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- pronunciation - Is forte pronounced fort or for-tay? - English . . .
Summary: The confusion may come from 'forte' as used in music for strong or loud, which is definitely pronounced 'for tay' = ˈfɔr teɪ In French, the same letters are pronounced 'fort' = fɔrt But those languages are not English, and English has its own rules, inspired by the originals but with no compunction to remain faithful, at least here with the French borrowing
- Where does the phrase hold down the fort come from?
I agree the original should be 'hold the fort' and 'hold down…' looks like an aberration Is it too much to speculate that 'hold down…' could have come from a land-lubbers variation on something like 'make all secure and batten down the hatches!" where the security is against the weather, not a human enemy?
- Whats the origin and first meanings of the term grand piano?
The term 'grand' was first coined in London by Robert Stodart in his 1777 patent for a 'grand Piano-forte' 39 Stodart's patent application describes his [i]nvention of a new sort of Instrument or of Grand Fortepiano with an Octave Swell and to produce various Tones together or separate and the
- What is the subtle difference between and so on and and so forth?
Your editor thought that and so forth was somehow more appropriate to the style of whatever the publication was While it is debatable whether the editor was right about that, the fact that and so on fitted well the style of Vonegut's prose, is not dispostive of whether it fits well the style of some different text
- Whats the difference between to and fro and back and forth?
In the example you cite, to and fro is essentially identical in meaning to back and forth However, to and fro can also carry the less specific sense of ‘moving about in different directions,’ similar to here and there, as in The lambs frolicked to and fro on the grassy hill To and fro is alive and well in present-day English usage, but it sounds somewhat antiquated and may seem unduly
- Is it are or is when the noun is plural after a gerund?
Playing shooting games are is my forte Watching movies is are fun Reading books is or are good for you Do we use is or are for these sentences?
- Differences between propensity, predilection and proclivity
0 They're essentially synonymous: Proclivity is 'leaning to', propensity is 'nearness to' and predilection is 'preference for' Worry about something more significant like the misuse of the words irony and disinterest or the mispronunciation of the the words route and forte
- Double negation: not, neither - nor in a sentence
The last sentence is OK; the other two are overnegated The not in the first clause scopes the second one too, so you don't need to repeat the negative in it The first ones are OK because the negative doesn't scope the second clause, which needs some negation Though neither had he is very odd and archaic construction, especially in a supposedly parallel sentence
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