Is there any conjugated full list of verbs in English available? I’ve found lists of the most common ones but I’d like to have a full list that takes into account all the irregular ones as well. Answer I think this list is very complete with most of the most common verbs but also irregular … Read more
Is this grammar just for regular verbs? Or we can use irregular verbs, too. Answer Oddly enough, irregular past participles have survived as adjectives long after the verb itself has become regular: a freshly mown lawn a newly sown field a poorly sewn dress spilt milk (only archaic in North America) So, obviously, English doesn’t … Read more
Are there explicit rules for how ranges are communicated, or must they be understood by context or convention? Examples: If a store is open 9am-5pm, we assume the end of the period (5) is exclusive. I need to be out before 5pm. 2nd world war was from 1939 to 1945. It ended on September 30, … Read more
So to start things off, I know that the proper past tense of the word arrive would be the word arrived. And that sounds fine for me if you are singularly referring to yourself, such as: I have arrived at my home. But when I try to use the word to refer to a group … Read more
subconscious and subconsciousness conscious and consciousness. While each one has a noun counterpart that is explicitly a noun, why is it that only subconscious is also used as a noun while conscious is not? Some background info on subconscious and subconsciousness: Subconscious vs subconsciousness TLDR: subconscious and subconsciousness have slightly different meanings, even both as … Read more
How should “undoes” be pronounced in the following sentence? The git revert command undoes a committed snapshot. Should it be pronounced as “un + does” (/ʌn’dʌz/) or as “undo + es” (ʌn’duːz)? I think the latter one sounds fine here. But if pronouncing as /ʌnˈduːz/ is fine, why is “does” not pronounced /duːz/? Answer It … Read more
The plural of mouse is mice, and the plural of louse is lice. Why is the plural form of house not hice? According to Merriam-Webster, the word house is already longer in the language, just as mouse and louse, so it is not because it is a foreign word (loanword). This question was marked to … Read more
In many cases in English, vowels followed by a single consonant are pronounced short (also called lax) when followed by the suffix -ic or -ical, even if they are long in other related words. Some examples of this alternation: crisis, critic(al) (/aɪ/,/ɪ/); trope, tropic(al) (/oʊ/,/ɒ/); mania, manic (/eɪ/,/æ/). There are exceptions, however, such as base, … Read more
How exactly can one acceptably use genii in a sentence? Can it be used in everyday language, or does it have a very specific ruleset about how and where it may be used? Answer The normal plural is “geniuses”; “genii” is not used in everyday language. The word “genius” does come from Latin, but it’s … Read more
I came along this sentence: Today, we have used a large number of assets, comprising of 34 aircraft, 40 ships, hundreds of men, thousands of man-hours has been deployed I consulted dictionaries and forum threads that explained that aircraft, just like sheep, builds its plural without an -s. For sheep, however, that can be explained … Read more
