- Difference between This is and It is, These are and They are
When I should use "It is" and when "This is"? For example when I show an apple to my son, how is better to say: It is an apple This is an apple What is the main difference between abovementioned p
- word choice - What is the name of the symbols - and gt;?
+1, I like that this is the first answer to address the multiple Unicode code points involved However, I think you might mention that regardless of the characters' names or official prescriptions for use, the less-than and greater-than signs are commonly used as a type of brackets, probably because they can easily be typed and their display is more widely supported than that of the other symbols
- Which is correct, neither is or neither are?
In formal usage, it should definitely be is: Neither of these options is available This is the traditional rule (iirc, Fowler’s discusses this at length) However, in colloquial usage, either option is fine, and are seems to now be somewhat more common, at least on teh internets A commenter here nicely describes the sort of thought process which probably pushes people (usually
- None of us is vs None of us are, Which is Correct?
Background We have a motivational poster in our office that says: None of us is as smart as all of us I think that it's grammatically incorrect, and here is my reasoning: All of the tigers have
- Why are the donkey and the butt both named ass?
It's a historical accident—they’re really two different words In the sense buttocks, the word goes back to OE ærs, and beyond that to Proto Indo-European: there are cognates in Greek, Hittite and Old Irish This is reflected in the ordinary British English arse —the {r} is dropped only in US English In the sense donkey, the word goes back to OE assa, derived (it is thought) via Celtic
- There is or There are a large quantity of people?
I thought this excerpt from Oxford Dictionaries was instructive: Although the expression ‘a number’ is strictly singular, the phrase ‘a number of’' is used with plural nouns (as what grammarians call a determiner (or determiner)) The verb should therefore be plural: A number of people are waiting for the bus This is not the case with ‘the number’, which is still singular: The
- Whats the difference between these and those?
These and those can indeed have locative difference They are the plural forms of this and that, respectively They often convey a more abstract idea of proximity rather than actual physical closeness If I am unaware of where the boots are, I will say "have you seen those boots?" regardless of how close I think they might be There are no hard and fast rules on which one to use, since they
- Why is the word hectare abbreviated as ha and not as he?
Welcome to EL U Hectare is from the Greek hect, the multiplier, and are, the primary unit of land measurement and the base unit It means 100 ares, so it makes sense to abbreviate to the initials of the multiplier and base We do the same thing with kilogram ("kg"; not "ki"), millimetre ("mm"; not "mi"), nanosecond ("ns"; not "na"), and so on
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