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
Can I use the word ‘quiet’ as a verb in BrE (as opposed to N. American)? If I can, how is it conjugated? The phrase I am looking to write is, “I wish to quiet my mind”. Should it be ‘quieten’? That sounds incorrect. Many thanks Answer You can use either quieten or quiet in … Read more
Here singing is a noun: I like singing. But what about here? I like singing loudly. Loudly is still an adverb, right? But singing is still behaving like a noun, right? So which is it, a noun or a verb? How can it behave like a noun when it gets modified by an adverb? Answer … Read more
I was checking out the usage of the word “equal” as a verb on the Merriam-Webster website. Under the “Recent Examples on the Web: Verb” section, I stumbled upon this peculiar quotation: “That map also showed that the regions of Tampa Bay, Daytona Beach and Palm Beach County stood as more or less equals as … Read more
So I just discovered iff thinking it was a typo. But after looking it up and reading other answers on here it is a valid contraction of words if and only if. Much like XOR in a mathematical domain. How is if and only if different from if when used in a sentance? Does if … Read more
In English, we commonly make noun phrases in the form “X of Y” where we’re describing that “X” is comprised of “Y” – pound of flesh, sack of meat, lump of coal, and so on. I think I understand the individual parts of speech involved: “X” and “Y” are nouns or noun phrases “of” is … Read more
In the sentence Several women, some as young as eighteen, others in late middle age, could be seen scrambling up the mountain. It looks like some and others are being used as pronouns. It’s a fine sentence, but I don’t understand why it is allowed. If it’s really a list shouldn’t it be Several women, … Read more
I’d like to know whether articles are a kind of pronoun. I believe that "a/an" should be an indefinite pronoun because "a" is similar to "any", and "the" should be a definite pronoun. For example: I need an answer I need any answer The two words above are similar, but have some differences. In the … Read more
Is this sentence grammatically right:”In 2030, petrol and oil are expected to see a soar in its consumption and still maitain its leading position”. I have looked up the word “soar” in several dictionaries, some say that it is just a verb, but one says that it is also a noun. Please help me to … Read more
What part-of-speech is “running” in the following example? The car comes with daytime running lights. Is it a noun, verb (gerung), adjective, or something else? Answer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp Technically, it’s a lamp (=lights) indicating a state, and that lamp is for usage at daytime. ‘Daytime‘ acts as an adjective here, like ‘night’ does in the combination … Read more
