Dec 21, 2011 · In writing, when should one use the abbreviation vs. as opposed to the full versus? This abbreviation seems to have special status from common usage. What is the origin of that, and in what writing

Dec 26, 2012 · Are there rules of usage when using the ampersand "&" instead of "and"? Are they completely interchangeable? The ampersand seems more casual, but I'm not sure.

When entertaining a young child who is learning English, I heard some people asking her What is it? when pointing to her finger. I was surprised because I always learned to ask What is this? w...

Mar 21, 2014 · Here is an interesting discussion of US versus U.S. versus USA versus U.S.A. from Wikipedia: Manual of Style: In American and Canadian English, U.S. (with periods) is the dominant abbreviation for United States. US (without periods) is more common in most other national forms of English. Some major American guides to style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.), now deprecate U.S. and ...

How does one correctly apply “in which”, “of which”, “at which”, “to which”, etc.? I'm confused with which one to apply when constructing sentences around these.

What's the difference between "and" and "and/or"? How do we decide whether to use one or the other? Note: Also it would be great if someone could explain how do we actually pronounce "and/or" ver...

Aug 7, 2015 · The word "by" is a versatile preposition in English, having had over a thousand years since it came to us from Old English to develop its meanings. The OED places 39 major meanings, both literal and figurative, in seven categories, which I paraphrase below: I. Of position in space, near or adjacent: "stand by " II. Of motion: along, alongside: " …

Jul 28, 2020 · "Schedule production on these materials" vs. "Schedule production of these materials" These two confuse me as the following sentence sound more appropriate using "of." "Production of these materials will take place in November." -- In this case, we cannot use "on." Thanks in advance!

Aug 11, 2015 · As in the following sentence: When I have the time, I will watch a new episode of one of the aforementioned Netflix shows, though rarely I will watch one of the shows below: vs. When I have the...

Jan 25, 2023 · Yes, the sentence is much more fluent without the about. The simplest answer is "because that's not how we generally speak in English"; you can see how much more common explain this is than explain about this is. It is not impossible to use explain with about, but explain usually takes a direct object, which is the thing that you are explaining. "explain about X" carries a sense of "to speak ...