54 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2023
    1. transitive verb

      It's hard for me to see the difference between the transitive and intransitive forms of this verb.

      Is that the transitive form can/must be used with a noun following it, like "presume something", while the intransitive form cannot be followed by a noun, but can (and often is) followed by a prepositional phrase, "presume that something"? Pretty subtle difference, but I guess it's there...

    1. as a native speaker I'd probably tend to refer to his drug dependency, but his dependence on drugs (maybe because I see one as a problem he has, and the other as something he's doing, I don't know).
    2. And as others have pointed out, there is potential for ambiguity: if A is dependent on B, then a dependence or dependency (relationship) exists; but referring to either A or B as the dependency demands context.

      "demands context" :)

    3. There are certainly cases where you can use dependency and cannot use dependence: for example "The UK's overseas dependencies", or "This software releases has dependencies on Unix and Java". So if the dependent things are discrete and countable, it should definitely be "dependency".
  2. Jun 2023
  3. May 2023
  4. Nov 2022
  5. Aug 2022
    1. Replace 'log' with 'clock'; do you think it should be "clockin" because you aren't "clocking" anything? Plus, if 'login' was a verb, you'd not be logging in, but logining. Eww. Or, you'd have just logined instead of logged in.
    2. I feel very happy about them indeed because they take me to the destinations they promise (they're all nouns). Login doesn't take me to my login, which makes me sad. It does take me to a place where I can log in, however.
    1. "you can verb any noun". :) Though, comparing "ssh into a workstation" to "login to host.com", where "log in" exists, it's a bit like saying "entrance the building" when "enter the building" already works
    2. Login is a noun, the same as breakup (suffer a breakup), backup (keep backups safe), spinoff (a Star Wars spinoff), makeup, letdown,
  6. May 2022
  7. Sep 2021
  8. Mar 2021
  9. Nov 2020
  10. Oct 2020
  11. Sep 2020
  12. Aug 2020
    1. Here's what 20 seconds of googling turned up: University of Rochester Grammar Style Guide oh hey look, a stackoverflow thread The truth about grammar: bailout versus bail out and there are so many more...
  13. Jul 2020
    1. source | edit | rollback | link

      I can see (here) another reason people might incorrectly spell the verb roll back as "rollback": because they are including it in a list of other single-word words separated only by spaces. If one were to include the space in "roll back" as it should have, then it would "break" this meaningful-whitespace design/layout.

    1. set up

      This is the past participle of the verb "to set up".

      Also: do a web search for "be set up" vs "be setup".

    2. The verb set up, on the other hand, is usually found as an open compound (two words, no hyphen) in both American and British English.
  14. Jun 2020
    1. It’s a “bug” and you “fix” it - so properly, in English, it’s a “bug fix” - but very often it’s shortened to “bugfix”.
  15. Apr 2020
    1. the spelling "Web site" (and the less questionable "web site") is an anachronism from the 1990s that is still in use by the NYT and some other conservative print media in the US while most others (including the online sections of the NYT!) today use "website".
    2. English tends to build new compound nouns by simply writing them as separate words with a blank. Once the compound is established (and the original parts somewhat "forgotten"), it's often written as one word or hyphenated. (Examples: shoelaces, aircraft...)
    3. Web site / website seems to be somewhat in a transitional stage, being seen as an "entity" that web page hasn't reached yet. Depending on which dictionary you check you will find web site and website, but only web page, not webpage.
  16. Mar 2020
  17. Jun 2017
  18. www.matthewedavis.net www.matthewedavis.net
    1. confront

      Repetition of "confront" perhaps change to one of the following: contemplate (critically) examine scrutinize reflect on