I am often confused when it comes to a noun that is often used as an attributive adjective, yet this noun has an adjective form and this adjective form is described as “relating to (the noun)” by any dictionary. For instance: transformational and grammatical. When I describe a section of a test that contains questions … Read more
I want to understand if there is any difference between “rebellion attempt” and “attempted rebellion”. The first is a noun-noun while the second is an adjective noun. I think both are ok, but I do know if one is preferable to the other. Also, to me both wordings carry the same meaning, is that so? … Read more
For example, as part of the information message of some computer script: Snapshotting the file… Can we write snapshotting instead of taking the snapshot? Is it still correct? I’ve found an example usage of that word on Wikipedia, in the following context: … is not a snapshotting scheme but a system-level incremental backup service … … Read more
“‘s” indicates possesive case. Although it’s absurd to say that “today” owns “weather”, possesive case can indicate other relationships too. For example, in “Picasso’s paintings” it means “by Picasso” and in “children’s stories” it means “for children”. So “today’s weather” can be interpreted as “weather for today”. So all is good. BUT there’s another seemingly … Read more
When referring to a restaurant specializing in fish and chips would you call it a fish and chip shop or a fish and chips shop? Answer "Attributive nouns" or the first elements of compound nouns tend to be singular in form There is no absolute rule forbidding the use of a plural noun in the … Read more
Consider the following sentence as an example. I used some hair spray. What part of speech is hair? Intuitively, I want to say it’s an adjective modifying spray since hair spray is two separate words and not a compound noun. Hair spray however, as paired nouns, is something that we’ve decided to call a thing … Read more
Is there an adjective for low-toxicity, or can it be used as an adjective itself? It sounds strange to say, for example, materials that are low-toxicity. Answer Low-toxic is the adjective of low-toxicity. If you were asking whether there is a separate word for low-toxic, I am quite sure there is not because there is … Read more
Is it correct to say: He is an English origin person Rather than: He is a person of English origin I am looking for a short way to differentiate between persons of English origin, as opposed to immigrants or their descendants. I can’t use English born because descendants are also English born. Answer “English origin … Read more
Context I am working on a game and one of the Classes in it is "Rogue". (Original, I know.) I’m trying to find a term that accurately describes and can serve as a name for one of the Subclasses. (Preferably a single-word term, if possible.) Needs The term ideally needs to describe somebody who excels … Read more
When an adjective is preceding two nouns, the first one being an attributive noun, does it define the final noun or the attributive noun? For example: Red car keys Are they red keys that open a car, or are they keys that open a red car? Answer Strictly speaking, the meaning is ambiguous in your … Read more
