By Numbers, Prepositional verbs

This Post:256204 may or may not be useful, as it is on a similar topic, but not the exact same one. Check it out, noting later in the same thread: "There are a number of particles (up, down, in, out, on, off, away, back) which should make us very suspicious that we are dealing with a...

You should read this Post:256204. Here is just a part of it: There are a number of particles (up, down, in, out, on, off, away, back) which should make us very suspicious that we are dealing with a separable phrasal verb, and a number of them (with, without, by, for, at, across, of, from,...

How to generalize? In the intransitive case there's no choice about placement of the object because there is no object. In the transitive case there are three correct ways to structure the words. pick up the pencil; pick the pencil up; pick it up throw out the trash; throw the trash...

They set a riot off seems acceptable, even though our preference seems to be for They set off a riot. (Note the article.) Here it is the selectional criteria that may be interfering. Substitute bomb for riot, and both They set off a bomb and They set a bomb off are fine, neither seeming to be...

They set a riot off seems acceptable, even though our preference seems to be for They set off a riot. (Note the article.) Here it is the selectional criteria that may be interfering. Substitute bomb for riot, and both They set off a bomb and They set a bomb off are fine, neither seeming to be...

1. "Worse" is the comparative of "bad" while "worst" is the superlative. bad-worse-the worst His new movie is worse than his last. Your cooking is getting worse! (compared to before) Among his movies, the newest one is the worst. This is the worst of all! 2. I'm reproducing Taiwandave's post...

There have been a number of recent questions concerning when to use hypens. The following is an excerpt from The Economist magazine's style guide. © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2004 Use hyphens for: 1. FRACTIONS (whether nouns or adjectives): two-thirds, four-fifths, one-sixth, etc. 2....