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1500 questions
232
votes
13 answers

Which words in a title should be capitalized?

Are there any concrete rules that say which words (parts of speech) in a title should start with a capital letter? What would be a correct capitalization for the title of this question?
serg
  • 5,101
228
votes
21 answers

What is a feminine version of 'guys'?

I commonly use the word 'guys' to refer to a group of males colloquially. It's colloquial but not rude, off putting, condescending, patronizing (though I wouldn't use it with a group of men at a board meeting (hypothetically of course), unless I…
Mitch
  • 71,423
218
votes
7 answers

When "etc." is at the end of a phrase, do you place a period after it?

Example: It's all about apples, oranges, bananas, etc. VS. It's all about apples, oranges, bananas, etc.. Update What happens if the abbreviation is inside parentheses, do you place a dot after and before the closing parenthesis? It's all about…
Shimmy Weitzhandler
  • 3,087
211
votes
5 answers

Are "whores" and "horse" homophones?

I’m Spanish but sometimes see TV shows in English. My question is whether the words horse and whores sound exactly the same, because in many English language TV shows it seems like they are, which really surprises me. Are they homophones? I cannot…
Jose Javier Garcia
  • 1,871
210
votes
12 answers

"Unregister" vs "Deregister"

The concept of "undoing a registration" is widely used in my line of work. While most dictionaries define unregister as the proper verb for it, several widely used and highly considered sources also use the verb deregister. Do both verbs exist? Are…
Laurent Pireyn
  • 2,601
206
votes
15 answers

What is wrong with the word "performant"?

I keep getting the red underlining in Word whenever I write the word "performant". Here I intend to refer to something that performs well or better than something else (i.e., it's more performant). Is there something wrong with that word? Does it…
alf
  • 2,171
205
votes
1 answer

What's the difference between "requester" and "requestor"?

Both are in dictionaries. I've heard people insist "requester" is correct for a person who requests something, and that "requestor" is wrong there, leaving me to wonder how it is used. Requestor happens to be marked as an error in my browser's…
aedia λ
  • 10,721
188
votes
15 answers

Do most languages need more space than English?

I saw the following statement on User Experience: Supporting multiple languages can break the user interface, because most languages need more space than english This seems to be a gross generalisation. Does anyone have any data on this?
Antony Quinn
  • 5,213
187
votes
6 answers

What is the origin of ZOMG?

I have looked in a number of places, with contradictory results. The Urban Dictionary provides a whopping 73 "explanations", of which I will quote just a few. (Original spelling and punctuation preserved.) ZOMG is a variant of the all-too-popular…
RegDwigнt
  • 97,231
187
votes
7 answers

How do the tens­es and as­pects in English cor­re­spond tem­po­ral­ly to one an­oth­er?

Non-na­tive speak­ers of­ten get con­fused about what the var­i­ous tens­es and as­pects mean in English. With in­put from some of the folk here I've put to­geth­er a di­a­gram that I hope will pro­vide some clar­i­ty on the mat­ter. I of­fer it as…
Robusto
  • 151,571
185
votes
3 answers

Where were "should", "shall", and "must" in the 18th Century?

According to the following Google Ngram, in the U.K. the modals should, shall, and must were virtually missing from English writing during the 18th Century (I've added will for a comparison modal which was unaffected). I have never seen this…
Peter Shor
  • 88,407
184
votes
10 answers

"Status" vs. "state"

Can anyone explain what the difference between status and state is when I talk about the condition or situation of an object? Here's what I got from Longman English Dictionary. status: a situation at a particular time, especially in an argument, …
Raymond
  • 1,943
182
votes
12 answers

When to use "If I was" vs. "If I were"?

If I was... If I were... When is it correct to use "If I was" vs. "If I were" in standard English?
KV Prajapati
  • 2,051
180
votes
7 answers

What the #$@&%*! is that called?

Is there a name for the use of symbols in place of curse words, for example #$@&%*!?
LarsTech
  • 2,873
173
votes
3 answers

"Replace with" versus "replace by"

I often see "replace with" and "replace by" used interchangeably, but this doesn't sound right to me: I replaced that component by this one. I would use "with" in such a sentence. "By" only seems reasonable in passive, although "with" sounds like…
ntoskrnl
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