, since "email" is only a "method of exchanging messages", it makes that text ...
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3
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692
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Is "in no way" informal?
Once in an undergraduate course on English academic writing, I wrote something like "This is in no way representative of ..." in an assignment, and the teacher marked it down for being non-...
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"Your or someone else's" or "Yours or someone else's"? [duplicate]
Should I say
Your or someone else's
Or
Yours or someone else's
When I am referring to an item that may either belong to the person I am addressing, or someone else?
Example context:
Check your/...
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Present participle as a replacement for "that [verb]"
Are the following statements grammatically correct? If so, are they equivalent in meaning and which is more clear?
"[subject] moves to a location that acts as the main [thing]..."
"[subject] moves to ...
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Expressions for "a wish dedicated to one self"
I was translating a short story about a mortician (someone who does makeup for the dead) when I came across an idea I don't know how to express. In the story, the protagonist was talking about her ...
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What's the difference between "I am a racist" and "I am racist"?
I often hear a lot of people say "he is a racist", but at the same time a lot of people say "he is racist" so what's the difference between the two?
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