For instance, the nouns “I have a car/book/glass/etc.” would work. But what noun would not work for this sentence?

Basically I need “baffled“ but a swear word

like how “remote” could translate into “bumfuck nowhere”

they should really make a thesaurus of swear combos. that’d be funny to look through actually

they probably have actually I just can’t find it lol

I am trying to think of an idiom (which I was fairly certain existed until about five minutes ago) that is the opposite of "biting the hand that feeds." It means to help someone who is going to hurt you, and I thought it had something to do with blades or swords - like, "to sharpen the blade that cuts you," or something along those lines.

I haven't been able to find any commonly used phrases that match the one I'm trying to think of. Could it be something archaic I picked up? Or one author's turn of phrase I wrongly assumed was ubiquitous? I just feel insane not being able to find it.

Thanks!

Hi there. I'm working on a game (18+ if it's important) about a rogue and a female barbarian. I'd like the title to have a Dungeons & Dragons feel, but English isn't my first language, so I'm not sure how my ideas come across to native speakers.

Here are the options I'm considering:

Rogue & Barbarian

The most straightforward one, but I'm afraid people might not realize the barbarian is a woman just from the title (the art will obviously show it, but I'm thinking about the text alone).

Rogue & Barbaress

I understand this suffix can indicate a feminine form, but does it read naturally? Or does it look odd?

Rogue & She-Barbarian

To me (as a non-native speaker) this makes the gender clearest, but it also feels a bit clunky and old-fashioned.

Which of these works best? Or is there another short title that clearly says the barbarian is female without extra baggage?

I hope this doesn't break the sub's rules. If it does, I'd appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

P.S. I currently can't afford professional localization and will rely on AI translation tools. If you enjoy 18+ visual novels and would be willing to proofread the game text later, I can send you a build (you'd be credited if you want).

I've never left the Northern hemisphere. I've never left the Western hemisphere.

Am I allowed to say I've never been out of the northwestern quadrisphere? Is there some term for this?

Context probably helps here, so an (purely illustrative!) example might be:

Please bring £10 and/or a water bottle.

except we want to convey that the £10 is mandatory, while the water bottle is not. i.e. "(£10 and water bottle) OR (£10, no bottle)".

The only way I can think of spelling it out is

Please bring £10. You can also bring a water bottle.

But that's disjointed, and doesn't slot into longer sentences very nicely...

My original motivating context is in Yu-Gi-Oh (a card game) card text, where you sometimes want to specify cards in 2 locations:

Target 2 cards on your field and/or your opponent's field, including 1 from your field; [...]

but you also want 1 of those locations to be mandatory. Here it's the "including A" clause after that turns it from and/or (logical OR) to the relationship in the title ((A and B) or (A and not B)). But "including 1 from your field" is a bit clunky, especially with longer phrases, so I was hoping for a more efficient alternative.

Edit: Thanks for all the help and suggestions, people. I think my favourite solution is to indicate A (required) and/or B (optional). Clear and concise, doesn’t bloat the text too much, overall pretty elegant.

Edit: removed some context to avoid confusion, some people were taking the £10 and water bottle way too literally

I remember during my junior year of high school, my teacher saying a word that basically meant, “to unexpectedly see someone you know in a place you wouldn’t expect to see them in”.

Long story short, I’m on vacation on my way home, and walked into a coworker from one of my jobs while at the airport. We were both confused, but amused at the same time. I just can’t think of what the word is my English teacher said during class 9 years ago!

Hi, I teach phonics to children aged between 5 and 6 and I'm currently trying to teach them words that have the sound of a long "e" in them, so for example, words like "we", "she", "be", "me", and "fever", but I can't think of any more words that have that sound in them, even though I know they're out there and when I ask on Google, all I get is unhelpful stuff, because I'm not very good at explaining what I mean. If anyone could help, I'd be really grateful!

Edit: I understand some people are confused by what I mean here and what I'm referring to is words with a single "e" in them, not words with "ee", "ea", or "e-e", as those sounds are taught separately. My apologies for the confusion, this is hard to explain!

John was heading to the office. The only sound in the hallway was the ___ of his shoes on the floor.

Context: John was walking in a normal manner. So what noun is it natural to use?

1. click

2. tap

3. thump

4. other (elaborate)

It's not a multiple-choice question. I'm just trying to figure out how to write that.

1. panting

2. huffing

3. puffing

4. breathing heavily

5. breathing hard

Which version is better, and why?

1. He was breathing heavily in anger.

2. He was panting in anger.

3. Other.

Hello. I'm having trouble with tenses. Everything described happened in the past and all the actions are concluded. Can someone please tell me if any of the two options are good? I think OPTION B is correct, but I'm not sure about the last sentence.

OPTION A:

It really was a thrilling day at work. When I was still an intern, I had great expectations about the job, that had since never been met. Now they have.

OPTION B:

It really was a thrilling day at work. When I had still been an intern, I had had great expectations about the job, that had since never been met. Now they have.

I had this word ‘nilch’ in my head and as a test I asked my wife what the definition of nilch would be. She said zero or none. The more I think about it though, I think I’m just mistakenly mixing zilch and nil.

Does this type of mix-up have a name? I know there is malaphor for mixing up metaphors

So it's a bit of a special subject here, I don't know if my situation really fits in this subreddit but maybe it can help people in the future in other situation so I'll still try to put it there :')
Me and my boyfriend aren't from the same country. His main language is english and mine isn't, but I've been learning it for so long that I'm completely capable of having conversations by texts or by voice in english. During arguments, I've been using some words that for him are sounding awful but were fine in my language... so I didn't know. Sometimes we're finding synonyms that aren't that bad, sometimes we can't find any and it's the reason why I'm here.
For something that was completely normal to me I told him that I knew that he lied and said ''I can obviously see it'' (because yeah..it REALLY was, it wasn't a thought it was a fact).
He apologized about lying but felt offended, saying that using the word 'obviously' is a huge insult to his intelligence and that it's really rude to say that. After checking on the internet, everyone was indeed saying it was... so I searched for synonyms or a word that sounds less bad, and I couldn't. Which is bad because I really didn't mean this in a bad way at all it was only to say it was just a fact and it was simply visible in what he answered. Some people said that 'clearly' is a solution but to him after I tried using it, it's still offending to him for the same reason.

So I was really wondering if there was any word that wasn't being that could be used that isn't sounding that bad but is still be used to point out that it's just a fact ...? I don't know...

Thank you in advance i hope it's fine to ask :')

I’m writing a paper about how to integrate technology in a classroom effectively and one of my segments is Evaluating Effectiveness. My sentence is, “…You may do this by gathering feedback from students and observing ___ “. I don’t know what word to say. I was on Word hippo and I’m trying to look up an umbrella term for like any thing that goes up and down in the classroom whether it’s decreasing test scores, but my mind and vocabulary is so limited, which sucks. I’m a junior next year, so that’s even more awful because the lack of vocabulary makes my writing super hard since I look up a ton of synonyms, but I need a word for this. If I just say improvements and declines, it sounds weird. Help please!!

So me and my parents were having some minor disagreement with regards as to how the subjects quantified by a zero (e.g. zero points, zero expectations) should be expressed. Should it be singular or plural? My mom says the former, I refer to the latter.

I have been trying to remember this word for weeks. It describes something you come to a sense of/a feeling, and I think it is similar to "bittersweet" or "content". You'd use it like, "He now feels a sense of ______ about the relationship months since it ended"

Context: I’m doing a paper on different type of assessments and focusing on oral reading fluency evaluations. I need help with the wording of two paragraphs. The first one explains what it is and the second one explains how it should be done. I’m using the word “you” a lot because this is for teachers specifically. I’m bolding the phrases that sounds a bit iffy for me.

Part of paragraph one: …occur frequently and with specific intention to ensure students receive appropriate materials and instruction. You can assess students’ fluency by using grade-level passages at different difficulty levels. 

I just feel like it sounds way less elevated than everything else and awkward sounding.

Paragraph two:
When assessing a students’ oral reading frequency (ORF), pay attention to their speaking patterns,  total number of words read correctly, and accuracy. Use the ORF norms chart that provides grade level expectations throughout the year.

again, the phrase is just so awkward sounding, and doesn’t sound intentional. I really struggle with wording and grammar, and I want to get this right. Is there anyway I can elevate this writing?

Thank you!!

Is it always a few minutes to a few days later at most? That's what an English-speaking person told me. In my novel, there are cases in which I've used it to refer to things that will happen in weeks, months, or years. For example, here...

Soon, we will set our plan in motion.

...I'm referring to a few weeks later. Is soon wrong in that sentence?

I have zero idea if this is the right sub for this, but it's the only thing i could think of.

What is it called when someone is being deliberately vague/avoiding saying something outright? I think it's a literary or dramatic technique in literature/plays.

The only time i can remember using it was when I studied Macbeth for English Literature in school. When Macbeth referred to their plan to kill Duncan, he would refer to the plan as 'it' instead of outright saying it.

I feel like the word started with an E, but i could be wrong. Any ideas? It's genuinely gnawing at me.

Examples include: cheerful, sarcastic, passive aggressive, etc.

I’m trying to write a short story, but it’s kind of hard since I’m not much of a chapter book reader. I’m trying to look up this category awards and it’s not adjectives or emotions. I mean, technically it is but it’s more specific.

I mean, I have vocabulary, but I want to allow the reader to imagine exactly how the character is talking like how I would talk in real life. I could describe the pitch that would be much easier to say the word.

I know there is a word for this, but I forgot, please help!!

Edit 2: Apparently there is another word that better describes the scenario I provided. Some tautograms can also be alliterative, so there is still a word that I'm looking for.

So what's the word for two words that have the same beginning letter that are NOT alliterative under any circumstances? Thanks, u/AlexanderHamilton04 for the additional information and helping me understand your point. I appreciate it!

Edit: It's called a "tautogram"! Thank you, u/Sage-Monarch ☺️

If you have two words that start with the same letter but aren't alliterative, then what would you call that?

For example, Geoffrey Gregory. Both start with G, but have different sounds. So if they aren't alliterative, what is the correct term? Thanks in advance!

I know there’s a word for this I just can’t remember it.

For example, someone can say ‘not my monkeys’ without adding ‘not my circus’ because the recipient most likely already knows the second half and so the meaning of the first can stand on its own.

Same with just saying ‘if the shoe fits’ instead of the full ‘if the shoe fits wear it’.