I am developing a business application in which the user can select from one of these options, namely “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” or “Yearly”, for scheduling appointments. I need to create a field in the database to hold this value, but am at a loss for what to name the field. What would be the collective … Read more
Let’s say I’m creating a mobile questionnaire for people in which I ask about their usage patterns of some tool. The user can specify a period of time in which they used a tool, so perhaps between February and March they started to use a hammer, and as they got more confident with it, they … Read more
I’m working with football (the European variant) commentary, looking at word frequency. Often enough, the commentary will spell their excitement by writing ‘Gooaal’, which for the purposes of my word frequency is different from the properly spelled ‘goal’. I’m considering capturing these cases by removing all successive duplicate letters. This question is not about how … Read more
I want to describe a repetition for an event. A single event can have multiple repetitions because it can occur e.g. every second week (a regular happening) + once a year (special annual occasion). So each repetition has its own: start date and time end date and time exclusion – list of dates when an … Read more
Do adjectives or adverbs associate with the second noun or adjective after the first one or do they need to be repeated? This dichotomy can at times be too inclusive or (too) exclusive? Does the adverb need to be repeated, or does it also refer to the second adjective after the conjunction? Answer I’ve seen … Read more
Does the bi prefix mean that it is every second month or twice a month? Answer Yes, the prefix means two, so bimonthly can mean twice a month or every second month. Always use context, look at the sentence or the surrounding paragraph. That should help you figure out which meaning is being used. AttributionSource … Read more
I have this list of choices: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, once The last one “once” is used to indicate thing that occurs only one time. I wanted to keep up with pattern of the first four words. Is “once” the right word? Answer The xxxly pattern is semantically a short form for once every xxx. … Read more
I had a student moaning because I insisted he say twice and not "two times". And he asked "But why?" to which I replied, "Because that’s how you say it!" However on reflection, his question was a valid one. In Latin there doesn’t appear to be any discernible pattern once is semel twice is bis … Read more
There is a fairly well known recipe for Triple Cooked Chips. It involves cooking chips three different ways / times. Is triple cooked correct or should it be called Thrice Cooked Chips as they have been cooked three times? Answer Pretend it would concern the number two instead of three: Use thrice when you would … Read more
I’m an American living in America, but my workplace has a lot of immigrants from India here. They all use “thrice” very commonly, which is wonderful to my ears! Thrice is such a delightful word. Today one of them said something happened “twice or thrice”, and it got me thinking that that usage would never … Read more
