#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 17th, 2021, redditor IethorHomesdIIIX asked:

Boarding house? Motel? how do you guys called type of house used for staying overnight (or temporally staying for few months)?

“Motel” is correct if you're talking about a very short stay. Other terms, depending on the situation, would include “hotel,” “inn,” “bed and breakfast” (or “B&B”), and “Airbnb.” If a person was to stay in a motel for longer than a week, you might say that they have a “long-term residency,” but this is unusual since this would be so expensive.

“Boarding house” used to be the term for when a person temporarily stayed somewhere for a few months. A boarding house is a highly specific type of building; imagine a private home, with a kitchen and a bathroom everyone shares, except the people staying in the bedrooms are strangers to each other. They are renting just their room for several weeks or several months, and their room is the only one that is truly private to them; they share the rest of the house's rooms with the other “boarders.”

This term is now mostly outdated, though, the main reason being that there simply aren't very many boarding houses left in the US. The most common term now is “temporary housing,” which can mean either an entire house or just an apartment inside an apartment building. It's extremely rare anymore that someone might need to live somewhere new for just a few months, and would do so by renting a bedroom inside someone else's home.

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 13th, 2021, redditor vdhhud asked:

In the sentence “would a person cut someone UP like that because the devil made them do it?” why use “up” in this case? what is the mean of it?

“Up” in this context is a strange American colloquialism which emphasizes that the thing being done is being done to an extreme degree.

If you “mess” something, you get it out of order or dirty it. If you “mess up” something, you've rearranged it so much that people can't tell what it originally was.

If you “chat” to an attractive person at a bar, you have a conversation with them. If you “chat up” someone at a bar, you have an intense and focused conversation designed specifically to convince them to have sex with you.

If you “cut” something, you make a single incision. If you “cut up” something, you cut it so many times that it's unrecognizable.

In this case, the speaker is likely talking about a serial killer, who kills his victims so viciously that you can barely recognize who it is afterwards. He's asking what would motivate a normal person to be this vicious and violent. Was he possessed by a demon, maybe?

“Up” is also sometimes seen before the word to indicate it's an extreme version of that word, not after.

If you “sell” something, you convince someone to buy it. If you “upsell” something, you convince them to buy something they had no intention of buying at the beginning of the conversation.

If you “chuck” something, you throw it. If you “upchuck,” you explosively vomit.

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 17th, 2021, redditor ScallionAlive6430 asked:

What's a sad sack?

A sad sack is a bit dumb and a bit pathetic. He gets pushed around a lot, by both the people in his life and the world in general.

It's hard to like a sad sack, because they largely accept this bullying passively, never sticking up for themselves. They're always kind of mopey and have largely given up on their goals and dreams (if they ever had any), which makes them unpleasant to be around, even though they're not actively mean or cruel.

The term was invented by American soldiers during World War Two, originally as “a sad sack of shit.” Not an idiom — they literally are comparing the person to a bag of feces. (These are the same soldiers who gave us “fubar” [“fucked up beyond all recognition”], “snafu” [“situation normal, all fucked up”], and “illegitimi non carborundum” [fake Latin for “don't let the bastards get you down.”]) Like all these phrases, “sad sack of shit” got cleaned up when the soldiers came home and were around their wives and children again, and it eventually became a regular part of 1950s conversational English. You don't hear it very often anymore, but many people will at least know what you're talking about if you say it, and Americans middle-aged or older will also remember the briefly famous comic book of the same name.

Here's Ben Affleck being a sad sack.

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 16th, 2021, redditor sandsstrom asked:

I'm looking for an adjective that describes words that sound like their meaning. For example: “moist” – your mouth just feels moist saying it. Or, “Phlegm” – just saying it creates more phlegm! What do you call these words? (Yes I've tried searching this online but struggle to define it) [Further comments on the page made it clear that the original poster was not referring to the term 'onomatopoeia.']

You're actually talking about a surprisingly dense wing of grammar academics, a subject that wasn't even considered worthy of discussion until the 1930s, and currently has no “easy words” to express the idea, since most of the people talking about the subject these days are professors writing academic papers. Check out the following related Wikipedia pages for more, and various ideas of how you might express this as a simple adjective:

Phonestheme: The unproven theory that there exists a type of word that is partly an onomatopoeia, and partly a formally structured piece of grammar. For example, the letters “sl” start a whole lot of words that mean frictionless motion — slide, slick, sleek, slobber, slug, slur, etc. With this you might say that the word you want to describe is “a phonesthemic word.”

Reduplication: When a word is repeated but just a little differently the second time, often to invoke a physical feeling — hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, razzle-dazzle, boogie-woogie. With this you might say that the word you want to describe is “a reduplicated word.”

Iconism: When a set of words that mean a similar physical activity all vaguely sound alike, thus making you think of the activity based just on the sounds of the words alone — stamp, stomp, tamp, tramp, tromp, step. With this you might say that the word you want to describe is “an iconistic word.”

Phonaesthetics: The academic study of words that for some undefinable reason evoke an emotional response in many humans just from their sound alone, even though they logically shouldn't. Wikipedia mentions positive examples like glitter and flutter, and negative examples like sleazy and slug. With this you might say that the word you want to describe is “a phonaesthetic word.”

I hope you find this as interesting as I did when I was researching it tonight!

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice #idiom #history

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 17th, 2021, redditor AkshayHokage asked:

What is that word for mentioning all types of story mediums, be it books, movies, series, anime, whatever? If I use the word 'story' people would just assume it to be a book. I suppose I could say 'media,' but if there isn't much context I would think of the news.

You're correct that this can often be confusing; but also realize that in the US, the specific term “the media” is used to refer to the news, while “media” without the “the” is understood to mean “several types of mediums.” For example:

“Vampire stories come in a variety of media.”

“Vampire stories are unfairly criticized by the media.”

Most Americans would understand that the first sentence means “books, movies, TV shows, anime, video games, etc.,” while the second sentence means “people who review vampire stories usually give them bad reviews.” Context means a lot when you use “media” — the words before it and after it largely defining for the listener what you're talking about.

Who was the first person to collectively call newspapers, magazines and TV programs “the media?” Marshall McLuhan. Of course.

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 16th, 2021, redditor atheistvegeta asked:

I am confused about a word called “Human resource”. Is it a collective noun referring to all employees, or does it refer to an individual?

The common thought[1] is that it started with the new “touchy feely” period of corporate America in the 1970s, when the department in charge of hiring and firing people started declaring the trendy catchphrase, “Humans are our company's greatest resource.” So the very first reference was actually singular.

What quickly happened was that these departments in charge of hiring and firing started adopting this phrase as the new name of their department. Now that they were dealing with lots and lots of humans, it became the “Department of Human Resources.” But be aware that in practical terms, that's the same thing as saying “Department of Hiring and Firing.”

Yes, yes, angry redditors, I know, it now means more than this! As the '70s grew into the '80s and then '90s, these “HR” departments began growing their roles in most organizations. They still hire and fire, but they also have a more direct hand in administering and helping with health plans, unemployment plans, and other social programs; conducting seminars and other teaching moments; serve as crisis resolution managers; and more.

At the very last corporate job I ever worked in my life, now exactly 20 years ago, the HR director actually served as a mentor of sorts on top of all the other duties I've already listed. She taught me how to properly negotiate salary for the next time I would have to do it, for example. She also actively taught me the ins and outs of the complicated healthcare system that rules this country with an iron fist.

Hmm, maybe humans ARE our greatest resources after all! No, wait, screw that, I'm not some battery like out of the freaking Matrix or something.

[1] I must confess that when I Google the origin of the phrase “humans are our greatest resource,” no great result comes up. Is this a case of America collectively dreaming up that this became a common saying back among '70s proto-HR departments? Are we in Berenstein Bears territory here? Are we witnessing another Shazaam?[2]

[2] For those here currently studying the subject, grammatically known as “the Mandela Effect.”

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]

#english #language #grammar #spelling #lesson #teach #advice #history #evolving #morphing #foreign #appropriation

I was blessed to receive my COVID vaccination earlier in 2021 than many others, thanks to a selfless act by a friend; so to pay them back karmically, I'm doing volunteer work in English editing in various places all over the internet this year. One place is the subreddit English Learning, in which befuddled ESL students around the world post questions that no one else can seem to answer for them, many involving odd phrases, idioms, and other bizarre corners of English grammar and usage. I find many of them so interesting, I decided to start reposting them here to my blog. Note, however, that many other people usually reply to these questions as well, and that I'm only sharing my own answer since I have no one else's permission to do so. See my main index page for the full list.

On April 17th, 2021, redditor Lexdrillo asked:

What's the deal with naïve? Why not just naive? Why do you use an ï there? What's the point?

Good question! This word was originally borrowed directly from the French, which is a thing often done in English. But the more it gets used, the more people start normalizing it into an “American” spelling, until one day perhaps it'll just be permanently known without the mark.

There are a number of redditors here who always get bent out of shape when commenters say that something “has” to be done a certain way in English, and this is a perfect example of what they're talking about. The transition from naïve to naive is an example of English “evolving,” since we don't have a government committee that “officially” decides what “official” English is or is not. The people do; so if the people want to spell it without a mark, then the people will spell it without a mark.

The next time a pedant tells you that something in English “has” to be done a certain way, remind them, “You know of course that all the way until the 1930s, you 'had' to spell to-day with a hyphen, and those who didn't were considered uneducated slang-obsessed heathens.”

[Got a question for Ask An Editor? Send it to me at ilikejason@gmail.com.]