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Questions tagged [collocation]

Collocation refers to the appearance or occurrence of groups or pairs of words, particularly when more frequent than random chance would suggest.

-2 votes
1 answer
62 views

Words describe American dream lifestyle [closed]

It’s a two words term: xxxtter-xxtter, used to describe an affluent, perfect American dream type of lifestyle. Context: everyone wants to live a xxxtter-xxxtter life, but it’s not realistic.
Yue Zheng's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

What's so profound about deafness?

I can describe someone as profoundly deaf, but I don't seem to see the same adverb used to describe other conditions. This observation is supported by Google Books data. Why is deafness specifically ...
nialv7's user avatar
  • 309
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is the phrase "very delighted" ever "wrong"?

I was just browsing the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and stumbled on this peculiar note under the entry for delighted: Delighted is not used with ‘very’. You say: I’m absolutely ...
Vun-Hugh Vaw's user avatar
  • 5,401
0 votes
2 answers
92 views

Can a train or a railway line "enter operation"?

I have come across the article Learning from Las Vegas: what the Strip can teach us about urban planning and saw this sentence, "the Las Vegas monorail that entered operation in 2004 has had to ...
Xiao Cai's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
6k views

Who "died peacefully" first and when?

The question came to my mind when I read the recent news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, first appeared in the official Twitter account of The Royal Family as: The Queen died peacefully at ...
ermanen's user avatar
  • 63.4k
2 votes
3 answers
249 views

Can the predeterminer "half" comfortably occur before plural nouns without determiners?

So "half" belongs to a special class of words known as "predeterminers", those that can occur before determiners: Half a century Half the people in this company can't speak a ...
Vun-Hugh Vaw's user avatar
  • 5,401
-1 votes
1 answer
482 views

Does "chagrin" mean embarrassment or annoyance?

I originally learned this word studying for the GRE: https://s3.amazonaws.com/magoosh.resources/magoosh-gre-1000-words_oct01.pdf chagrin (noun): strong feelings of embarrassment Much to the the timid ...
A O's user avatar
  • 428
3 votes
3 answers
20k views

Onboard into/onto/to

I'm trying to figure out which is the right preposition to use after "onboard" (in the meaning of "integrate someone into an organization or familiarize him with one's products or ...
Javier Morales's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
913 views

Is it "increase" or "expand" when talking about vocabulary?

When my son said he doesn't recognise all the words in Wordle I commented that he is thus increasing his vocabulary. He then contended that the correct word should be expanding. Who is correct? What ...
theblitz's user avatar
  • 153
6 votes
2 answers
239 views

Why is “learning hard” wrong yet “studying hard” is right?

Why does saying learning hard sound so terribly wrong and unnatural, given that working hard, exercising hard, listening hard, thinking hard, and even it rains hard sound perfectly natural and get ...
하하호호's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
443 views

"Starting from version" vs "Starting with version" vs "Beginning with version"

When you write about software it is quite common to read that a certain version has introduced a new feature. Usually the new feature also will be available in later releases. I found three different ...
lifeisfoo's user avatar
  • 111
3 votes
0 answers
53 views

Why are the "minutes of a meeting" called so? [closed]

The points discussed in a meeting once written are termed as "minutes" rather than "points". What is the rationale?
Firdous Mala's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
478 views

Can we say "they two" the way we say "you two"?

I am familiar with the expression "you two" used in sentences that address two people at once, as in: You two weren't present in the meeting. But is it okay to use this kind of expression ...
Doraemon's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
72 views

What does the expression "goes the message" mean?

What does the expression "goes the message" mean? I've just come across this expression and don't know how to explain / understand it. An example: Another way showoffs try to show how ...
zoe8188's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
99 views

Can you ‘join an ideology’?

Obviously the verb join refers conventionally to a group of people, but what about ideologies? Can you ‘join veganism’? Or ‘join communism?’ A quick search showed me that this collocation is far from ...
Arihol's user avatar
  • 23

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