Complete vs. Whole
Sometimes, “complete” and “whole” are interchangeable but sometimes they are not.
Complete vs. Whole
Sometimes, “complete” and “whole” are interchangeable but sometimes they are not.
Commonly confused words
Affect vs. Effect
Affect (v.): to influence, to act on, to produce an effect in, to impress the mind, to attack or infect, as a disease, 影響, 感染
What do you think?跟 How do you think?
有什麼差別呢?意思上?用法上?
(1) What is usually used interrogatively as a request for specific information, about the character, occupation, etc., of a person, the origin, identity, etc., of something, the worth, usefulness, force, or importance of something.
I have decided to rewrite this article and summarized my comments here so it is easier for people to see my point of view. There is not always one answer and one way of writing. Any language being spoken is alive and will evolve. The grammar rules will change and the exceptions will become norm.
Here are my explanation and supporting documents from grammars taught in American universities, papers written by American professors, articles posted by American writers, and etc.
This is another interesting translation I came across at Yahoo Knowledge. An example of a bad translation. Can you tell where the problems are?
Question:
“Carrot on a stick” or “carrot and stick”?
There have been several debates around whether the idiom is “carrot on a stick” or “carrot and stick”. Nobody can say which one is more accurate than the other, since explanations from both are reasonable. However, “carrot and stick” seems to be more commonly used by many.
1. Steal a glance at someone
偷看, 偷瞄
I can’t help stealing a glance at John because he is so handsome.
Following are examples on how “notwithstanding” is used in different situations.
a) Notwithstanding as preposition (介系詞)
Notwithstanding my strong opposition, John went the concert alone.
in the face 和 on the face 有什麼不同?
Is it “a 2-hour break”, “2 hours break”, “2 hours’ break” or “a break of 2 hours”?
Let’s look at the following examples:
Anyone vs. Everyone?
Anyone is used when you don’t know who the person is/will be or how many people are/will be. Usually used in a negative sentence or in a question.
The usage of “so” vs. “it”
I came across this question and thought that it was interesting. These are the comments I provided to the answerer and the asker. I thought that I will share it with you.
Expiration: a coming to an end; termination; close: the expiration of a contract.
Expiry: an end or termination, as of life or a contract. An expiration, especially of a contract or an agreement
When “whether” is the word to be used only, and NOT “if”:
(1) After Preposition:
I came across this usage of "wicked" vs. "wickedly" when providing input to one of my knowledge group members. I had initially thought that for the following sentence, you need to use wickedly instead of wicked. Since sick is an adjective, we should use an adverb to modify an adjective. I was right about that grammar rule but wrong about the word “wicked”.
Wicked is normally used as an adjective; however, it can also be used as an adverb as a slang, meaning “extremely”, “really” or “totally”.