Singular or plural verb form

I have problems with this sentence. “Two weeks off work sounds great or sound great”. What form of the verb should I use in this case (and in similar sentences), if “weeks” is a plural noun? Answer The verb should be “sounds,” because the verb’s subject should contain the implied gerund “taking,” as in “Taking … Read more

‘Us students’ – Does this apposition need a comma?

Can a pronoun be used in apposition without comma? A few of us students have participated in the match. This sentence looks quite awkward at first glance. Is this sentence gramatically correct? I can’t find any forbidding rule regarding a relation between pronoun and comma in apposition. Answer This is not actually a case of … Read more

Looking for a certain gender-neutral word

This is going to be a bit tricky to ask correctly, so sorry for making you read long, carefully crafted sentences! Sorry if it seem like excess (and it kinda is, but better safe than sorry, as I don’t want closure! If you have an edit that gets the point across but in a shorter … Read more

What does “lassar” mean in “The Most Dangerous Game”?

In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” (1924) by Richard Connell, Zaroff says I hunt the scum of the earth: sailors from tramp ships—lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels—a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them. What does lassars mean? Answer This is either a transcription error or a deliberate … Read more

an adjective after a noun

I have faced the following sentence: “The work leverages features unique to a particular platform.” As far as I know an adjective is used before a noun but how can we say “features unique”? I think “unique features” is correct. But this sentence is written in a valid text and the probability of making a … Read more

What’s the noun for a team or person that is qualified in a tournament?

A team or person that passes the qualification rounds is then a… what? A qualifee? A qualitee? “Qualified team” is not what I’m looking for. Neither is contender or candidate since that doesn’t imply the status of qualified. Answer A team or individual that has qualified is a Qualifier – One who qualifies for something, … Read more

Categorial grammar, Is ‘leg’ an adjective in ‘skipping leg days’

I am working on CCG (combinatory categorial grammar), which assigns categories to words. So I was wondering if ‘leg’ is adjective, or just another noun in the phrase “skipping leg days”. Or is “leg day” a noun phrase by itself? I mean do they combine to become “leg days”, or “leg days” is already a … Read more

Why is there an extra “t” in Lemmatization?

When we say : Specify, it becomes Specification (no t) Value, it becomes Valuation (no t) Custom, it becomes Customization (no t) Lemma is a code used in programming, to describe the process of doing this Lemma, the word used is “Lemmatization”. I wonder where did the “t” in Lemmatization come from? https://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/html/htmledition/stemming-and-lemmatization-1.html Answer "Lemma" … Read more

What are these pieces of cooking equipment called?

I decided to write down all the recipes I know to my website in English. However, I realized that I do not know what many common items are called. To make things even more confusing, I do not know if all the foods (or the equipment to prepare them) even exist in English-speaking countries. I … Read more