I’m concerned that this phrase may be insensitive to Native American culture, and I’m looking for alternative, culturally sensitive ways to make a point about not wasting resources. Answer Zero waste seems to be a standard term. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_waste http://zwia.org says : “Zero Waste: The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, … Read more
My students are writing a case study about Hawai’i and we’d like to use the diacritical mark, correctly. My searches so far are turning up both Hawai’i and Hawai‘i Can anyone tell me a preferred form – should the apostrophe be “closing” as in the first form, or “open” as in the second form? Thank … Read more
I have noticed that Americans ask kids ” Which grade are you in?” while Indians ask “Which class are you studying in?” . The typical Indian reply would be say for example :” I am a 12th class student” while I guess an American student would reply :” I am currently in my 12 th … Read more
This is perhaps more of a culture question than a language question, but since it is about English usage, I hope it is OK to ask it here. I’m not American, but I’ve visited a few American companies where everybody was on first name terms with everybody else. Now I’ve see a few episodes of … Read more
I’m trying to describe an ‘open’ padlock hanging from a latch. [‘open’, so a character can lock someone else in the following paragraph] Is ‘open’ the right term? I’ve also seen ‘unsecured’, ‘unlocked’, and ‘free’, but I’m not sure which term is of common use in American English. Answer An open lock is what you … Read more
I’m getting a hard time to find an appropriate word on English with similar meaning to the portuguese word "machismo". In portuguese this word means a conservative pro-male attitude, like an attitude that reinforces patriarchy and male dominance. Example: a man that sees woman as inferior to man and should only be an house keeper … Read more
My name is “Yoanna” but I am not sure of how to pronounce or spell it properly in English. It is derived from “Joanna”. Should I write it “Joanna” and pronounce it “Yoanna” or do I stick with “Yoanna” in either cases? Also, using the example above, is it okay if I write English names … Read more
Nudity and foul language is often blurred in the media. I can understand the need to blur nudity, but when it comes to blurring F-words I don’t see the sense of it. When you write F- off, you simply introduce a new synonym for a foul term. So if blurring foul words are required by … Read more
In many programming languages, char is a type name for character values. The word character is pronounced with a [k] sound, but what about char? While trying to find the answer elsewhere, I learnt that there is an English word char which is pronounced [tʃɑ:(r)], but it has nothing to do with characters. How would … Read more
