학술논문, 교정, 번역, 워크숍 등에 대한 문의사항이나 궁금하신 점이 있으시면
언제라도 글을 남겨주세요.
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__________ measures have reduced stroke occurrence among the elderly.
a) Prevent
b) Preventive
c) Preventative
Both b) and c) are correct.
a) Prevent is a verb. It cannot precede the word “measures” in this sentence as “measures” is serving as the noun-subject and “have reduced” is serving as the verb phrase. The preceding blank can only be filled by one of the adjective forms of prevent.
b) Preventive and c) preventative can be used interchangeably in American English. Here both are adjectives meaning ‘protective’ or ‘designed to avert’.
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Which of these verbs is acceptable in American English?
a) consultate
b) conversate
c) pronunciate
Only b) conversate is an official word in American English, though it is non-standard in some dialects.
In standard American English, we use the following verb-noun pairs:
consult (verb) – consultation (noun)
pronounce (verb) – pronunciation (noun)
Consultate and pronunciate are not considered words.
In the following similarly-patterned word groups, there are 2 optional verb forms:
converse (verb) – conversate (verb) – conversation (noun)
orient (verb) – orientate (verb) – orientation (noun)
Though conversate and orientate are both found in the dictionary they are rarely heard in American English; converse and orient are strongly preferred. Orientate, however, is common in British English.
We hope you will continue to consult Compecs Connection for your English editing needs.
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Every Saturday in America, there are signs posted for garage, yard, estate, or rummage sales. What’s the difference in these types of sales?
Americans love to shop. Big box stores (=physically large establishments) like Costco and Walmart are commonplace, and people frequently buy more than they need, leading to the eventual garage, yard, tag, estate, or rummage sale.
Why are there so many names for the private sale of secondhand goods?
A garage sale, yard sale, and tag sale are essentially the same thing, with one term originating for a sale held in a homeowner’s garage, another for the front yard, and a third to indicate prices are marked on tags. These days, “garage sale” is a catchall term for either location. At a garage sale, treasure hunters expect to find such things as used clothing, pots and pans, small appliances, and books, with prices typically marked at about 25 percent of retail, payable in cash.
An “estate sale” is usually held after an elderly homeowner passes away or moves into a nursing home, leaving a houseful of belongings to the heirs. In this case, the contents of the entire house may be available to shoppers, so the sale may typically include beds, furniture, linens, housewares, decorations, clothing, jewelry, sports equipment, and tools. These sales are often managed by private resellers, so the prices are usually fixed, and the buyer may occasionally be permitted to pay by credit card.
A rummage sale is typically a fundraiser held by a school, club, or church, in a very large room, such as a school gymnasium. While the items on display may be the same as what we might find at a garage sale, a rummage sale is much larger as the contents come from multiple households. To rummage means to search through an area or collection of items in an unsystematic manner, and you can certainly expect to rummage around for exciting finds at a rummage sale.
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He developed lung cancer from _______ smoke.
a) old
b) used
c) secondhand
The correct answer is c) secondhand.
When used to describe products that have been previously owned by someone else, the words “used” and “secondhand” are mostly synonymous. There is no difference between used books and secondhand books, for example.
However, in the sample sentence, we are not describing smoke that has been previously owned, but rather are referring to smoke that emanates from someone else’s cigarette (as opposed to our own). In this context, secondhand is not the opposite of new. It is closer to the opposite of “firsthand” which refers to something we learned or did by hearing, seeing, or experiencing it personally.
Here are some examples:
FIRSTHAND (personally)
I witnessed a car accident (firsthand).
SECONDHAND (someone else’s)
She developed lung cancer from secondhand smoke.
NEW
I bought a new car; it was made in 2021.
OLD
I bought an old car; it was made in 1945.
USED (previously owned)
I bought a used car with only 50,000 miles on the odometer.
SECONDHAND (previously owned by my cousin)
I bought a car secondhand from my cousin.
Note that there are some common collocations which reduce the use of the synonym in certain expressions. For instance, while “used books” and “secondhand books” are both standard, equivalent expressions, “used textbooks” (not “secondhand textbooks”) is the typical collocation found in college bookstores. There are also “used car” lots, but not “secondhand car” lots, whereas a thrift store may sell “secondhand shoes” but not “used shoes,” which sounds peculiar to some American ears.
We hope you enjoyed the entries in this week’s Compecs Connection.
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The bookshelf is a mess! Please ________.
a) arrange it
b) make arrangements
c) order it
d) place an order
e) clean it
The correct answer is a) arrange it. To arrange something is to organize it in proper order. In English, we commonly arrange our schedules, arrange the contents of messy drawers, or arrange furniture in a room.
Be careful with expression b) make arrangements. With a definite article, the expression “to make the arrangements” simply means to prepare something necessary, such as paperwork or flight schedules. However, without the definite article, “make arrangements” is typically used to refer to funeral preparations.
c) order it means to request or command something. We can order a hamburger at a restaurant or order our children to take out the garbage. To “put something in order” means to arrange it.
d) To place an order is an expression we use most commonly when we are purchasing something in a restaurant or online. We place the order with the server and then wait for the food to be delivered to our table, or we place an order online and wait for the product to be to be delivered to our address.
e) clean it does not align with the context of the sample sentence. The sample sentence “The bookshelf is a mess” does not mean that the bookshelf is dirty and needs cleaning. It means that the books or contents on the shelf are disorganized and need to be arranged properly.
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What do these sentences mean?
c) No one sat beside Jim.
d) No one sat besides Jim.
With just one letter difference in spelling, the words “beside” and “besides” are sometimes confused.
NEXT TO
“Beside” means “next to,” so sentence a) means that no one was seated directly alongside of Jim.
APART FROM
In sentence b) “besides” means “apart from.” No one, apart from Jim, took a seat. In other words, Jim was the only person who was seated.
IN ADDITION
We also frequently use “besides” as a transition word at the beginning of a sentence to supply more information about the preceding sentence. We can also use “besides” in the middle of a sentence and add additional information in the subsequent clause. In these positions, “besides” means “in addition.” Note that besides is a comment adverb that typically links two clauses, not two paragraphs, so we would not normally begin a new paragraph with “besides.” Here are two examples:
I’m not going to the gym this morning because I overslept. Besides, my legs hurt from yesterday’s workout.
She was tired, and besides, her legs hurt.
OVERCOME
When we use “beside” with a reflexive pronoun, we cannot, of course, mean that a person is positioned next to themselves, which is impossible. Using the reflexive with beside is a figurative way to express that a person is experiencing extreme emotions, usually of anxiety, grief, or joy.
After my puppy died, I was beside myself.
Upon gaining admission to SNU, she was beside herself with joy.
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Which word is the best choice to complete this sentence in formal writing?
The tidal wave was _____.
a) monstrous
b) humongous
c) ginormous
d) colossal
e) bigantic
The correct answer is d) colossal.
New words are coined in English on a regular basis, and some of them become so popular that they make it to the dictionary and become standardized, while others just die away. Here we have 4 words from the official dictionary a), b), c), and d), as well as e) “bigantic” which is not an official entry.
a) Monstrous can be used as an adjective to mean ugly or inhumane (like a monster). It can also be used to suggest that something is extremely large, as in the context above.
b) Humongous is believed to be a combination of the words huge + monstrous, and it also means extremely large.
c) Ginormous is a combination of giant and enormous, and like the others, means extremely large.
d) Colossal, another adjective that means extremely large, comes from the Greek “kolossos,” from the name of the gigantic statue “The Colossus of Rhodes.”
Though a), b), c), and d) are all synonymous dictionary entries, a), b), and c) sound exaggerated almost to the point of humor, and are most likely to be heard in everyday speech. Colossal, on the other hand, though also an exaggeration, sounds slightly more formal and not particularly humorous. Therefore, of these choices, ‘colossal’ may be the best selection for a written description.
e) Be on the lookout for “bigantic,” which comes from big + gigantic. It is in the Urban Dictionary (of colloquial terms) defined as “really big,” but has not yet reached the frequency of use to enter the Merriam Webster dictionary (of standard American English words).
*The photo comes from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colossus_of_Rhodes2.jpg
컴팩스 카카오톡 채널(http://pf.kakao.com/_EMNxfK) 친구추가 하시면 일주일에 한 번씩 다양한 주제의 포스트를 받아보실 수 있습니다.
What should you do if someone asks you to skedaddle?
a) Shake their hand.
b) Duck your head.
c) Leave immediately.
The answer is c) leave immediately.
I recently read a Reader’s Digest article about words that have become obsolete and are in danger of being removed from the dictionary. I was saddened to read that skedaddle was on the list. The origin of this word is unknown, but it seems to have come into the language during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and was used by the Union Army.
Skedaddle means “to leave immediately” or “to hurry off”. As a child, I heard it regularly when my parents watched old black-and-white movies on TV. “Let’s skedaddle!” the bank robber would say to his partner-in-crime as he jumped into the getaway car.
As kids are prone to do, we copied the expression in play. My cousin would announce, “Let’s skedaddle!” when our parents wanted us to stop playing and come indoors, and she would tell her pesky little brother “Skedaddle!” meaning, “Go away! Get out of here!”
It’s not a formal word that you will find in writing, but it’s fun to pronounce (skeDADdle), and it’s a shame that it is on the verge of extinction. Thankfully, according to Reader’s Digest, it’s not too late to bring it back. We can rescue this word by using it.
So, before you skedaddle from this page, make a note to use the word the next time you are departing a place. You can announce, “Time to skedaddle” before heading out the door. Then pat yourself on the back for helping to save a treasured word from the English language.
Reference:
Spektor, B. (July 12, 2018) 10 almost extinct words you should start using right away. Reader’s Digest. Retrieved June 8, 2021 from https://www.rd.com/list/almost-extinct-words/.
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What does this sentence mean?
I literally died laughing.
This expression is used when someone is telling an anecdote about something they found very humorous. Of course, the sentence doesn’t mean that the speaker actually died, as then the sentence could never have been written. Rather, it is an exaggeration that means the speaker laughed extremely hard.
Why is the word “literally” used in a sentence that is untrue?
When employed in a literal way, “literally” means that words are used in their exact sense, not exaggerated. However, when something is NOT true but we say it “literally” is, this figurative use of the word makes the exaggeration very strong. In the sample sentence, the speaker wants to emphasize that something was not just funny, but was very, very funny.
In years past, the word “virtually,” which means “almost,” would have been the modifier of choice in the above expression. However, as discussed in a previous post, the word “virtually” is diverging and is now very commonly used to mean “online.” At the same time, the word “literally” is diverging and may be taking the place of “virtually” to mean “almost.”
Some grammarians refuse to use “literally” in place of “virtually,” as it sounds like an error in word choice. Also, in formal writing, “literally” still means “in a literal sense” and should not be used in place of “virtually.” Nevertheless, the substitution in speech has become so common that this new usage has been added to the dictionary.
So remember—these days, literally doesn’t always literally mean literally. Sometimes literally means virtually.
Thanks for reading Compecs Connection. We literally wish you a wonderful day!
컴팩스 카카오톡 채널(http://pf.kakao.com/_EMNxfK) 친구추가 하시면 일주일에 한 번씩 다양한 주제의 포스트를 받아보실 수 있습니다.
Which sentence is correct?
a) I’ve spoken with virtually every employee.
b) I’ve spoken virtually with every employee.
Both sentences are correct, but they have different meanings.
Before online learning became popular, the primary meaning of the adverb “virtually” was “almost” or “nearly,” as in sentence a). Here the word “virtually” sits inside of the prepositional phrase “with virtually every employee.” The word order (in which an adverb sits in front of an adjective) helps us understand that “virtually” is an adverb of degree, modifying the adjective “every”.
It is becoming more common these days for the word “virtually” to be used to mean “online,” as in sentence b). Again, the word order clues us in to the intended meaning. Here the adverb sits in front of the preposition “with.” We know that adverbs cannot modify prepositions and that adverbs of manner typically follow main verbs, so “virtually” must be an adverb of manner modifying the main verb “spoken”. The manner of speaking is online.
As an aside, though “virtually” means “online” in sentence b), E-learning producer David Castaneda argues that “virtual” should not always be used interchangeably with “online.” According to him, virtual means the opposite of “actual,” so saying that a meeting is virtual reinforces a subtle negative connotation that the meeting is somehow not actual, even though an online meeting is a real meeting. In contrast, “virtual classroom” is an acceptable expression because an electronic space is not actually a classroom (Castaneda, 2018).
Though his argument has merit, in the real world, Americans frequently use the words “virtual,” “virtually,” and “online” without distinction.
Castaneda, D (December 31, 2018). Let’s distinguish online from virtual: It’s time to stop calling all online interactions “virtual”. Retrieved 5/23/2021. https://elearningindustry.com/distinguish-online-from-virtual-time-stop-calling-online-interactions-virtual.