Best Of
Best Of
Re: Nouns that can be used as countable and uncountable.
Look up memory in the Dictionary part of this website. Various senses are countable; others uncountable (mass). The first section is
1The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.
‘I've a great memory for faces’
mass noun ‘the brain regions responsible for memory’1.1 The mind regarded as a store of things remembered.
‘he searched his memory frantically for an answer’
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"native American"
I'm elderly and recall that the expression "native American" use to mean anyone born in America, as opposed to having been born elsewhere and then moving to America. I don't recall it as an expression of strong significance as it is today in its current meaning, but rather being just the simple placement of "native" in front of "American" to form a short phrase that meant "born in America." I'd like to find some occurrences of the phrase in old books, newspapers, anything that I can give online links to, if anyone reading this would know of some examples or have good ideas for searching for examples. Thanks!
Re: Is this a word?
Thanks so much for commenting and for the advice. I'll fix that. I always just kinda only recognized that when the word 'embroidery' was used it was just referring to the art of it, not the resulting state as well. 
cxharmon
Re: What is another word for a number with the suffix -teen as a general definition?
If you use simply 'another word' it's hardly 'verbose'. If you don't like the teens, then I suggest you expand it to, for example, the teen group of integers. Whoever you use, follow it immediateltely with a definition.
Re: Which one is correct?
I can't think of an example where both X and Y could be followed by a SINGULAR verb.
OK, set phrases like fish and chips might be used as if SINGULAR.
Fish and chips is my favourite take-away food.
But subjects formed with both ... and feel just too obviously PLURAL.
Re: People singular or plural
Ahzee, the phrase a people is very rare in English. Personally, I would only use it for sweeping historical generalisations such as
The English have long been a people that looked out across the sea
I don't think I would ever describe those who live in England today as a people.
There is a phrase the people, but this means more or less 'not the leaders'.
For men and women in general, we say people — without a or the. Although the NOUN form is SINGULAR, it's always followed by a PLURAL verb form. So
English people are good
is grammatical, but
English people is good
is ungrammatical.
If you wan't to have people at the end of the sentence, the best choice is
The English are good people.
[PLURAL are because the English is a PLURAL expression
Almost any sentence starting The English is would be ungrammatical.
An exception is when talking about language For example
The English is terrible because it's badly translated from French.]
It's not ungrammatical to say
The English are a good people
but it sounds strange.
It's completely ungrammatical to say
The English is a good people
PS The phrases the peoples and peoples are possible in very unusual contexts. But these are even rare than a people.
Re: Relative pronouns
@dana1manolescu,
They should give the money to somebody who they think needs the treatment most.
is quite a complicated idea. Let's make it simpler:
They should give the money to somebody who needs the treatment most.
The pronoun form who is an obvious choice, because it functions as the SUBJECT of the clause.
If we add a comment in a simple phrase, we get the same idea as the original sentence
They should give the money to somebody who — in their opinion — needs the treatment most.
By using they think rather than in their opinion we complicate the grammar because think is a TRANSITIVE verb — that is to say it's followed by a DIRECT OBJECT. So why not the OBJECTIVE form whom?
Well, English expects that if a pronoun can be marked as a SUBJECT, then it should be marked. We don't say
He thought me was joking
They think him needs the treatment most
She believes us are right
I know them won't agree
The only words I can think of that have distinctive SUBJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE forms in English are
- me, him, us, them — and derived himself, themselves (some would add themself)
- whom — and derived whomsoever
Re: Words where you are
Glad you liked it, @jenaliaanderson!
So this space is yours to ask questions and discuss anything language-related.
Do use it and we'll do our best to help!
Simone
Words where you are
Can you help us to identify and record the words, phrases, and expressions particular to where you live or where you are from?
How we speak can reveal where we are from: not just our accent, but the language we use. Words and phrases particular to a city, region, or country are a distinctive part of English, and we at the OED are asking you to help us identify and record them.
Most of us have experience of using a familiar term in unfamiliar circumstances and being met with a blank stare. Many of us can recall a moment when a word we’ve known and used for years at home turns out to be baffling to people from other parts of our own country, or from another English-speaking region. If a picture is hanging askew, would you say that it is agley, catawampous, antigodin, or ahoo? At the beach, do you wear flip-flops – or would you refer to them as zoris, jandals, or slipslops? Would you call a loved one your doy, pet, dou-dou, bubele, alanna, or your babber? Many such words are common in speech, but some are rarely written down, so they can easily escape the attention of dictionary editors.
Whether you’re in Manchester, Mumbai, Manila, or Massachusetts, the OED would like to hear from you. Please use this form to tell us about the words and expressions which are distinctive to where you live or where you are from. We’re looking forward to reading your suggestions. You can also join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #wordswhereyouare
Simone