What to say if I want to tell approximate number of something. What should I say? E.g. I have (around/ about/ some) 5 books. Is there a rule for number approximation?

A colleague just asked about comparing values "case sensitively". I see those words together on technical sites, but nowhere else. I myself see no problem with the phrase, though it sounds a bit awkward. Is there a better single-word substitute for "in a case-sensitive fashion"?

I was supposed to do my homework, but I went out clubbing instead. On a literal interpretation, supposed to suggests that other people (or indeed, myself) might have supposed (thought, imagined, assumed) that I would do my homework. I could continue the synonyms (expected, demanded, required...

I guess I really can't tell if 'should' and 'be supposed to' are interchangeable from the definitions of the dictionaries. Can anyone prove they are synonymous or not, with evidence? Thank you.

Proposed Q&A site for those learning Russian or English as a second language. (Well... I want to learn English. If you want to learn Russian, we could help each other.)

Currently in commitment.

Proposed Q&A site for everyone who wants to improve their Russian: grammar, spelling, pronunciation. Linguists and students are welcome.

Currently in definition.

Proposal: Linguistics When I committed to this proposal, I agreed to ask or answer 10 questions during the next 3 months or something. But right now I can't see a way to ask or answer linguistics questions. Except this "start a new discussion" thing, which seems to be more about the proposal. S...

I was advised that my question on Area 51 - Linguistics belonged here. I'll restate it for this different context. Like many people, I've stumbled across some proposals on Area 51 that I liked. Yesterday it was a banner ad I clicked on for Linguistics. I read the list of questions that were in/...

I thought the plural of "document" is "document" itself. Which one is valid, "Document" or "Documents"?

Hello everyone! Can you please tell me synonym for style or trend?

How do I pronounce possessives that end with the awkward "s's" and "'s"? Examples: I found the mistress's attitude ridiculous These are the eggs' shells. Which coat is Amos'?

After the controversy over the word niggardly -- a perfectly innocent word that unfortunately sounds like a racial slur -- is it safe to use denigrate which is actually derived from the Latin niger? Please feel free to answer the broader question of whether whole families of words can similarly ...

Do I really need to write my email this way? Hi John, [My Message here] Regards, Jane The email header already includes the to and from. The recipient should not be confused by who the email is directed at (himself) and who it's coming from if the greeting and salutation are missi...

Can you please tell me a synonym for style or trend?

For to pony up, etymonline.com says 1824, in pony up "to pay," said to be from slang use of L. legem pone to mean "money" (first recorded 16c.), because this was the title of the Psalm for March 25, a Quarter Day and the first payday of the year (the Psalm's first line is Legem pone michi dom...

For to pony up, etymonline.com says 1824, in pony up "to pay," said to be from slang use of L. legem pone to mean "money" (first recorded 16c.), because this was the title of the Psalm for March 25, a Quarter Day and the first payday of the year (the Psalm's first line is Legem pone michi dom...

This is a very interesting question. What I did was to compare the original Latin text with another Latin translation just to get the sense of what the word "pone" means. Here's the Biblia Sacra Vulgata version: ostende mihi Domine viam tuam et deduc me in semita recta propter insidiatores m...

The choice of the verb "break" seems a strange choice for the phrase. Does anybody know where this phrase originated?

In the question "History of the phrase 'break wind'" I noted in the comment that the word "break" might have originated from the Middle English blowe, blaw, northern variant of blēwe, from Proto-Germanic *blewwanan 'to beat' (compare Old Norse blegði 'wedge', German bläuen, Middle Du...

Proposal: Books I am confused as to whether asking for a book or list of books about a specific (very) technical subject would be off-topic. First, it says in the description of the proposal (emphasis added): About all kind of books, technical, programming/computer related, fiction, nonficti...

There are different views about talent and one view popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers is that talent is something that can be "acquired" through "deliberate practice" (or preparation): "For almost a generation, psychologists around the world have been engaged in a spiri...

A few years ago there was a controversy over the word niggardly -- a perfectly innocent word that unfortunately sounds like a racial slur. Given that controversy, is it safe to use denigrate, which is actually derived from the Latin niger? Can whole families of words become tainted purely by ass...

I was composing an email to send it to my teammates. The purpose of the email is to reschedule a presentation session. Here is the first line: The TT4 MA presentation session is rescheduled for unavoidable circumstances. It is nothing serious actually. I put unavoidable circumstances ju...

I'm a native English speaker . . . but let's pretend I'm not ;). How do you voice a consonant?