I am reading a book that contains the following text. A square matrix P is said to be a permutation matrix if each row and each column of P contains a single element 1, and the remaining elements are zero. My questions are: why is “contains” used? why not “contain”? Since there is a “and” … Read more
Is “niece and nephew” preferred over “nephew and niece”, or vice versa? I tried using Google NGrams, but it gave inconclusive results: one was more common before 1980, then the other form became more common. Answer I searched for the plural equivalent of niece and nephew: Google Ngram shows that nephews and nieces used to … Read more
My question is related to this one. In the sentence “she couldn’t read or write”, I am wondering which of the following interpretations is correct? 1) Is it the logical negation of the sentence “she could read or write [or both]”, in which case it would mean that “she couldn’t read and she couldn’t write”? … Read more
“Thank you, my dear, for always caring about your grandfather’s and my health.” my teary-eyed grandmother said turning her gaze towards me. or “Thank you, my dear, for always caring about your grandfather’s and mine health.” my teary-eyed grandmother said turning her gaze towards me. Answer It should be the first one (and my health), … Read more
Which is correct: “In sections 1 and 2 we discuss …”, or “In section 1 and 2 we discuss …”? The latter sounds strange to me, but a journal copyeditor has just changed multiple instances of the former into the latter. Answer Either “Sections 1 and 2” or “Section 1 and Section 2” depending on … Read more
“Johnny is not tall and fat.” Which of the two does the above sentence mean? Johnny is not tall and not fat. Johnny is not tall, but he is fat. Answer Some sentences suffer from what is called syntactic ambiguity (see here). This means (roughly) that it is not clear which words go with which … Read more
Is there a specific reason for this? After all, it is “boys and girls”, rather than “girls and boys”. If the boy (male) comes first here, why doesn’t it come first in “ladies and gentlemen”? Answer It probably has to do with the phonetic and metrical properties of “ladies and gentlemen” versus “gentlemen and ladies.” … Read more
This is an excerpt from NYT news article. (http://nyti.ms/1mCPmPy) But the drop in production is not happening fast enough, especially with output from deep waters off the Gulf of Mexico and Canada continuing to build as new projects come online. I have trouble comprehending the bold part of the sentence. Would you tell me which … Read more
Is the second “is” required in the following statement: An error will be thrown if index is equal to or is greater than limit. Answer The second “is” is not required; but it is helpful to connect the second phrase with the principal part of the sentence, when the first phrase is long one. AttributionSource … Read more
Here’s a fragment from Jack London’s Star Rover: Wordsworth knew. He was neither seer nor prophet, but just ordinary man like you or any man. What he knew you know, any man knows. But he most aptly stated it in his passage that begins “Not in utter nakedness, not in entire forgetfulness. To the best … Read more
